Create a rule to check if an object is used before its deletion

Dear experts

a customer is asking for the creation of a new object to be used in the People Profile page.

They would like to have the full control of the object, this means they should be able to create, modify and also delete a record.

In case of deletion, they would like to have an error message in case the object they are trying to delete is used on some employee.

Is possible to manage this check in some way?

Thanks

Maristella