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Integrity assessment in the workplace

If a person expects to succeed, they will strive to realise this expectancy.

The prevalence of crime in the workplace pervades all aspects of business activity and severely affects employer/employee relations. Much has been said about the topic, but in effect, little has been achieved in resolving these issues.

To address this, one has to understand the basics of human behaviour. Behaviour is driven by perceptions and attitude. Should employees have the perception that they are entitled to steal, but more importantly, that they can get away with it, the prevailing attitude will be one of willingness to steal in the work environment.

Robert Vroom’s well known Expectancy Theory is applicable: if a person expects to succeed (with theft for instance) they will strive to realise this expectancy.

How are these perceptions formed? There are four factors involved. Genetic, namely the employee’s genetic predisposition; learned behaviour; environmental factors; and triggers. Genetics and learned behaviour is what one acquires when recruiting an employee. This is the reason why pre-employment screening is so important. The only factor that management can exercise any influence over is the behaviour displayed by employees in the work environment, not outside.

By managing employee behaviour in their own environment, management can limit the expectancy to succeed that may exist amongst employees. Regarding triggers, one can do very little about this.

Managing behavior

Managing behaviour may sound Orwellian, but in reality it amounts to nothing more than effective management of workers in their work environment. However, many line managers do not believe that managing unacceptable behaviour is part of their responsibilities.

They believe that the HR or security departments should deal with unacceptable behaviour. This, unfortunately, is not the case. Managing unacceptable behaviour should and must take place in the work environment as and when it manifests itself, and therefore performed by line management.

Behaviour management is simply a total systems approach in the management of workers, utilising scientific methodology, and is applied throughout the entire life cycle of the employee. An important pre-requisite for any behaviour management programme is the total commitment of senior management themselves to integrity and ethical behaviour. It stands to reason that all efforts to coerce staff to behave ethically will be negated if senior management is perceived to act unethically.

Methodology

Behaviour management starts with the recruitment process, and only ends after the employee’s termination. Only applicants that meet certain integrity criteria are appointed, and unacceptable behaviour is discouraged throughout the employee’s life cycle.

Recruitment

Because one employs the genetic makeup of an employee as well as all learned behaviour up until that moment, it is imperative to have an effective screening process in place. This process will utilise several sub-processes to eliminate those individuals who do not meet the job requirements. Several instruments are available that may be applied, such as:

* A comprehensive application document.

* The personal interview.

* Application of screening instruments – various instruments are available, from psychometric instruments to polygraph and personal information verification.

It is advisable to consider psychometric instruments in a screening situation because they provide a broader integrity profile of the applicant. However, should the employer need to confirm specific issues, utilising a polygraph examination is advisable.

Appointment

Care must be taken that the individual is bound to an ethical framework on the day of appointment. This ensures there is an effective contract in place between the employer and employee. The formulation of clauses in this agreement should facilitate the use of assessment instruments such as a polygraph examination.

Induction process

During the induction process, the new employee should be made aware of the ethical requirements of their position, over and above the technical requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, an explanation of the extent to which the employee will be subject to scrutiny regarding their behaviour in the workplace.

Capacity building

All training provided to the individual throughout their employment life cycle should also address integrity. Training courses are available that focus on integrity and behavioural issues in the workplace.

Managing behavior

It is important to create the perception that no worker will be able to succeed with unacceptable behaviour. To this end, the polygraph examination is unparalleled in its effectiveness to create what is referred to as a mechanical conscience in the workplace.

This is achieved with regular polygraph screening performed seemingly in a random fashion. The employee is required to confirm that since their appointment or previous polygraph examination, no predefined acts of unacceptable behaviour was committed.

Honest employees can be provided with a certificate to attest to the fact that they have successfully completed their polygraph assessment. It is also important to keep track of the assessments performed on individual employees.

It is incumbent on managers to immediately and effectively deal with acts of unacceptable behaviour irrespective of how minor or insignificant they may seem. To equip especially first and second tier managers with the ability to deal with the incidents as they occur, training of managers should be undertaken to empower them.

Incident-related polygraph examinations can be done to assist in establishing the chain of evidence. This eliminates innocent employees at an early stage in the investigation of serious incidents of unacceptable behaviour such as theft, fraud and corruption.

Termination process

An often neglected aspect of the management of behaviour is the assessment of the potential risk an employee may pose after they have left the company. At the very least the possible risks should be identified and possible counter measures be put in place.

Dynamic code of conduct

To be able to effectively deal with unacceptable behaviour, a dynamic code of conduct is essential. This implies that all employees must demonstrate their acceptance of the code of conduct. Moreover, the code of conduct should be augmented with precise instructions regarding its interpretation to avoid their subjective application based on the employee’s own interpretation. Perceived interpretation is a huge source of discontent amongst employees.

Rewards and recognition

An important aspect of the behaviour management programme is the recognition and acknowledgement of acceptable behaviour. To assist with the recognition process, certificates are issued to those employees who have successfully completed their polygraph assessments. This should be handed over at staff meetings for example to publicly acknowledge acceptable behaviour. Various other options can be explored to further recognise and reward acceptable behaviour.

Communication

An effective communication programme is indispensable. This could consist of a newsletter or poster campaign. The main purpose is to focus employees on the necessity to display acceptable behaviour and to give recognition to those displaying acceptable behaviour.

But to also bring all acts, as well as the results of unacceptable behaviour, to general notice.

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