As HR reviews and refines its risk management policies, it should examine how each policy can be effectively mapped to a current or future operating process within the workplace. (Photo: Shutterstock)

In a perfect world, human resources professionals would only need to concern themselves with the positive aspects of their responsibilities: recruiting great team members, improving employee benefits, building a positive work environment, and enforcing employee and company policy.

Nevertheless, employee risk management is now a modern corporate imperative. Tragic violence in our communities reminds all of us of the rising importance of safety and security in the workplace, and not all HR professionals feel comfortable tackling this essential challenge. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, only 38 percent of HR professionals strongly agreed with the statement, "When I witness, or am involved in a workplace violence incident, I know what to do."

Related: Mediating highly emotional workplace disputes

Workplace violence is arguably the worst outcome that can result from a lack of employee risk and incident management. However, stealing money or intellectual property, employee harassment, and even concentrated workforce disengagement are all significant threats that HR must constantly work to eliminate, especially as employee access to electronic data often leads to an increased opportunity for employee malfeasance, and cultural norms—driven by the mass adoption of social media—have increased an employee's likelihood of suing their employer and migrating from job to job on a more frequent basis.

The world has changed considerably over the past decade, and employers and their HR leadership need to evolve as well in order to address these emerging challenges. As an initial step towards this recalibration, HR should seriously consider following these six recommended best practices:

1. Update employee risk policies

Begin with a detailed reexamination of the current employee code of conduct policy. Is the code up to date with today's trends and issues, and is it worded properly? Does it consider new and emerging workplace scenarios? As HR reviews and refines its current and/or new policies, it should examine how each policy can be effectively mapped to a current or future operating process within the workplace. Policies should reflect the fact that different jobs/positions allow different physical access and information access, and therefore represent different risks to the organization, employees and customers.

2. Capture evergreen consent

While potential employees are still in the initial application process, it's not uncommon for them to consent to and undergo a background check. However, "point in time" screening is no longer sufficient to manage risk in most organizations.

A clean track record at the time of hire does not guarantee similar employee behavior in the future. Over time, employees' lives change and they may be driven to engage in risky or negative behavior that puts the company and its employees in jeopardy. Establishing a modern consent policy at the beginning of the new hire process will enable employees to be aware of, and give consent for, the company to perform continuous screening as needed. Establishing this policy change as soon as possible will enable for such an upgraded monitoring policy in the future.

3. Utilize continuous discovery

Establishing an automated and continuous employee incident discovery and management program enables HR to better understand whether employees engage in high risk or non-compliant behavior that can commonly result in the workplace being negatively impacted.

Specifically, continuous monitoring looks for signs and leading indicators of employee stress. Stress is an indicator that individuals could be going through a difficult time, and in alerting HR to this issue, continuous monitoring enables HR to employ appropriate, proactive safeguards .

4. Make employee assistance programs (EAPs) proactive

Continuous discovery also gives HR the ability to provide employees with potentially necessary assistance on a proactive basis. Beyond ensuring that business assets and workplace safety are never compromised, HR professionals can utilize this early warning in order to get employees the help they need via employee assistance programs (EAPs).

For example, if continuous discovery alerts HR that an employee is under significant outside stress, they can proactively reach out and talk with that individual, and potentially find out they've been struggling to pay their bills. In this example, the employee may benefit from financial counseling or a temporary loan against their 401k, and HR could proactively take action in order to help the employee quickly get back on track.

5. Centralize investigation information

When it comes to personnel risk-related incidents, issues are communicated far too often to different organizational functions—at least initially—via email. Email isn't a secure way to transfer such private, personal information, and as such, this method of communication should be avoided whenever possible. Instead, HR should ensure technology can support rapid dissemination of personnel information through a centralized system where those with authority (HR, legal, compliance, security) can securely execute appropriate policy.

6. Archive incidents that are not actioned

If an employee incident is minor and isolated, it may not be cause for concern, and may be dismissed without any organization retention. However, it is almost always patterns of behavior that correlate to higher levels of employee risk. Archiving incidents in a single, consolidated location enables organizations to have a more complete view of their workforce and enables them to connect the dots on progressions of concerning behavior.

Every organization hopes to avoid workplace violence, bullying, harassment, fraud and theft, while also delivering a rewarding workplace experience. Ensuring the safety and security of the workforce has become a critical priority for Human Resource executives, and by following these six best practices, HR can – with relatively straightforward effort – be confident they are proactively taking steps to ensure their business, and their coworkers, are always safe.

Dan Cone is the Vice President of Sales at ClearForce, an organization that protects businesses and employees through the continuous and automated discovery of employee misconduct or high-risk activities.

Read more:

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• 5 tips to shield your business from employee lawsuits