Category Archives: Workplace

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Best Practices for Protecting Against Fraud

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In 1987, during arms control negotiations between the United States and the USSR, President Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase “trust but verify.” The maxim is pithy and oft-quoted, but for companies looking to mitigate risk and financial fraud, it should be reworded slightly to “Verify and monitor continuously.”

Fraud is often hard to detect—the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates that the average fraud goes undetected for years. Some of the largest and most damaging frauds, including Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford, spanned a decade or more. Fraud is also costly; it is estimated that U.S. businesses lose 7% of annual revenues to fraud, and it is responsible for one out of three business failures. The financial implications of fraud are bad enough, but reputational damage can be equally harmful.

Fraud is a potential danger for companies in all industries. In a survey my firm conducted in 2012, nearly 40% of private equity firms said they had experienced fraud. The statistics are sobering, but there is much that companies can do to protect themselves.

The biggest trend we are seeing is that corporate boards are implementing a tip line, which is a great way for employees and others to anonymously report wrongdoing. ACFE studies show 42% of frauds are uncovered through hotlines. You want employees to come forward and tell you what is wrong to give CEOs a chance to fix it. The average EEOC complaint costs between $50,000 and $100,000 in legal fees to settle, not to mention the potential damage to morale and reputation—wouldn’t you want a heads up to fix it before it gets to that?

Instituting rigorous hiring practices, including screening temps and contract workers, is another important tool in preventing fraud. It is not realistic to have the same level of scrutiny for an entry-level employee as you would for a senior executive, but the best way to avoid fraud is by carefully culling the bad apples before they are hired.

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Look for criminal or regulatory issues, limited references, job-hopping, trouble making eye contact and a pattern of lawsuits. A number of our clients have begun to ask us to vet their information technology hires. The IT department has access to the most sensitive files and so it is imperative to investigate potential hires in that department.

Every firm should also have a code of conduct, which describes the culture of a company and what is expected of each employee in terms of actions and conduct. Each company is different, but some rules are universal: sexual harassment cannot be tolerated; discrimination against anyone based on color or religion is strictly forbidden; the workplace should be free of illicit drugs and alcohol; and employees cannot accept gifts from customers or vendors. Consequences for violating any of these codes should be clearly spelled out.

A system of basic financial checks and balances is another way to protect against fraud. Even in smaller firms, the same person should not be in charge of both accounts payable and accounts receivable. Larger payments from the company should be signed by two executives. Regular meetings should be arranged with IT officials to insure that cyber-crime is being monitored at all times.

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Also, consider installing security cameras to serve as a deterrent for rogue employees.

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In the wake of the Madoff scandal, the role of compliance officers has taken on greater importance. Compliance officers often have a seat at the C-level table and are valuable in helping companies to stay on the right side of regulations. As discussed, however, the best way to prevent fraud is by having several layers of protection.

Preventing fraud is an ongoing endeavor that requires a commitment to maintaining vigilance each day. Some red flags are easier to spot than others. Some of the most common “tells” of disgruntled or risky employees who may commit fraud include:

  • Living beyond their means
  • Financial difficulties
  • Too-close relationships with customers or vendors
  • Secretiveness
  • Drug or alcohol problems
  • Major stressors, like family problems, including divorce and bankruptcies

In the event that fraud is suspected, every company needs to have a playbook to help guide their actions. This should include having a process to address a tip or complaint, leveraging the expertise of investigators and attorneys and following a plan that keeps the company operating with minimum disruption.

The vast majority of companies prefer to keep things quiet and resolve matters in a private setting. No company wants to have one of its employees be the subject of a “perp walk,” where the alleged offender is shown by the media in handcuffs accompanied by police on their way to being charged.

The surge in cyber-crime is proof that fraud never truly disappears; it just changes shape and form. Therefore, it is up to each company to become a hardened target and make fraudsters want to look for an easier mark.

Examining U.S. Immigration’s Economic Impact

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In last night’s third and final presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle, immigration again emerged as a defining topic in discussion of both regulatory reform and the economy. With an increasing amount of immigration by highly skilled laborers—and, of course, the potential reputation impact on companies seen as giving more jobs to non-citizens or moving out of the country in pursuit of labor—changes in such policy have clear implications for risk professionals.

Last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released one of the most comprehensive studies to date on the economic impact of immigration in the United States. Overall, the researchers found that immigration over the past couple of decades has done more good than harm, creating positive impacts on the national economy and causing little lasting impact on the wages or employment levels of native-born Americans. “Immigration enlarges the economy while leaving the native population slightly better off on average,” the study said, also pointing out increases in innovation, entrepreneurship and technological change across the economy. “The prospects for long run economic growth in the United States would be considerably dimmed without the contributions of high-skilled immigrants,” the researchers reported.

