Applicant Integrity is a Challenge for Many Employers
Finding qualified applicants for open jobs is a real challenge, even more so when the labor market is tight. Then it becomes even more difficult to find applicants who have the desired levels of honesty and integrity.
Dishonest employees and those lacking in both integrity and work ethic can have a huge negative impact on the organizations for which they work and this is true for all levels of employees, from hourly employees all the way up to the highest paid executives. These employees don’t show up with a gun to rob you; but they rob you of money, property, data, time, profitability, and potentially even your reputation.
Employee fraud and theft have reached significant proportions in recent years – estimates are that losses exceed $50 billion annually. Those losses contribute to thousands of businesses failing each year. In the retail world, studies have shown that employees steal nearly ten times more than shoplifters and this can add as much as 15% to retail prices to cover the losses. Part-time employes are one third more likely to steal from employers than full-time employees. More than half of the employees believe managers tend to overlook dishonesty and about one third think dishonesty won’t be punished ever if caught.
This issue of employee dishonesty is present in the attitudes of some employees. When polled, 29% of employees think everybody steals and that they deserve the things they steal. Over 20% think the employers can afford it or won’t miss the items taken whether it’s cash, merchandise, data, or time. Reasons for stealing from employees who have been caught include:
• Being underpaid
• Their “high” personal overhead
• It was easy
• They were angry at the boss
• Others were getting away with it
This inclination to steal starts out quite often for many people when they are children. Cheating on tests starts in grade school and gets more subtle in high school and college. When students who steal and cheat enter the work force, very few of them suddenly become honest. The question then becomes, “how does the employer cope with this challenge of selecting only those applicants who have high levels of honesty, integrity, and work ethic”? Reference checks often are dead ends because past employers are reluctant to say anything, good or bad, about past employees. Obviously, organizations need help identifying people who are less likely to steal, be dishonest, and have questionable tendencies.
To help organizations reduce or mitigate the risk to their bottom line, our Step One Survey II® is designed to add another dimension to the screening phase of hiring new employees. It provides information they can use to hire employees who are honest, reliable, ethical, and hardworking. It’s a solution that helps find the right people to contribute to a company’s success – not jeopardize its future. The Step One Survey is a brief pre-hire assessment and screening tool that measures an individual’s basic work-related values early in the candidate selection process. It also provides valid insight into an applicant’s work ethic, reliability, integrity, propensity for substance abuse, and attitudes towards theft—including the theft of property, data, and time. For many organizations, the Step One Survey is the first screen that all applicants must pass before proceeding in the hiring process. By filtering candidates early in the process, this tool saves you time so that you can focus on hiring the right candidates that fuel the success of your organization.
The Step One Survey II isn’t the only tool in our toolbox. We have a suite of assessments for Emotional Intelligence, Core Competencies (used for selection, development, succession planning, and retention), Customer Service, Everything DiSC, and 360s as well as culture consulting, and a host of other training programs.
Check us out at www.GreatLakesProfiles.com. We’re here to help, reach out to us at [email protected] or call me at (248) 388-0697.