Employee Drug Use

Employee drug use has always been a problem. From alcohol to medications to casual marijuana use, the problems associated to drug use are as varied as the types of drugs used.

Some of the problem types associated with employee drug use are:

• Increased incidences of accidents
• Increased liability claims
• Public Relations and Investor confidence issues
• Losses associated to theft of industry drugs (such as hospital and drug manufacturer drug use)
• Misuse of company resources for the purpose of assisting trafficking (such as when company resources are diverted or used to traffick supplies, including vehicle, intelligence and computer support)
• Increased likelihood of other crimes associated to drug use such as theft
• Infiltration of services by criminal elements associated to the drug trade

These problems necessitate action by management to curb or stop drug use on site by employees. While background checks are used to minimize the risk of hires engaged in these types of behaviours, they cannot guarantee the an employee will never stray to this end. Also, law enforcement cannot always become engaged in these types of investigations, particularly if the case is too small or the force does not have available resources to conduct the case, which is a frequent occurrence.

In situations such as these, a private investigator is often the best option for the conduct of an employee drug use investigation. A private investigator will liaise with local law enforcement, bringing them in if and only when required and the PI can put together the evidence package which will allow for either criminal or employment actions as needed.

A private investigator can also work with internal security as a force multiplier when feasible to bring about a quicker resolution to a situation while ensuring third party neutrality over the course of the investigation. Call a local PI to get more information, or feel free to visit our website to ask us about the various ways a PI can help out in an employee drug investigation.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Online Scams Update

Online scams are a favourite topic around here. They permeate every aspects of online activity, particularly considering the types of sites we need to visit in the conduct of an investigation.

Well known scams such as phishing e-mails and the classic 419 scam are notable, but there are always new flavours of scams which rear their ugly head in a fresh attempt to part you with information and/or money.

Some of the best current types we've been running across here in Canada lately (with the exception of the often discussed regular 419) are:

• The Paid Assassin: While alarming, this one can be spotted pretty far off for most people. It generally seeks to take advantage of people who for one reason or another, could conceivably have someone be happy with them dead, either rationally or otherwise. A particularly nasty divorce can qualify a potential victim for example. The scammer then demands money in exchange for sparing their life.
• The Unstoppable Flood of E-mail Scams: This involves flooding a victims inbox with e-mail from something that looks real (Diet Pills for example). The intent here isn't exactly that you will believe the ad, but rather that you will become so desperate to stop the emails from coming through that you relent and click on a link or unsubscribe button....even calling in to the phone number to collect data, slave your computer or collect pay per call fees.
• The Trade Specific Scam: These are usually targeted to specific individuals such as lawyers or real estate agents. It sounds legit at the start, but there is usually some fee exchange which is introduced down the line which sounds real, but leaves the professional holding the bag. The thing with these scams is that they use the exact same letter each time as the scammer is usually not an English speaker. If you run the text (or a portion) through a web search, you will generally find determine the scam quite quickly.

These are only a small portion of the scams at this point. They are really to numerous to fit into one blog bit, but the common parts always exist. The first step when you receive an e-ail is to check the address. This usually won't match where the individual claims they are from. Also, note the timing. If you just posted something to Craigslist or Kijiji, I would be extra vigilant if any e-mails came in shortly thereafter claiming I have some problem. Also, the text itself is a giveaway. Look for odd spelling errors and run some of the main text through a web search to see if there are any examples of the exact text somewhere else, and failing that, type in a description into search of what you think is suspicious and you may find others with the same concerns who can offer some advice.

 As always, stay skeptical with any unsolicited online information, and if you have been scammed, contact local law enforcement immediately.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Skip Tracing

What is an actual skip trace?

This is an odd phrase which pops up lots in many businesses but people actually aren't sure. It is simply a search for someone who has disappeared from previously known contact points.

The name comes from the phrase skipping town and relates to "skipping bail", where skip tracers were essentially bounty hunters. The phrase gradually changed to a point where skip tracing is now down by a variety of people, including lawyers, credit agencies, PI's, journalists and anyone else really who needs to locate someone.

While different people and organizations may have different tools to accomplish a trace, such as police with the powers of the state and journalists who have state protections, the general mechanics are very similar.

Many people assume that a PI (who generally has the most flexible toolbox to locate an individual) can simply punch up a website and type in a name and voila, location found. This is generally not the case (although in some jurisdictions, such as a few US states, this occasionally happens). The majority of traces requires several different sources which are brought together over time to create an initial slate of possible names and locations, which is then refined as the data is reviewed and refined, eventually leading to a small set of leads which can then be followed up on. If the trace is located, great, if not, the hypothesis and data is refined and re-spun through the tracing machine to come up with new potential hits.

This can take time depending on a wide range of factors, taking anywhere from a day to several weeks to make the find.

