When asked WHY, after conducting pre-hire assessments of candidates, and drug screening prior to hire, the client still has issues with employees who have been long term employees in the areas of ethics, drugs and morality...
The reason is relatively simple…
These are issues that need to be re-enforced over the years regardless of how we have been raised, taught and/or shown. Our personal situations change over time, and there are temptations and challenges that we are confronted with that test our resolve in these areas. Personally, I have observed that mid-life crisis years (male and female) increase the pressures on individuals and a number of people have changed or relinquished their values to regain where they had envisioned themselves to be at this stage in their career or life. Many times, this is because they possibly have felt that they have not attained the success they had expected to achieve at this stage of their life, or financial challenges have arisen at a stressful period of time, and many other reasons.
This is why it is essential that companies have reinforcement programs to remind existing employees of policies and standards that need to be followed. In a fortune 100 where I worked, after a several hour session of re-enforcement each year, we had to sign anti-trust and ethics standards each year.
These kinds of programs need to be implemented yearly as they can then communicate changes in existing programs, or address questions that employees might have encountered through the course of the year.
In January of this year, at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a paper was included with the title of: Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior . Maybe this is ONE reason why so many recent instances of CEO and Senior Executives violating laws or absconding with money, in one way or another.
Ethics in particular is a major problem. Obviously, the well publicized cases in the past of Bendix’s
Agee, Enron, and what you can find in this article: The Corporate Scandal Sheet
And a recent Wall Street Journal article: Behind a CEO's Departure: An Ouster or Resignation?
Best Buy: Best Buy Probes CEO Relationship
MF Global : Fast, Furious at MF Global
Best Buy: Best Buy Probes CEO Relationship
MF Global : Fast, Furious at MF Global
Allan Stanford: Prosecutor Sums Up: Stanford Lied for Decades
AIJ Investment Advisors (Japan): Japan launches probe of all advisory firms in wake of AIJ case
Russell Wasendorf of Peregrine said in a statement that he forged documents and lied to regulators.
Hong Kong Billionaires Charged With Bribery
If you are not addressing these regularly, then do not be surprised when employees "fall off the wagon"….so to speak. These examples above, are the high profile ones, imagine the lower level employees and the numbers that exist there. The retail industry is well aware of the theft and losses involved. Does your Employee Manual address these issues? Are they not part of your core values? Is this not a key element to building human asset value and sustainability? So if you are not doing assessments during pre-hire, don't you think you should? Once people are on-board, re-enforcement programs are required.
So the question is: What are you and your company doing to address these issues on a regular basis?
