What Does Bondable Employee Mean?

Employees who can be trusted to handle cash or valuables are bondable.

Some businesses must entrust employees to handle valuable merchandise or cash, or otherwise work in a position of trust. A bonded employee is one who is guaranteed by a bonding company never to commit any theft, fraud or other misadventure that may cause a serious financial loss for the company. While some individuals may be "bondable," others are not, and the difference is a serious consideration for many prospective employers.

Insurance and Bonding

A business must insure itself against many different kinds of loss. One possible loss, for example, is theft by its own employees. By the terms set down by the insurance company, which is taking the risk of this kind of loss, the business must entrust certain jobs to employees who are bonded.

Employee Bonds

A bonding company extends a guarantee that an individual will not deliberately cause a financial loss for the company or will perform a job as promised. The bond is a legally enforceable document that requires the bonding company to compensate the business that purchased the bond -- in case that a theft or other problem occurs.

Bonding and Risk

The bond lays off the risk of employee malfeasance from the employer to the bonding company. In turn, a bond guarantees an insurance company that it won't have to compensate the business in case of certain losses. Insurance companies can make bonding a condition of writing insurance policies for companies considered high-risk for employee theft or fraud.

Bondable Employees

A bondable employee is one who can be bonded. The employee must have no criminal record, or at the very least no convictions for theft or fraud. The bonding company runs a complete background check on the employee before it will sell the bond. These background checks use easily accessible, nationwide information databases. If there is any indication that the employee might present a risk, then the employee will not be bondable.

Job Applications

Job applications for certain businesses will ask if you are bondable. They may be banks, jewelry stores, delivery companies, casinos, or any other business in which you may have to handle money or valuables. If you have to answer this question, you should, of course, give an honest response. The company will find out in time if you are bondable or not, and if you answer incorrectly, it also has grounds to dismiss you -- even if you are not hired for a bonded position.

References

• riskVue; Fidelity Bonds: The Employee Dishonesty Bond; Nancy S. Flury; December 2003
• Nonprofit Accounting Basics; Employee Bonding; Christine Colburn