Can You Trust This Person?
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In today's society, information can be shared online, on a phone, or with a picture – in the blink of an eye. And in an increasingly competitive economy, a loss of copyright protection, or the leaking of trade secrets, can have a dramatic and swift impact on your long-term viability.Your information is critical, and each day you entrust your employees with high-level, strategic data. But can you really trust your employees? The United States Chamber of Commerce found that companies lose $50 billion each year to employee theft and fraud, and the FBI identified employee theft as the fastest-growing crime in the country.
Employees who violate non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements, spend their days surfing the web, or creating distractions for their co-workers are a potential liability and cost waiting to happen. And a recent study found that companies with a high-integrity culture are 67 percent less likely to have instances of workplace misconduct.
So, how can your business avoid these integrity issues in the workplace?
Integrity interviewing can help you manage risk and properly assess a candidate before choosing to bring that candidate aboard. Here are five tips to help you gauge candidate integrity:
1. Be forthright. Very similar to many job interviews, integrity interviewing adds another dimension to the process. The interviewer will notify a candidate during the process that the interview is being conducted to assess that candidate's ability to be honest and candid, rather than assessing job skills.
2. Adjust your expectations. For integrity interviewing to be successful, the interviewer must ask the proper questions, in the right way. Once the answers have been provided by the candidate, the interviewer is relied upon to assess the response and the way it is delivered, to determine whether the response is honest. Interviewers may need additional training to properly search for these cues, or you may want to bring in an integrity interview specialist.
3. Look for visual cues. Integrity interviewers should look for visual cues, including a candidate's body language, eye movements or intonation and vocal pauses, during the interview process.
4. Be careful. There is a fine line between determining integrity and badgering a candidate. When conducting an integrity interview, be careful not to badger or intimidate an honest candidate. Using a seasoned professional to conduct integrity interviews can help prevent unnecessary stress.
5. Clearly define your company policy. From the start, be very clear about your company's policy on disclosure and non-compete clauses (if applicable). Make sure you have a documented policy on Internet use, social media, and proprietary information, and distribute that policy to all candidates. Provide an opportunity for the candidate to ask any questions about the policy, and provide ample opportunity to ensure a full understanding of any legal ramifications that could occur if the policy is not adhered to.
Take some extra initiative to protect your business now and hire employees who exude integrity, and you could be setting yourself up for greater long-term success.
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