Some of the study’s key findings and conclusions include:

  • When measured over a period of 10 years or more, the impact of immigration on the wages of native-born workers overall is very small. To the extent that negative impacts occur, they are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born workers who have not completed high school—who are often the closest substitutes for immigrant workers with low skills.
  • There is little evidence that immigration significantly affects the overall employment levels of native-born workers. As with wage impacts, there is some evidence that recent immigrants reduce the employment rate of prior immigrants. In addition, recent research finds that immigration reduces the number of hours worked by native teens (but not their employment levels).
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  • Some evidence on inflow of skilled immigrants suggests that there may be positive wage effects for some subgroups of native-born workers, and other benefits to the economy more broadly.
  • Immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.
  • In terms of fiscal impacts, first-generation immigrants are more costly to governments, mainly at the state and local levels, than are the native-born, in large part due to the costs of educating their children. However, as adults, the children of immigrants (the second generation) are among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the U.S. population, contributing more in taxes than either their parents or the rest of the native-born population.
  • Over the long term, the impacts of immigrants on government budgets are generally positive at the federal level but remain negative at the state and local level — but these generalizations are subject to a number of important assumptions. Immigration’s fiscal effects vary tremendously across states.
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“The panel’s comprehensive examination revealed many important benefits of immigration—including on economic growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship—with little to no negative effects on the overall wages or employment of native-born workers in the long term,” said Francine D. Blau, Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and professor of economics at Cornell University, and chair of the panel that conducted the study and wrote the report.

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“Where negative wage impacts have been detected, native-born high school dropouts and prior immigrants are most likely to be affected.”

Check out the April cover story from Risk Management, “Welcome to America: Why Immigration Matters for Business,” for more on the risk management implications of immigration into the United States.

Defending Against the Cyberrisk of Malicious Insiders

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An overwhelming number of businesses increasingly see their greatest cyber threats coming from within, but figuring out what to do about the risk poses a formidable gap, according to a recent study from Mimecast. The email and data security company found that 90% of organizations globally consider malicious insiders a major threat to security, yet 45% report they are ill-equipped to cope with the risk. Indeed, one in seven IT security decision-makers view malicious insiders as their number one threat.

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Current measures to guard against this risk may still leave significant exposure, and IT managers appear to know it. Those who say they are very equipped on cybersecurity feel virtually just as vulnerable to insider threats as those who believe they are not equipped at all (16% vs. 17%), “indicating that the risk of malicious insiders trumps perceptions of security confidence,” Mimecast reported.

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Mimecast recommends the following strategies to guard against the risk of malicious insiders:

  1. Assign role-based permissions to administrators to better control access to key systems and limit the ability of a malicious insider to act.
  2. Implement internal safeguards and data exfiltration control to detect and mitigate the risk of malicious insiders when they do strike, to cut off their ability to send confidential data outside the network.
  3. Offer creative employee security training programs that deter potential malicious insiders in the first place and help others to spot the signs so they can report inappropriate activity to their managers. Then, back that up with effective processes to police and act swiftly in the event of an attack.
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  4. Nurture a culture of communication within teams to help employees watch out for each other and step in when someone seems like they’ve become disenchanted or are at risk of turning against the company.
  5. Train your organization’s leadership to communicate with employees to ensure open communication and awareness.

Check out more of the study’s findings in the infographic below:

mimecast_5-tips-to-defend-infographic

Positive Workforce Drug Tests Reach 10-Year High

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An analysis of 11 million workforce drug tests reveals a 10-year high in positive test results, with an increase of 4%, according to the Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index (DTI). Post-accident positivity increased 6.

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2% in 2015, compared to 2014, and has jumped 30% since 2011.

The report found that amphetamine positivity increased 44% and marijuana positivity increased 26% since 2011; and that nearly half (45%) of individuals in the general U.S. workforce with a positive drug test for any substance in 2015 showed evidence of marijuana use.

Heroin positivity in that period increased 146%. The oxycodone positivity rate has declined annually since 2011, confirming previous research showing that opioid prescriptions have declined in 49 states since 2012, Quest said.

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“The DTI statistics for the last five years underscore the threat to employers—and employees—from drug abusers in our workplace. The numbers on hair testing—the methodology with the longest look-back and therefore a more telling measurement of regular use—show a 34% positive-rate increase for illegal drug use by the general workforce in the last five years,” Mark de Bernardo, executive director of the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace, said in a statement. “However, all the numbers for various testing methodologies confirm this disturbing trend and should provide a wake-up call to employers to do more to combat workplace substance abuse and to do it more effectively.”

Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics, noted:

  • The percentage of employees in the combined U.S. workforce testing positive for drugs has steadily increased over the last three years to a 10-year high of 4.0%.
  • According to analysis of urine drug test results, the rate of amphetamine, marijuana, and heroin detection has increased annually for the past five years.
  • Positivity rates for post-accident urine drug testing are rising in both the general U.S. and federally-mandated, safety-sensitive workforces; rates have increased 30% and 22%, respectively, since 2011.
  • Almost half (45%) of individuals in the general U.S. workforce with a positive drug test for any substance in 2015 showed evidence of marijuana.
  • Heroin positivity, indicated by the presence of the 6-AM marker, increased 146 percent between 2011 and 2015 in the general U.S. workforce.
  • The overall positivity rate for oral fluid testing increased 47% over the last three years in the general U.S. workforce—equating to almost one in 11 job applicants who are unable to pass an oral fluid drug screen.
  • Overall positivity in the general U.S. workforce was highest in hair drug tests, at 10.3% in 2015, a 7% increase over the previous year.