Today’s companies face significant threats, encompassing fraud and embezzlement; internal theft of property; data braches; identity theft; workplace violence; negligent hiring; qualification fraud; and domestic terrorism. Many businesses are putting their focus on monitoring employee behavior outside of the workplace in order to better handle potential problems that could be brought into the business. Continuous monitoring tools provide real-time alerts on criminal activity in a workplace population, but some companies choose to simply re-screen employees post-hire to check employee credentials, credit, and other key information, while others use a combination of the two. Either way, continuous screening or re-screening is an important factor in keeping the workplace safe. An Appriss Insights study found that 12 percent of the workforce is likely to be arrested over the next five years and 20 percent over the next seven. A few critical steps that employers should take include having in place a “No Expectancy of Privacy” policy, an “Off-Premises and Not at Work Behavior Policy” and a policy that requires employees to report if they have been arrested, booked for a crime or sentenced to jail. Identifying “sensitive jobs” or jobs that have a higher risk associated with performing them helps a company to focus its initiative, define the scope and type of monitoring, and tying it to the business necessity while aligning the implementation of a continuous screening program with an organization’s culture and employee relations practices.
