Worth Repeating: Employee Security Screening
In one of the security print and online publications I read each month, I recently came across a story that stated, re: a survey of companies, that “…more than half of respondents noted that the background investigation process in their company is managed by Human Resources and the data is not available to security..”
Regardless of whether or not you have a proprietary security force, are a contract security company, or work only in information/computer security, there are certain specific security procedures which hold true.
One of those is that the HR department is your first line of security. Yeah, I know that human resources hasn’t wanted to be identified as part of the security function - for one reason or another, security is still an eight-letter dirty word in many organizations – but, like it or not, Human Resources is the initial security process dealing with personnel. When the HR department does not cooperate with the formal security department, for whatever reason, it works against the best interests of the organization.
I’ve been talking and writing about this off and on for the past thirty-plus years, and it’s one of those subjects which never changes. As a matter of fact, one of the problems with security is that it is a task or subject which requires constant reaffirmation.
I know that privacy concerns are a good excuse not to do anything about disclosing information concerning future employees, but whatever information is uncovered should not be a problem – that applicant should never reach the employment stage.
You know what your company is seeking in a worthwhile employee, regardless of the position to be filled. As you should be well aware, attacks against the organization are not solely committed from beyond the company’s perimeter. The HR department plays a major role in preempting crimes against the organization by employees, and if it doesn’t, then you should rethink your “broken window” policy.
One other important point – HR people should also conduct the termination interviews, along with the director of security; this should be done for both voluntary and involuntary terminations – all of them.
Catch the “Eight Letter Dirty Word” podcasts posted at my web site (http://jcsl2s.com) by going over to jcsl2s.com/podcasts. These are free for you to use, so go ahead and listen or watch, and/or copy them for your security training sessions (a source credit is appreciated). Other articles and links are posted on the jcsl2s.com/default3.htm page.
Joe Chernicoff
Tags: emplyees, hiring, human resources, interviews, privacy, privacy concerns, security, security department, termination, termination interview
