Did you know 20% of American employees take home supplies from work? According to a survey by Spherion, not only do they take office supplies that aren’t theirs, but two thirds of them don’t even feel bad about stealing.
Maybe the numbers are not that high, but as a business owner you want to surround yourself with people who you can trust and respect.
Trying to identify misconduct in the workplace can be difficult when you don’t know where to look.
And while taking home some staples or post-it notes isn’t life threatening, it is unethical. And you shouldn’t tolerate unethical behavior on your team when it comes to your business or clients.
Reputation is everything and you can’t afford to lose it.
How to Identify Misconduct Behavior in Your Employees
When you conduct interviews to hire new people for your team, you can collect from a variety of sources to gain a better understanding of each candidate.
For example, you can rely on:
- Resumés
- Social media profiles
- Word of mouth
- Recommendations from previous workplaces
- Your instinct
However, no matter how careful you are, you can’t always predict unethical behaviors in potential candidates. Sometimes you hire that person and find out he’s not who you thought he was.
But, most likely you’re busy building your business and not always having time to investigate what’s going on at an execution level.
What you can do though, is to identify behaviors. Here are the most common misconducts that happen in the workplace:
Stealing
Taking home even the smallest of office supplies, which don’t belong to your employees, is considered stealing.
Delivering confidential information about your company to third parties is also stealing – since your employees probably signed a confidentiality agreement.
Personal Use of Company’s Property
Using company property such as using Wi-Fi, mobile phones or landlines for making personal calls shouldn’t be done at work.
As well, searching information online and going on social media accounts like Facebook or Twitter for personal use is also a form of misconduct.
Absence and Lateness
Do you have employees that consistently arrive late to work?
How about those that call in sick a little bit too often?
These types of behaviors are rules of misconduct and can hurt your company in the long run.
It’s a common thing among employees to feel like they’re entitled to take home office supplies, make a personal call, or arrive late for work.
And why not? Everyone does it. What ‘s the big deal, right?
Well, it is a big deal. Not respecting your business by arriving late or missing work means your employees are not respecting you as a business owner.
And while you might think letting a worker off the hook a few times is fine, behavior like this doesn’t stop.
You can’t have an easy attitude if you always allow this kind of behavior in some employees. You have to correct it and create engagement with your team. When they know they are a part of your company, there will be less misconduct from your employees.
So, make sure to set an example and create a company atmosphere people want to work in – and where they respect and trust their leader.
What kind of misconduct have you seen in your workplace? Let us know in the comments.