A PI can usually give a rough idea of the complexity of your case from the outset to locate someone. If the case is very difficult, it is a good idea to establish benchmarks to continue or end the case if not enough progress is being made. Remember, not all people can be found, particularly if resources and time are a factor. You and your PI should work closely to achieve the best results possible in the most reasonable time frame.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

6 Ways A Background Check Can Help Your Business!

            Background checks are one of the best ways to assess potential hires and business partnerships by going past the information provided by the subject to assess a variety of things, primarily regarding the honesty of disclosed information. As such, I've decided to put together a quick list of some of the expected benefits that running a background check or background check program can offer your organization:

        I.         HR Cost Savings: This is the big one. A frequent assessment of the cost of hiring then firing a bad hire uses a simple formula. Annual pay, plus admin costs (around 40% real and productivity costs) divided by 4. Even on a $30k annual salary, you can see the losses for a bad hire can be significant, particularly for an organization with thousands of employees, where productivity issues are most likely felt.

     II.          Verify Credentials: This is the other main component of background checks. This is done in order to verify credentials, professional memberships, past employment, etc. Beyond what HR staff will do however, a Private Investigator will ensure credentials are real when fraud or forged credentials are suspected.

   III.          Understand Past Performance: This involves not only going back to a former employer and conducting thorough searches with co-workers, clients and others who can give a better understanding of your potential hire. This is not feasible for all low level hires, however at the higher echelon, particularly in the C-suite, this function should be vital.

  IV.          Maintain Staff Quality: This field relates to some of the others, and allows for a comprehensive picture of the candidate to be created in the form of a profile, which can then be matched to your other successful staff to determine who is the best fit.

     V.         Limit Deception and Frauds: This involves focussed searches for things like made up or low quality "internet schools", bogus certifications and organizations, made up employment and other points of interest which need to be known. This also includes searches for criminality which may not be documented but can be detected for staff who will be entering sensitive positions and areas of responsibility.

  VI.          Buffer Against Corporate Espionage: This is for the larger companies who run the risk of corporate espionage. A good background search will offer a good buffer against it and hopefully reveal gaps in the legends and cover stories to enable your organization to resist infiltration through hiring programs.

            A background check is not for every company and organization. Sometimes the cost of running a comprehensive background screening program exceeds the mitigation value. However, I would definitely recommend that executive hires as a minimum are screened prior to being brought aboard. These positions have the greatest ability to hide their pasts, and have the greatest ability to damage your reputation if your gut was wrong in bringing them aboard.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Mitigation versus Real Security

Of the many different ways of classifying security types, one seems to me to be of increasing importance in how an organization sets up and structures its security. The two types, which we will call mitigation and real for the purpose of this discussion, are important paradigms to distinguish for an organization to accurately allot funds and resources to the proper locations and will enable them to properly understand the effects they wish to achieve before heading out and buying the most expensive security gadget which turns out to be ineffective as the intent of the system was not understood.

Mitigation security (not to be confused with mitigation strategies) focusses on the concept that nothing is secure forever. The aim of this type of security is to present to interested parties, namely insurers, legislators and interested members of the public, that proper precautions were taken to secure that which requires security. In other words, it allows an organization to claim that all that could reasonably be done was in fact done, and a security breach occurred as an extraordinary occurrence which was not reasonably expected. This involves things like physical assets, unencrypted cloud data, product launch details and really anything which tends to be insured against loss or the loss of which, while damaging, will only expose an organization to potential financial loss or exposure to lower level litigation.

Real security on the other hand, is the paradigm which focusses on actual no fail security measures. Failures in security of this type result in real harm, major financial losses and litigation exposure, as well as public backlash and loss of confidence and possible adverse legislation. Organizations involved in this type of security tend to be government agencies, weapons and energy manufacturers and hi-tech organizations. Losses of this type vary, however they tend to involve cutting and bleeding edge technologies, personal and financial data losses, state secrets and significant intellectual property losses.

The difference between choosing one or the other does not need to be mutually exclusive, quite the contrary. Choosing the appropriate paradigm to put into practice in various areas of your organization shows that proper thought has gone into your security plan, and has the benefit of tailoring costs so that proper levels are used where they are needed. This runs contrary to the plans that many security sales folks may identify, however the truth of it is that high security comes down to planning appropriately rather than spending on the most expensive gadgets.

When you begin your planning for security measures, here are a few quick rules I like to use when planning for my clients:

• Start early in the business life cycle. Starting to think about security hen you are still a small to medium business will allow you to think about how your plan can and should evolve as you get bigger
• Establish what effects you want to achieve rather than what you want to secure. This will give you a better understanding of the variables you need to account for
• Consider everything, not just the gates. I always tell someone the best way for me to breach your data systems if the IT security folks are doing their jobs is to get some dirt on a staff member and blackmail them and have them get it for me, making those expensive IT security plans worthless.
• A plan is never done. Make amendments whenever a breach occurs and regularly as technology and organization changes occur.
• And finally, a security plan is useless unless staff are aware of the plan. Make sure they are aware of your plan, and refresh them on a regular basis (annually as a minimum).

