Personnel risk management assessment for newly emerging forms of employee crimes

Advances in digital technology have led to new forms of employee crime and organizational risk. Employee collusion with external criminals engaged in theft is increasing in the digital age. Digital storage of company and customer information puts both at risk of hacking, which may be aided, or accidentally facilitated, by insiders. Both negligent and risk‐taking employees may cause cyber‐safety violations, leading to accidents whose scope is multiplied by digital interconnectivity. Prospective employees can use digital software and social media sites to misrepresent their identities while creating bogus credentials and the misleading appearance of a work history. Disgruntled employees can engage in cyber‐sabotage of the organization, and cyber‐harassment of co‐workers. To address these emergent threats, new forms of personnel risk assessment can be developed and deployed. One such measure is the Reid Background Check Plus (RBCP). A meta‐analysis of 39 studies supporting the five dimensions of the new RBCP produced encouraging construct and criterion‐related validity evidence.