This week’s troubles on Wall Street make me remember an earlier downturn in the 90’s in the financial services industry after i was a VP of HR to enjoy a large national retail and mortgage bank. While working in this industry, I managed two separate selective reductions in place affecting about 85 employees, plus a plant shut down of approximately 330 employees.
Certainly it the difficult time for me personally and for my employees. My husband called me “the black widow” then, asking me following each workday just how many employees I’d ended. Once I finished managing the plant shut down, Then i received my own severance package and exited the company to begin my own ring HR consulting utilize. I’d been offered the option for the transfer to another division or a severance package. Quite honestly, I didn’t want to manage anymore RIFs even though I’d become a subject matter expert, of course opted for the severance package.
As the economy tightens, overall criminal activities increase dramatically. This includes every type of crime from theft & embezzlement to workplace violence and corporate espionage. The American Bankruptcy Institute reports that consumer bankruptcy filings rose to 1.06 million in 2008, compared with 801,840 during 2007 & that trend will be far higher in the year just gone.
More and more, individuals are facing increased financial pressures; which leads to be able to sharp spike in all areas of crime and litigious demeanor. As individuals struggle with foreclosures, layoffs, rising expenses, increasing medical costs, plus much more interpersonal stress, elements increase the chance that employees will steal from employers, or leave the company taking company assets or other sensitive information with persons. Expect IP theft and identity theft to reach record highs in next year, and take additional precautions to protect your business’ most valuable assets.
Businesses both large & small are heading into bankruptcy in record numbers: 28,322 businesses filed in 2008 furthermore 29,960 in the first three quarters of 2008 (according towards American Bankruptcy Institute), with no signs of slowing down before long. So it’s not surprising to see theft & litigious activity sky-rocketing. The US Chamber of Commerce estimates that employee theft costs businesses $40 billion dollars each year. This total is much the value of street crime losses annually in north america. The US banking industry
retail outplacement reports losses of approximately $1billion annually which is well above the combined losses since bank robberies. American businesses lose an estimated 5 percent of annual revenues to fraud resulting in staggering losses of around $638 billion (based on research by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners). Compromised systems, data leakage, and network security vulnerabilities also top the list of damaging and criminal activities when the economy nose-dives. Businesses, governments and educational institutions reported nearly 50 % more data breaches last year when compared to 2007, exposing the personal records of to start 35.7 million Americans, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center of The san diego area. Organized crime rings are expanding, using insider employees, and are to blame for much of this theft. The FBI states that employee theft is best growing crime in america today.
Businesses should your effects of prior employees as well as recently laid-off employee behaviors, aside from existing employees. Employers and managers often overlook their existing employees who in a position to outwardly happy to take a job but inwardly feel they are owed more along with company for their loyalty, because their pay or options have been reduced, or simply considering that they often feel eligible for have more. The incidence of Workmans compensation claims are already increasing and incidents of petty theft internally within companies is at an all-time high.