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest are some of those issues that people generally know about but tend to fail to notice when they are actually presented with evidence that it is occurring. This is largely due to personal knowledge of the individuals and organizations caught up in a particular conflict, but it can also be caused by attempts by the organization or individual to hide any potential or existing conflict which can be used for gain.

Generally speaking, a conflict of interest is when an individual or organization has a relationship between two or more other individuals or organizations, where the relation to one could conceivably influence the interaction with one or more of the other organizations or individuals. Case in point would be the CEO who owns stock in his own company, trades off the majority of his shares prior to releasing poor economic results for the company. This is also seen in the public sphere where a public servant awards a construction job to her brother in law.

These examples are very obvious and often come under intense scrutiny when they occur, usually by the media for important contracts and major corporations, however they also occur in far smaller groups and circles, which can cost most organizations money and respect in their corporate circles.

Smaller level examples include the most frequent conflict, personal relationships, but also involve finances such as personal loans, memberships in clubs, prior or hidden criminal or ethically dubious acts and social pressures.

In any case, it usually falls to an organization's internal capabilities to keep track of conflicts of interest for its own personnel. Often times, these issues are investigated by HR staff at the time of short listing or hiring, when general checks are conducted internally or with the help of an outsourced HR firm or investigator.

The problem with this method is that things change over time. As people become more settled in a position or they develop professionally, they tend to branch out in terms of stock holdings, memberships and personal ventures. As these develop, the potential for conflicting circumstances to develop increases greatly. The person in the conflicting position usually will not identify the conflict to the organization, either out of ignorance, or more commonly as they recognize the potential benefit to keeping silent. Case in point is the computer software engineer who starts up a small business on the side providing similar services as he performs in his primary employment. Using the skills and resources gained from employment in the business, as well as valuable contacts and commercial opportunities to network, he can gain significant advantage by offering services below the corporate rate, often using resources from the company he works at to enhance his own business and reduce overhead. This scenario is actually one of the most prevalent forms of conflict of interest cases and costs companies major capital as it is often low level but very widespread.

A way for a company to keep on top of this is to run occasional updates to conflict of interest cases. Important times to look out for, particularly for C-suite executives and technical staff (engineers, scientists, etc), are periods of time when new staff are brought on, competitors make major acquisitions, supervisors become aware that staff are starting their own business and if any major bonuses are granted which could offer an employee the opportunity to make cash investments in personal business or stock acquisitions.

Additionally, depending on the type of business, regular checks should be performed on a regular basis (2-5 years) on all C-suite, executive management and major development and technical leaders to ensure that proper disclosures have been made. These checks should be performed out of the Board of Directors offices and can be done by internal staff if the capability exists, however using external organizations ensures the proper skill sets, impartiality in the investigation and allowing for greater flexibility without diverting staff from other tasks.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca

Employee Misconduct

Employee misconduct is one of those catch all phrases which generally captures employees doing things they shouldn't, from misuse of assets to malingering to racial discrimination.

Despite the various disguises that employee misconduct can wear, the effects of misconduct can be felt throughout an organization, and can hit not only employee morale, but the bottom line a well.

What are some of the more common types of misconduct? Well, the list is quite extensive, however some of the most common are:

• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Misuse of company assets (such as using assets for personal use)
• Malingering (claiming to be sick/injured falsely)
• Violations of ethical practices
• Safety infractions
• Legislation and internal policy abuses
• And of course, everyone's favourites, plain old goofing off.

The effects of these activities, particularly those committed by supervisory and management positions (which are most likely to engage in most misconduct types), is to clobber morale within your ranks. Not only does it create a poison environment, it has the effect of spreading, as people see those in power getting away with poor behaviour, which in turn leads others to come to the conclusion or justification to engage in other types of misconduct, if not flat out illegal behaviour within your organization.

This can have an incredible impact on the bottom line as high employee turnover, losses and reduced productivity can grind your capabilities into the ground fairly quickly.

What is needed to effectively identify misconduct issues is to ensure the following are implemented in your organization:

• Institute an active whistleblower program which protects staff from repercussions when reporting instances of employee misconduct
• Ensure that complaints are investigated as soon as possible. if you do not have the capability in house (and most organizations do not), hire outside investigators to come in for complex cases such as harassment and malingering (particularly when unions are involved).
• Communicate the results of the investigation to staff and explain the disciplinary measures taken. Many companies balk at this for fear of coming off as the proverbial bug meanie, however this shows staff that you are committed to stamping out misconduct and that the rules apply to everyone equally....you'd be surprised at how well a firm and fair hand is viewed by staff.
• Take suggestions from staff and management on how to remedy a situation once the dust has settled. Bringing your staff into play gives them a sense of involvement in the wellbeing of your organization and gives them a stake in the future.

Blog post is courtesy Elemental Investigations: Private Investigator Edmonton, an Edmonton, Canada based private investigator agency. They can be found online at www.elementalpi.ca