HR Guide to Workplace Fraud and Criminal Behaviour

"It is reliably estimated that over 70 percent of all job applications contain misleading information and that, if the potential employers knew the truth, in half of these cases the candidates would have been rejected. The level of deception on prepared biographies is probably even higher." If that was the limit of deception at work faced by HR and line managers, then maybe things wouldn't be too bad. But deception isn't limited simply to the area of recruitment; there's also absenteeism, minor theft, misuse of information, not to mention the tissue of half-truths and falsehoods thrown up by an employee seeking to camouflage theft, responsibility for a fatal accident or a multi-million-pound fraud. This guide shows: why people lie and how the psychology of even the most hardened liars works against them; how to detect deception in the way someone behaves, what they write and what they say; how to design your processes, procedures - even your forms - to discourage and catch deception; the secrets of planning, preparing and succeeding in interviews with anyone suspected of misconduct (and that includes clearing false allegations as much as trapping the deceitful); the basis for an effective recruitment and employment procedure, including screening, recruitment interviewing, protecting sensitive posts, preventing defections and exit interviewing; and how to develop an ethical corporate culture that encourages honesty and discourages deception, manipulation and corruption. HR managers have an important part to play both in ensuring the ethical development of any organization and in protecting that organization from dishonest employees. Mike Comer's book offers a guide to meeting these responsibilities head on.