RISING COST OF IDENTITY THEFT
GIVES WAY TO UNUSUAL NEW EMPLOYEE BENEFIT

By Shaun Callahan

We’ve all seen the headlines.

Fastest growing crime in America .

1 in 24 Americans are victims of Identity Theft.

Over 88 million data records of U.S. residents have been exposed due to security breaches since February 2005.

Every day we hear more reports of how incidents of identity theft and corporate data breaches are on the increase. At the same time, a growing array of services to fight identity theft are being offered by the Big 3 credit bureaus, banks, insurance companies and dozens of other start-up companies.

Increased awareness of this crime and its impact on the corporate balance sheet seems to be motivating some employers to offer an unusual new benefit: identity theft protection.

Here’s why:

Reason 1 – Educated employees are less likely to breach corporate data

Corporate data breaches are often due to human error and lack of awareness. Educating employees can translate into increased protection of client records, as well as a corporation’s reputation, by preventing unnecessary data breaches.

“As a full service accounting firm, it is imperative that we handle our clients’ data with the highest level of confidentiality and security,” says Andrew Rose of Naden/Lean, LLC. “As cases of corporate data breaches are increasingly reported by the media, we felt it was important to offer identity protection as an employee benefit. This is part of an ongoing process in our employee education on the importance of protecting not only their good names but each of our client’s as well.”

Reason 2 – Recovery occurs on company time

It’s only a matter of time.

In July, Time magazine reported that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, when a thief opens new accounts in a victim’s name, it takes an average of 60 hours and $1,180 to clean up the mess.

When are the 60 hours of “cleaning up the mess” happening? Often it’s from 9 to 5, while employees are on the company clock.

“When deciding to offer identity protection to our clients, we selected a service that provides full-managed recovery because recovery is the hardest part of identity theft and we wanted to help solve the toughest problem,” says Duane Davies, VP of Sales Support for Monumental Life. “When deciding to make the same service available to our employees, we got the added benefit of knowing that if one of them becomes a victim, they will not lose productivity by spending countless work hours making calls trying to clean up the mess themselves.”

Reason 3 – It’s the right thing to do

Some benefits are mandated by state or federal law. Some benefits make attractive recruitment or retention tools. Sometimes, a CEO simply decides it’s the right thing to do. Protecting the employees’ good name falls into this category.

“We are in the benefits business,” says Ann Geisenger, Director of HR for Benelogic, LLC. “When it comes to taking care of our own employees, we pride ourselves in having a very robust benefits package that values the needs of our employees and their families. With the dramatic increase of identity theft incidents nationwide and the associated anxiety that goes along with this crime, it was an easy decision for us to help find a way to protect our employees and help alleviate their worries.”

The companies featured in this article are clients of The Identity Protection Company.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shaun Callahan, President of The Identity Protection Company in Timonium, Maryland, has more than 15 years of sales, training and management experience from previous careers with Digex, Checkfree, USinternetworking, Client Development Institute, High Performance Group, and EntreQuest. A 1985 Naval Academy graduate, Shaun served aboard the USS Conolly as Disbursing Officer and now lives in Baltimore with his wife, Sheila, and son, Jack. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Metro Crime Stoppers.

He can be reached at shaun@identitypc.com and on the web at www.TheIdentityProtectionCompany.com and www.MyNameIsProtected.com.

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