According to a popular book on lies, by renowned Harvard Ph.D Bella DePaulo, on average, most people lie once a day. Based on that, how many lies do you think your employees have told you?
Most of the lies we tell are harmless and done with good intentions. People tell white lies to avoid confrontation, “I’m okay with your decision”, or to be kind to a friend, “I’m sure they’ll like your cooking.”
But that’s not the end of it. A business loses roughly 5% of its revenue due to fraud every year, according to The Association of Certified Fraud Examiner’s survey. Lies impact your organization’s credibility, workforce integrity and team work, too.
If you knew that every one of your employees has lied at least once during their employment, what would you do? Gut-reaction is to fire or reprimand them. But that’s not always the best option. Besides, you can’t fire everyone.
Here are 4 Steps to Protect Your Business from Lies and Deceit
- Spot the Liars. Record their Lies on their Personnel Files
Record every proven lie you hear of. Take note of everything, including who lied, about what, why, the people affected and the dates. Record complaints from colleagues and customers, too.
You might think this is too much, but you’ll need this data later on if you have no choice but to fire these difficult employees.
- Hone Your BS Detector
Don’t believe everything your employees say. Learn to double check reports, invoices, and all important files they submit. Trust me, the extra work is way better than dealing with a fraudulent sale complaint—or losing hundreds in fake OT claims.
If you’re totally bad at detecting lies, take this lie spotting quiz. Learning to spot liars will also improve your ability to deal with communication problems in the workplace.
- Confront the Liar in Private
It’s bad form to confront a liar in front of the team. Besides, confronting them will just start a never-ending he said, she said argument.
Choose your words carefully, as well. Don’t start with phrases like, “Do you expect me to believe…” or “Why did you lie about….” Phrases like that will put them on the defensive.
It’s easier to solve communication issues in the workplace if you give difficult employees a chance to come clean and explain themselves. Once they tell you the whole story, probe for their motivations for lying. Did they feel pressured to lie? Did they lie to save face?
Then ask yourself, “Is this the first lie or has this happened before?” If it’s a one-time lapse in judgment, and no major problem came out of it, then perhaps you can find it in your heart to forgive.
- Gut Check
Be honest, can you trust that employee again? Do you really believe he won’t do it again? If you still feel uneasy around them for whatever reason—even after they apologized—then perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate your working relationship.
Your work relationship has been tarnished. It’ll take time before you can both work together again, so for now it might be best to transfer him to another team.
Emphasize Your Expectations on Honesty and Integrity in the Workplace
I’m all for giving difficult employees another chance. But not without a serious talk.
Advise offenders that lying is a serious offense, and one that you won’t tolerate a second time around. If what they lied about impacted the business in any way, like failure to complete a project on time, manipulating sales commissions, explain how their transgressions has jeopardized their job and opportunities for advancement.
© 2015 Incedo Group, LLC
