Better Safe Than Sorry

Jonathan · Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 35

It is a sad truth that many people can’t be trusted these days…so be very careful with how much information, control, and access other people have to your business materials. I know of two recent cases, for instance, where personal assistants had been given too much access to bank accounts and finances…with unfortunate consequences.

Now in larger business setting there are various checks and balances, via compartmentalization, etc., to prevent most such abuses (although some high profile cases over the last few years prove that such abuses can go all the way to the very top), but what can smaller businesses do? If you only have one assistant, don’t you limit their utility as an employee if they can’t do everything you need unsupervised? I’m not really sure what the answer is, but do pay attention…because, as the saying goes, better safe than sorry!

squirrel · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Bucharest, Romania

:) Yes Jonathan I can relate to what you are saying... not that it ever happened to me... but I've heard such stories...
Mine is different: I used to work for this small company whose boss (one of them) more or less used the company money to buy clothes and jewelery for herself... ok, it was her money, but we weren't paying the bills on time and weren't getting our wages due to her expenditures...
She wanted to give me full access to the bank accounts... I refused! As if I were stupid... :wink:

Jonathan · Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 35

Great point Raluca! It can be just as important to protect yourself as an employee as it can be as an employer... and you can't be accused of anything untoward when it comes to those things you don't even have access to! :wink:

squirrel · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 43 Location: Bucharest, Romania

Exactly my point, Jonathan! And I am sure there are many honest people out there... but also many dishonest people!
I usually trust my fellow humans until they do something fishy... and if I lose confidence in somebody, it's hard to regain my trust!

NeoDevin · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:41 am Post subject:

Aside from the obvious, to hire honest, trustworthy people, the best solutions are to make it as hard for someone to get away with dishonesty by building into your business a way of checking things. Be sure to check your 'underlings' from time to time, even if they've been with you for a long time. If you hire someone else to check on your staff, be sure to do random spot checks on that person's work, and be sure everyone knows there are random spot checks.

Another way to discourage this is to make sure the person's job is worth more to them than they would be able to get through thievery (or other dishonesty). For example, insure your staff is paid enough, with enough job security, so that they would be worse off by cleaning out the cash register and running off with it, than by working their job honestly.

Spot checks will help eliminate any long term small problems that you might not even find out about otherwise, while job value will help stop anyone from suddenly taking you for all they can get, and running away. Obviously it's impossible to completely eliminate problems, but make sure you always check references, do as thorough of a background check on people as possible, and keep as much information about them as possible on hand, so if they do try to pull a fast one, they're easier to track down.