Misuse of company property or fraud can cause damage to your company’s reputation if not well managed. Worse, it can lead to liability for your company if its assets are involved in these crimes in one way or the other. So, it’s always a good idea to protect your brand plus all your inventions. There are several ways you can protect yourself from potential misuse of company property. Here are the top three that can keep you safe.
Set Up Checks and Balances
Implementing proper checks and balances can save you from suffering a substantial financial loss. A common mistake committed by many small businesses is allowing one person to manage all company operations. When the same person handles file transactions, check out emails, handle payments, and acts as the administrator, in case fraud happens, your business may suffer a considerable loss. So, setting up strong checks and balances can help safeguard your property. Therefore, you should formulate proper ways to control the checks and balances, manage inventory, and bookkeeping. Additionally, managing your supply system to avoid losses.
Limit Inappropriate Access
With modern technology, internet access enables employees to look for important business information like checking on your competitors and conducting research. But sometimes, employees can be cheeky. Instead of working, they may be spending time doing online activities that are not related to business. They may take the advantage to check on social media, shop, or even open inappropriate websites like porn. And it can become problematic if, in the process, an employee commits a crime or leaks sensitive company information. So, the best way to avoid this problem is to restrict internet access by providing written policy to employees and install programs to monitor internet usage. Additionally, you can block things such as porn, social media, or shopping pages.
Monitor Employees’ Behavior
Keeping a close watch of your employees can help you understand them better. If you note some strange behaviors from your employees, they may be up to something. For instance, an employee can develop funny working habits like working late hours or early, avoiding vacations or worse they want to work on a project alone, and they decline help. Perhaps such a person knows company secrets that others don’t, and they want to keep it to themselves. Ensure you pay attention to such behaviors because they can be red alerts.
Employees are an essential part of any business. But if not well monitored, they can cause long-term damage to your business. Therefore, ensure you implement proper business control systems and keep a close watch of their behaviors. And if you feel something is amiss, start investigating as soon as possible.