How to Increase Corporate Security and Employee Productivity with an Identity Monitoring Benefit
Protecting employees from cyber threats and identity theft is increasingly becoming a corporate responsibility.
Every year, HR and Benefits Managers are faced with the task of simultaneously communicating cost increases and benefit reductions while finding ways to improve employee morale. At the same time, those focused on your corporate security are busy fighting the endless war game of trying to keep bad actors from exploiting their organization for gain.
To improve organizational security while improving (maintaining) employee productivity and morale you need to first protect your most valuable asset – your people!
Let’s start with the fact that the bad actors “Hackers” understand that roughly 76% of your employees use the same password, or a variation thereof, across every system they log into both on and off your corporate networks. These individuals know there is a high probability of being able to exploit your organization by first exploiting your employees.
Your organization may appreciate and may have even calculated the potential financial liabilities it would incur if faced with a data breach. However, it’s safe to assume that you haven’t focused on quantifying – until now – those hard and soft costs associated with identity theft within your employee population.
CNN Money estimates that identity fraud hits a new victim every two seconds
How Identity Monitoring Benefits Enhance Employee Productivity
We’ve touched on the tie between personal identity theft and corporate security. Now, let’s now focus on productivity and costs.
The Federal Trade Commission estimates that it takes roughly 200 hours for an individual to resolve issues arising from a case of identity theft or fraud. The unfortunate reality is that employees are usually stuck dealing with these issues during normal business hours. Organizations are unknowing burdened with the hard and soft costs associated with an employee’s lost productivity while dealing with a stolen identity issue.
How much does a case of identity theft cost your organization in lost productivity? Let’s do the math. Using an annual average salary of $55,000 equates to an hourly rate of roughly $26.44 per hour. For an employee making $55,000 a year, the cost in lost productivity is $5,288 ($26.44 per hour times 200 hours.) With a fringe benefit rate of 30%, that cost increases nearly $7,000 per identity theft incident. With the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimating that near 7% of the population in 2014 had experienced some type of identity theft, these numbers add up quickly. An organization of 100 employees can expect a $50,000 hit in lost productivity annually, an organization of 1000 employee organization will see a nearly $500,000 hit and an organization of 10,000 employee will see a $5,000,000 hit.
It’s easy to see how identity theft is costing organizations billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. By enrolling in ID Agent’s Identity Monitoring Program, your employees will be provided a tax-free benefit and will be covered by our Comprehensive Identity Restoration Services. Through limited power of attorney, we will resolve handle their identity issues for them, significantly limiting the potential for lost productivity.
Advantages of Offering an Identity Monitoring Benefit
More and more commercial businesses and government agencies are proactively offering their employees an Identity Monitoring Benefit in their corporate benefit packages. Here are some of the reasons why:
1. Compared to traditional benefits like medical and disability insurance, an Identity Monitoring benefit is relatively inexpensive. Costs typically range from between $5 to $20 per month for an employee, depending on the benefits offered.
- It’s now Tax Free. Already very affordable, the IRS now allows employees to exclude Identity Monitoring from their taxable gross income regardless of whether the employer has suffered a breach.
- Introducing an employer-paid Identity Monitoring Benefit can soften the blow of employee cost increases in medical insurance. It’s a fact of life, your medical insurance costs will rise every year. Most businesses are passing some or all of the increased costs to employees. By offering a low cost employer-paid plan to employees, your message is not all about taking benefits away and that you care about their personal wellbeing.
- Having an Identity Monitoring Benefit enhances organizational cybersecurity. If an employee suffers an identity theft, there is a significant chance that the employee’s email credentials were stolen in the process. According to the 2016 Data Breach Investigations Reportconducted by Verizon, 63% of all breaches in 2015 we the result of a compromised or stolen credential. Stolen corporate email credentials are often leveraged to hack corporate networks. A sound identity monitoring program will alert an organization when a stolen corporate credential is discovered, allowing them to take remedial steps before hackers can exploit their networks.
- An Identity Monitoring Benefit improves productivity. By transferring the 200 hours of work to restore an identity theft from the employee to the ID Monitoring provider, it’s not hard to see how the benefit will dramatically improve employee productivity and morale.
Find out how implementing an Identity Monitoring program pays for itself – Connect with us now.