While it’s important to trust your employees and foster positive relations with the people you work with, it’s also important to be aware of the risk of fraud and protect your business against employee theft. There are steps you can take around your premises to prevent employee fraud, but another way to protect your business from this very common occurrence is to consider crime coverage for your business. We’ll explain how crime insurance can help your business if you ever experience employee theft.
Crime coverage may protect your business…
1. If one of your employees misuses your funds.
Some of your employees may have access to your business’s funds or financial information. Of course, you want to believe that your employees would never take advantage of this access or use the power for their own gain. But what if an employee decided that that hard-earned money is better suited for their personal purposes? What if they stole from your business and left you in the lurch? That’s where crime coverage comes in – it can protect you from the misuse of funds by your employees so that your business won’t be ruined by employee theft.
2. If one of your employees forges or alters a check.
Don’t underestimate the power of creativity. If your employees handle checks, they could tweak them in order to get their hands on the money. That’s why it’s so important to have a procedure for accepting and processing checks, one that makes it more difficult for them to be faked or, ah, modified by an employee for their benefit.
3. If one of your employees dabbles in computer fraud.
Again, creativity is not to be underestimated. Computer skills are valuable and very awe-inspiring for those who aren’t so tech-savvy. However, computer wizardry is a power that can be used for good (like getting that virus off your computer) or evil (like stealing money with the help of technology.)
If one of your employees uses computer fraud to take money from your business, your crime coverage policy could cover you by reimbursing you for the funds that disappeared into the cyber-world void. Nowadays, we’re relying on technology more and more, which means that it’s crucial to protect your business from cyber risks. Yes, your computers might look secure, but it’s all-too-easy for unscrupulous hackers and computer wizards to exploit them and turn them against you.
4. If your business’s goods in transit mysteriously disappear.
Huh. That’s weird. I could have sworn there were twenty boxes of product on that truck and only nineteen arrived at their destination…
Well, product does not just sprout legs and walk away. When goods are sent or received, it’s not difficult for employees to steal them. Sometimes the business doesn’t even notice that some of their product or inventory is missing, and by then it’s long gone. And if the theft happens outside of your business’s property, it’s no easy task to prove who stole the goods. even if you have a gut feeling that it was one of your employees, that’s not enough for a court. That means that the fallout from this type of theft can include legal fees and court expenses – lawsuits are not cheap. But the good news is that crime coverage can provide a good deal of protection for these kinds of situations, meaning that your business’s risk of loss is significantly less when you send or receive products.
So, while finding out that some of your product vanished would be unfortunate, it wouldn’t be devastating if your crime insurance covers goods in transit.
5. If someone gets held hostage or is otherwise extorted for money.
Okay, bear with us. It probably seems far-fetched that you or someone with whom you work could get held hostage by an employee (with or without outside help) and ransomed for money. But extortion is something that crime insurance could protect your business from. Whether it’s a hostage situation or another form of extortion, the losses might be considerable. But crime insurance could help you out of that harrowing debacle.
Employee theft can be a touchy issue, and you don’t want to give anyone the impression that you don’t trust and value your employees, but it’s important to be aware that employee theft is one of the main types of theft that your business faces. When you’re considering your business insurance plan, you may want to consider crime coverage.
If you’re looking to save some money on your business insurance, our team of agents would be more than happy to help with that. We can help you evaluate your risks and choose the coverages and limits that are right for you. All you have to do to get business insurance quotes is fill out our online form or give us a call today.