Up to 50% of house robbers and burglars base their crimes on intelligence information received from someone you employ. This varies from area to area but is on the rise. Quite often the information is relayed innocently by your domestic or gardener. Criminals walk around the areas they are targeting and watch your workers. They hop onto the local taxi with your employee and over time make friends with them.
The conversation will go something like this:
Criminal: “My employer is so mean, she paid me late again today. I work hard for my money and she can’t be bothered to pay me on time.”
Your employee: “I am lucky, mine always pays me on time” OR “Mine often pays me late, it’s not fair, and she has so much money.”
Criminal: “My employer just bought a new flat-screen TV. She threw her old TV away; she could have given it to me instead. She has so many nice things.”
Your Employee: “My employer has two flat-screen TV’s, 2 laptops and an iPad and both children have iPhones. She also has a safe with lots of expensive jewellery and I think they have a gun.” (This is exactly the information that the criminal is looking for.)
Many employees are conned into giving away the information about your home or business without realizing it. Quite a few will also provide your information for money and others because you are simply not a very pleasant person to work for.
Think about the things that would make a difference to you if you had limited skills/opportunities and worked for YOU. What would you do differently?
There are several ways you can lower your risk in this area,
Show your employee that you value them. Start with the simple things like paying them on time, paying them for public holidays and donating old clothes and items to them and their family.
Educate them about safety with regards to your home and talk to them about how criminals may try to get information from them. Explain to your employee what you would like them to say if they get into a situation… and role play the scenario. This seems silly but it really helps employees to understand and to give them the tools to deal with these situations.
Go the extra mile for them. Provide things that other employers usually don’t think of like funeral benefits, hospital plans, and retirement plans etc. There are several companies who offer very reasonably prices benefits that you could sign them up for. Think about splitting the cost with your employee/s.
Most domestic employees don’t have the benefit of the internet and will really appreciate it if you did a little research on things that would make their lives easier and add more stability. If you help your employee/s value you as an employer and you educate them about helping you, it reduces the risk of your family being a victim of crime through inside information.
Remember safety is not something you do once and forget about, it is something you should think about every day.