Perhaps your organization is part of an industry where public scrutiny of employee behavior is a concern, such as hospitality. Maybe your staff deals with customers or patients from a variety of backgrounds, such as healthcare or retail. No matter the industry, ongoing monitoring of your employees may protect your employees, prevent legal issues, or at a minimum, provide peace of mind.
What Is Continuous Monitoring?
Similar to how background checks as part of the hiring process can ensure that your organization complies and adheres to the hiring standards in your industry, continuous monitoring can prevent noncompliance that occurs after the hiring process has been completed.
Depending on your industry, you may want to consider monitoring your employees for:
- Criminal Checks
- Professional License Checks
- Sanction Checks
- Office of Inspector General/General Services Administration
- Drug Checks
- National Criminal Records Search
- Driving Checks
- Global Watch
- Social Media
Why is continuous monitoring important?
If you’re not continuously monitoring your employees, you may not be aware of behavioral missteps, criminal charges or loss of license that makes them a legal liability for your organization. This kind of situation can also have compliance implications if you are in a regulated industry.
Choosing to employ internal policies and practices for continuous monitoring will help ensure the safety and integrity of your workplace, for your employees and your customers.
How to start a continuous monitoring program
First and foremost, a continuous monitoring policy must be compliant with federal, state, and local employment laws and regulations. Some states have consent requirements for pre-hire and continuous monitoring, so research your legal requirements before establishing a monitoring program.
It is also crucial that your policy around monitoring is documented in a clear, thorough manner and is communicated to your employees. In order to provide an environment built on trust, you may want to consider implementing a self-reporting policy as well. This will allow your employees to come to you with any recent arrests or other acts that warrant reporting. It’s essential that your employees understand your business policy and that it is their responsibility.
As with any employee policy, a continuous monitoring and self-reporting policy should be shared at the time of hiring and readily available to them if they want to reference it. This policy should be reviewed on an annual basis.
Continued Confidence in Your Employees
You took care to hire the best candidate for the job. You checked references and checked their background with a trusted background screening solution. You put your confidence in them when you invited them to become a part of your organization, and your employees look to you to provide a safe workplace for them. Now you have an opportunity to maintain that shared trust and confidence with continuous monitoring. Schedule a meeting with us to learn more.
