Employee Theft
SCS has conducted hundreds of employee investigations, whether it be property, time theft, or competition enforcement. Theft is the most severe acts of disloyalty, sufficient to justify immediate termination. But before effectuating a termination, employers should take care to conduct a thorough internal investigation to provide a factual basis for decision making. Management must have a thorough understanding of the facts before making this type of decision.
Done correctly, an investigation can prevent an internal problem from becoming an external one, mitigate potential for morale and productivity problems, and prevent legal problems and financial losses. The investigation process applies to investigations of business and employment matters including allegations of theft, misconduct, employee competence and/or performance, concerns of safety or harm to property.
Employee Time Theft
Employees who work from home, work outside of the company offices or are lacking proper supervision can literally bankrupt a firm through unchecked employee time theft. SCS has extensive experience helping employers to develop evidence of employee time theft or employee ghosting for termination, prosecution and deterrence of future events.
We have assisted employers in uncovering time theft in a wide variety of different circumstances. Some of the more commonly encountered situations include time theft by sales representatives who go home or work part of the day selling for another organization. Other field workers have been uncovered doing the same types of things like working side jobs with the company vehicle and tools.
Non-Competition Enforcement
Increasingly more and more employees are entering into non-compete agreements only to secretly build their own enterprise competing against your company or to sell your investment in them to a competitor. The economic damage can be tremendous.
SCS has a proven track record of developing evidence of non-competition agreement violations, identifying others involved along with third party witnesses and building an actionable case for our clients to seek justice. Through a combination of surveillance, background information collection, open source data mining and interviews, SCS produces a complete investigation to support your recovery options. These same techniques can be invaluable in investigating violation of restrictive covenants and trade secret agreements.
Many companies who encounter this kind of threat run straight to an attorney who sends the offender a threatening letter to put them on notice that they will be punished. Then the offender immediately goes underground with their efforts and effectively makes building a real case against them all the more difficult. When trouble arises, before committing to a course of action, contact SCS.
Hostile Terminations
In the back of any human resources director’s mind is the thought, “when will I have to terminate an employee who could potentially pose some risk to the future of our company, its employees or the company’s assets.” Terminating a hostile employee can become a very volatile situation at any moment. It is important as a head of a company or a human resources manager that you are aware of any precursors or signs that this employee may pose a risk and determine what workplace safety protocols you should have in place. Seventy-five percent of all workplace related acts of violence have occurred during or after the firing process.
A human resources director may wish to have a trained investigative staff assist in the termination process. Here at SCS & Associates, Inc. we are experienced in hostile employee termination assistance and can provide you with professional and discreet surveillance on the terminated employee to document their whereabouts as well as their behaviors post termination. This will offer not only protection for your employees but peace of mind for the human resources director. The key to any hostile termination case is reducing the risk of preventable danger.
Improperly handled terminations may put your company and employees at risk. Recent litigation and court rulings have placed the burden on the employer to provide a safe environment for the employees. It is important to acknowledge the cost of placing a terminated employee under surveillance will pale in comparison to a lawsuit resulting from a workplace violence incident, or even the loss of production due to a workforce that is stressed as a result of this individual’s termination.
