iFacts Company News

At the Security Africa Summit that took place in Cape Town last year, there was a panel discussion regarding ‘What will 2012 bring?’, with regards the security industry and the threats to corporations.

So, you have been prepared, you've acknowledged the risks, you screen your employees. But what about your supplier or vendor information?

For many South African's, two income households are common, which often leads to parents requiring assistance from nanny's and caretakers for their children. But, do you know exactly who you are hiring and if they have the relevant qualifications or experience?

Jenny Reid will be contributing to a monthly column in Hi-Tech Security Solutions discussing issues and solutions surrounding company and employee security.

The East Rand Community Relay for Life will be taking place on 23 & 24 March at Boksburg City Stadium.

iFacts is pleased to announce their support of this initiative and will be entering a team for the night race.

Jenny Reid, Director of iFacts, attended the ASIS Asia-Pacific Conference & Exhibition being hosted in Kuala Lumpur this week.

The conference addressed a full spectrum of topics in security management such as: supply chain security, loss prevention, hotel security, intellectual property, maritime piracy, terrorism, executive protection, internal theft and fraud, competitive intelligence, brand protection, physical security, cyber security, investigations, due diligence and global business issues.

Jenny attended the conference as she believes it is essential to offer a global service and to understand global risk. She spoke to delegates about screening in emerging markets and you can view her presentation after the jump.

There were 160 delegates in attendance and they came from the Far East countries, Australia, Middle East, Europe, USA and four from SA.

iFacts would like to wish all our clients and their families a Happy Diwali.

Jenny Reid recently presented at a Lowveld Chamber of Business networking breakfast. View her presentation here.

iFacts releases their 3rd quarter statistics. View our report for further information and some interesting findings. Some of these findings validate the neccessity to continue screening and highlight the importance of ensuring your company has sound security policies and procedures in place.

iFacts price list will be changing effective from 1 October 2011. We are also adding new services.Check out our services page.

Currently, the World Cup, taking place in South Africa, can be used as a prime example of how internal discord and deviant behavior can derail a team and often a business’ success. France fell to pieces thanks to an alleged internal snitch and England’s almost coup, by a disgruntled “employee”, was thwarted by his fellow teammates who seemed to know better about sticking together for a greater cause.

Many security fundi’s have had to provide safety measures for business travel and pondered the question, “Is company information safe when employees work away from the office?”, but largely due to an increase in employees working from home there has been a shift in focus.

Due to new technologies such as laptops, handheld devices and wireless access, rising property prices and a better work-life balance, many companies have incorporated work from home policies. In the USA people working from home has increased by over 50% in the last 20 years and the UK has even instituted a National Work from Home Day. It has been reported that 24% of those who work from home in the US work for an employer. Telecommuting is a growing trend.

Wednesday, August 25^th, marked another tragedy on South Africa’s fatal roads. Nine children were killed when a taxi driver allegedly jumped a boom gate and was struck by a train, in Blackheath, just outside Cape Town.

Many parents across South Africa rely on taxi’s and alternative transport to get their children to school and have faith that this will be done safely. Unfortunately, this is in blind faith. How can we be certain that the man behind the wheel has knowledge of basic road safety rules and a valid driver’s license?

With the recent tough economic conditions experienced the world over, it is not surprising that potential and current employees may be feeling the pinch and experiencing personal financial difficulties.

Research shows that South Africa has approximately 3 million employees who experience negative cash flow every month and over 4 million employees with bad credit records.

Many corporate companies ask whether employee debt can be considered their problem. Is it something they should be concerned about and is an employee’s private life any of its business. Well, it is.

One of the most serious threats to the success of a business is employee theft. Economic cycles have indicated that more difficult times, such as the current recession, will likely accelerate criminal activity ranging from robbery to fraud to embezzlement.

South Africa has become a hot bed of crime and fraudulent behavior and there are many places and people for whom we can lay blame. For many businesses and private residential estates, security is high on the agenda and outsourcing of these services is a given. Instead of placing blame, you can prevent criminal activity, by ensuring you know your security service provider and their staff.

Corporations across South Africa have to invest in outsourcing security services due to the high incidences of crime and fraud. Unfortunately, many security personnel are unqualified for these respective conditions.

Typical problems experienced by corporations are security officers appointed to premises, whose profile does not match the tasks they are supposed to perform, and questions about their integrity are raised. In some situations, clients are assured that the officers were subjected to verification tests, which is a prerequisite for employment with the security service provider, only to discover after a security-related incident, such tests were not in actual fact performed. Continuous integrity testing, which can take many forms, is the exception rather than the rule.

Many people are resorting to fibbing on their CV’s and supplying fraudulent documents as proof of their qualifications. Are you accepting such documentation at face value or do you head to the source for confirmation?

iFacts works to confirm qualifications at the source. Our array of services will assist in determining the validity of qualifications from Matric to degree level both locally and internationally. It is critical that these institutions and documents are deemed genuine, that the awarding body exists and that the grades and dates of attendance match those claimed by the person being checked.

Corporate Climate is the general feeling and atmosphere within an organisation that is mainly created by the attitudes of its managers towards their work, their staff and their customers and that can affect such things as productivity, creativity, and customer focus.

It has been reported that almost 1 in 3 people exaggerate or falsify the details in their CV. More and more applicants are taking desperate measures such as embellishing their credentials and misrepresenting their backgrounds in an effort to improve their chances of meeting job requirements, outshining their competitors and therefore securing an appointment for an interview.

There are so many components within a business that can affect your success within your industry.

A manager is defined as a person who has control or direction of an institution or business; OR a person who manages people, whether it be individually or as a group.

A manager is in a position to influence their workforce greatly, but what steps can a manager take in order to ensure he is influencing them in an appropriate and positive way?

Many entrepreneurs are under the impression that white collar crime, such as fraud, is exclusively reserved for large corporate companies. Despite fewer employees and smaller revenues, small businesses are more susceptible to crime. Fraud and corruption is rife across the continent and big corporate’s have the capacity to harbour the brunt of such cases, but for small and medium enterprises, it is a very different scenario, such incidents could shut down businesses.

iFacts has recently been accepted as a gold class member of the Security Association of South Africa. We are the first employee screening company to be accepted in this category.

Our clients are invited to join SASA Gauteng for a presentation by Dr Johan Burger, followed by a networking session at 3pm on Wednesday 27 July, at the Lion Enclosure, Johannesburg Zoo (Parkview).

iFacts/ The Orange is in the latest edition of the NSBC (National Small Business Chamber) Mag.

iFacts/The Orange appeared in this month's Broughton Report. Read the article on page 10 here.

Much media attention has of late focussed on the alleged chaos in the licence issuing process. Just how bad is it? Jenny Reid, iFact's resident fraud expert, investigates and reveals the bare bones truth behind the media hype. Yes, it’s true: more than half of South African driving licences are invalid, this according to the Department of Transport (DoT) itself. “The DoT has only started to go through about 10 percent of the seven million drivers’ licences in South Africa,” says Jenny Reid, a director of iFacts.