Content area
Full Text
Lying at work may cost more than integrity
I'd say that in general, most people can agree in clear, black and white terms on which types of dishonesty are okay and not okay. Lying to protect a loved one's feelings - okay. Stealing a car or large sum of money and letting someone else take the fall for it - not okay.
But what about taking Post-It notes from the office supply closet to use at home? Or stealing time from your employer by spending worktime on Fametracker.com so you can keep up with the latest celebrity gossip? Okay or not okay?
How people would act in those situations is a bit fuzzier and grayer, and that's what Psychtests.com sought to reveal with its honesty test.
Although statistics vary when it comes to how many dollars employers lose as a result of employee dishonesty - time theft, actual theft and other lies - Psychtests.com believes a good annual estimate is in the several millions.
In addition, studies show that in companies where testing has been implemented, theft and other forms of dishonest behaviors have decreased dramatically. Research also has found a reasonably strong link between integrity test results and overall job performance.
So would you be interested in saving your company millions of dollars and improving overall employee performance by implementing mandatory honesty testing? You might be after reading Psychtests.com's results.
Of more than 1,600 test-takers, the average score on the honesty test was 70, indicating that while most people may...