Risk management safeguards that are ignored can lead to frustrated employees as well as lawsuits against your company.
How to Protect Yourself and Your Employees:
First, implement security policies and procedures for your employees. These policies should address not only ways to keep your company information safe, but it should also require your employees to do the same with their own personal data.
Training your employees is one of the keys to protecting information.
- Keeping employee purse/wallets in a locked desk or locker.
- Discourage employees from using the company internet and computers to log into their personal accounts.
- Make it a policy for employees to not share their passwords to their computer systems at work.
- Do not leave sensitive/personal information unattended to be viewed on computer screens.
Always keep your employees HR paperwork locked and secured. The personal information that can be found in HR files that you have to retain for taxes, your state and federal laws contains information an identity thief can use fraudulently. Also, employers are now being held accountable for the damages their employees endure because of a workplace theft of their personal information.
Congress and state legislatures are passing regulations for protecting confidential information in the workplace. Federal laws regarding protection of customers and employees confidential information includes the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
A company must take precautions to protect the private information of the company’s, customers and employees. Any identity theft in the workplace can damage the reputation of the business and its owner and cause thousands of dollars in lawsuits and fines. Protecting the confidential information of you, your business, customers and employees will safeguard against the many forms of identity theft.