Experian Affinity

With data breaches grabbing headlines almost daily, identity theft is becoming a major concern for most Americans. And not just with the companies that they do business with – but at their workplace too.

One study, in fact, finds that 87 percent of small and medium business employees are concerned about becoming a victim of identity theft or another crime while working on their employers’ computer systems and devices.¹

With these types of findings, does it make sense to provide identity theft protection to your employees? It might. Many employers, especially in the financial services sector, are already providing identity theft protection as an employee benefit. It gives their employees peace of mind, which makes the workplace more amiable. But there’s another reason, too.

Identity theft victims can spend more than 30 hours to clear their names after becoming a victim, according to Javelin Strategy and Research.² And much of this fraud resolution needs to be done during normal business hours. Even when an employee isn’t working to resolve the identity theft, he or she will most likely be distracted and unable to completely focus on his or her job.

As a result, many companies find identity theft coverage to be cost effective when weighed against the loss of productivity and competing employers who do offer the coverage. In fact, many human resource and benefits’ providers believe identity theft insurance will eventually be part of a standard employee benefit package. 

It’s also important, however, to try and prevent identity theft from occurring in the first place. This can be done by educating employees on the precautions they can take to protect their identity. For example, they can create strong passwords, not store personal identifying information on their computer and not click on links or open attachments from people they don’t know.  

Still, even with the best precautionary measures, identity theft happens.  So if your organization is thinking about providing identity theft coverage for your employees, here are some important elements that should be included:

• Daily credit monitoring of the leading indicators of identity theft
• Timely alerts by text message and/or email  
• Identity theft insurance of up to $1 million to cover losses
• The individual’s credit report
• A mobile app
• Comprehensive fraud resolution

The fraud resolution component is extremely important. Make sure the company that’s providing your coverage has a rock solid fraud resolution department, with trained resolution agents that are available seven days per week. The best providers will dedicate a fraud resolution agent to work one-on-one with employees to resolve the crime. That way, the agent can do most of the legwork and your employee can focus on his or her job.

Providing identity theft protection to your employees might be a worthwhile proposition. It would show that you care about them while at the same time, provide a hedge against the loss of productivity if any of your workers become victims of identity theft. It would also position you as a forward-thinker who provided this coverage before it became part of every standard benefit package.

To learn more about identity theft protection, visit the Experian Affinity website.

¹ Small Business Employee Survey, GFI Software, December 2013.

²  2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report, Consumer Version, Javelin Strategy & Research.