The New Castle County, Delaware, police recently arrested a professional maid who had stolen a diamond engagement ring from a home she was cleaning. The woman, an employee of a commercial and residential cleaning company, was charged with felony theft and was still incarcerated at this writing.
The homeowner called the police after realizing that the ring was missing and advised them that employees of a Delaware-based commercial and residential cleaning company had been at the home earlier in the day. In the course of the subsequent investigation, in turned out that one of the maids at the house earlier that day had pawned numerous pieces of jewelry in various Delaware pawn shops.
The investigating officer ultimately found the missing ring at one of those shops, and took the suspect into custody. The incident is disturbing and causes problems for both the victim, and the commercial and residential cleaning company whose employee caused the problem in the first place.
The victim has been violated, and anyone who has ever had anything stolen from them knows the feeling. There is also a sense of betrayal because the victim hired a professional commercial and residential cleaning company to come into her home and clean it. Instead of choosing an independent house cleaner, the decision to hire a professional residential cleaning service is largely based on an assumption that the company has done a background check, or some type of employment screening prior to hiring its employees.
Had the residential cleaning service conducted a proper background check or employment screening prior to hiring the now-incarcerated employee, her blemished history would have come to light. That pattern of behavior would have—or at least should have—been enough of a red flag to prevent hiring her.
In addition to the victim of the crime, the other victim in this is the commercial and residential cleaning service that hired the thief. The company’s reputation—in other words, its brand—has been severely tarnished by the fact that they hired a thief who stole from a customer. That information is already out on the Internet, and will stay there for a very long time. By failing to do a thorough background check or a comprehensive pre-employment screening, the company made a bad hiring decision.
Even if the company performed some sort of background check or pre-employment screening, it was not thorough enough to identify the potential problem. Effective background checks and pre-employment screening require extensive expertise and experience if they are to be of any value.
It’s also important to realize that people change over time. A background check and pre-employment screening—particularly for employees who work in someone’s home or office—should be done regularly, at least quarterly. Particularly for commercial and residential cleaning services, the objective is to hire honest people and then to make sure they stay honest.
Once a reputation or brand has been tarnished like this, it is difficult if not impossible to rebuild it. There are too many commercial and residential cleaning services to choose from—why hire a firm that has a track record of hiring thieves?
Yes, there is a financial cost of conducting background checks and pre-employment screening. But for a commercial and residential cleaning service in Delaware, the cost of destroying their valuable reputation will be far greater.
Call Know It All Intelligence Group today and discuss your options for employee screening and background checks. Knowledge is power. Safety is priceless.