Is One of Your Current or Former Employees Plotting Against You?

Dave Thomas

April 20, 2016

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Ever feel like your small business is getting to you?

In many cases, small business owners manage to extinguish a whole host of fires that erupt at any given time.

Running the gamut from dealing with unhappy customers to ad and marketing campaigns that are dead on arrival, there can be many issues to deal with at a time.

One issue that business owners hope to avoid at all costs is having a rogue employee, be they current or one who has recently left the company.

When employees essentially go into business on their own (in a negative manner) while still on the job, they can be a major headache for those running companies.

With that being the case, do you have one or more people plotting against your small business?

Watching Your Back at Work

Even though most small business owners have little or no problems with workers, others have had different experiences.

In order for your business to skate free of problems with current or former employees, remember these tips:

Compromising company and customer data – The biggest fear for most small business owners is that one or more of their employees will share company and/or customer data with others or use it for their own illegal purposes. Identity theft continues to be a growing problem for businesses of all sizes, but smaller companies are oftentimes the ones most impacted by it. In many cases, smaller businesses do not have the resources (including financial ones) to investigate such matters. They also are limited oftentimes in the security measures they can put in place to prevent such occurrences. As a small business owner, look to see where your brand may be most vulnerable. If it boils down to adding more security (see more below), by all means consider that;
Securing your business – Given you have locks on your office doors, not to mention probably security cameras here and there, doesn’t it only make sense to keep your online efforts protected? With identity theft thieves out and about (and potentially inside your business), it doesn’t take much for one of them to crack the code so to speak, making their way onto your computer/s in the office. Just as consumers hopefully take the time and effort to lock-down their online data, you need to do the same with not only their data when it is in your hands, but also your company’s private data. Turning to a system like LikeLock ultimate or another such provider can mean the difference between secure protection and leaving things to chance;
Setting the rules of the game from day one – While an employer hopes he or she will never have to deal with a rogue employee, it happens more often than one may think. Even though you can’t say with 100 percent certainty one or more of your folks won’t turn against you one day, make it crystal-clear from the day they are hired that such activities will never be tolerated. You can do this in a couple of ways, including face-to-face and also via an employee handbook. Be sure to let workers know that there can and most likely will be consequences for those who go against company policy. These actions can include workplace discipline, firing, along with possible criminal charges;
Don’t become complacent – Lastly, you never want to become the small business owner who falls into a level of complacency. When that happens, it can be really easy for those outside (or perhaps even inside your company) to strike. Always be looking at fresh ideas to protect your business and the data of your customers. Remember, customers buy goods and/or services from you for one reason or another. Ones such reason may very well be that they trust you. Such trust can be eroded rather quickly if you are the victim (and them) of identity theft.

In running your small business, what are you doing (without giving away company secrets) to keep your brand safe from those individuals or groups looking to strike?

Be a pro-active small business owner, not a reactive one.