Running a thorough background check before you hire a new employee will help you identify dishonest ones. But, it may not help you identify intelligent individuals who were not caught in previous jobs while being dishonest. Dishonest workplace behavior can be a severe threat to your business, and you should put your foot down if you face any such behavior. Here are a few ways to keep on top of dishonest employees and protect your organization.
Trust is the foundation of any successful team. When dishonesty rears its ugly head, it can quickly erode workplace relationships and performance.
As a manager, you may one day need to address an employee who has been deceptive or lied about important matters. This situation requires thoughtful action to resolve the issue and restore trust.
In this article I’ll cover proven techniques to handle dishonesty in your workplace in a fair constructive way. Follow these best practices to get to the truth, correct bad behavior, and cultivate an ethical culture on your team.
Why Workplace Dishonesty Must Be Addressed
When employees are dishonest, it can’t simply be ignored. Deception often starts small but grows over time if no action is taken. Even minor lies can spiral into larger integrity issues and deep mistrust.
Here are some of the major risks of allowing dishonesty to fester
- Damaged morale as team members lose faith in each other
- Increased dysfunction as concealment and avoidance take over
- Poor decisions due to incomplete or misleading information
- Lost productivity from gossip, speculation, and distraction
- Co-workers follow the example and loosen their own integrity
Falsehoods that directly affect your business, like lying about work completed or covering up mistakes, can also impact your reputation, finances, and legal liability.
That’s why it’s so important to address dishonesty decisively when it occurs. The first step is gathering complete and accurate information.
Investigate Discrepancies Thoroughly
If there are signals an employee might be lying or deceiving you or the team, discreetly investigate and document the situation before acting. Look for proof of any false statements through:
- Reviewing emails, records, or documents
- Observing their workflow and behavior
- Following up on facts independently
- Getting accounts from other staff involved
Solid evidence is necessary both to justify any disciplinary measures and to avoid wrongly accusing someone. If you discover major untruths or fraud, consult HR and consider involving legal counsel.
Only approach the employee once you have all the facts. Avoid acting on hearsay, emotions, or limited information that doesn’t give the full picture. Take time to build an airtight understanding.
Assess the Impact on Your Team
Before addressing the dishonesty, reflect on how it has affected others on your team. Consider questions like:
- How severely has this harmed trust within the group?
- What dangers or costs could come from this ongoing deception?
- How are individuals and the team’s performance suffering?
- Could this escalate if I do not intervene?
Thoughtfully examining the impacts will help determine how to have a constructive discussion with the employee involved. Be fair in separating minor fibs from major falsehoods that severely undermine the work.
Have a Serious Dialogue About the Behavior
Once you’ve gathered evidence and perspective, have a one-on-one meeting to directly but calmly discuss the dishonesty.
Follow these best practices for an effective conversation:
- Set a private meeting time so they don’t feel ambushed.
- Frame it as a serious issue, but don’t approach angrily.
- Explain the facts of what you have uncovered.
- Allow them to share their perspective. Listen with empathy.
- Make it clear why deception harms your team and goals.
- Ask what led to the dishonesty and what could be done differently.
- Let them know falsehoods will have consequences going forward.
- End with next steps for rebuilding broken trust.
The goal is creating an open dialogue where they feel heard, yet understand lying will not be tolerated. They may come clean about misunderstandings or ethical lapses and commit to improving.
If not, enforce consistent discipline per company policies. But also discuss pathways for earning back trust through changed behavior over time.
Implement Consequences While Leaving Room for Growth
Once you’ve addressed the issue head on, put formal consequences in place, such as:
- Issuing a warning letter for their personnel file
- Requiring ethics training or counseling
- Losing management trust and privileges
- Taking away a bonus or raise
- Temporary probation or demotion
- Suspension or termination for serious violations
The level of discipline should fit the severity and repeat nature of the deception. However, even serious lies can be growth opportunities if the employee makes earnest change.
Provide support and coaching to help them improve integrity. But make it clear future falsehoods will not be tolerated. If change does not happen, escalating discipline or termination may become necessary.
Foster an Ethical Workplace Culture
Along with addressing individual issues, examine whether cultural factors enable dishonest behaviors to take root in your team.
Strengthen integrity across the workplace by:
- Personally modelling complete transparency and trustworthiness
- Making ethics a regular discussion topic at meetings
- Rewarding honesty and speaking up about concerns
- Having zero tolerance for retaliation against truth-tellers
- Adding ethics and integrity metrics on performance reviews
- Hiring and promoting based on alignment with your values
- Acting swiftly when any minor deception occurs to stop escalation
By taking dishonesty seriously and promoting truthfulness, you build an environment where deception stands out and is addressed. Employees will have the confidence to do business out in the open.
Move Forward Stronger Through Enforcement and Education
No workplace will ever be completely free of lies. But cultures with low deception thrive, while frequent dishonesty becomes toxic.
That’s why enforcing consequences for falsehoods, while also coaching towards ethical behaviour, is so essential. This balanced approach minimizes harm, resolves current issues, and fosters truth-telling moving forward.
Though dishonesty has short-term gains, truth and transparency build trust and performance over the long haul. With enforcement, education and engagement, your team can come through difficult situations even more united around your shared values.
By taking the right steps to address deception and reinforce integrity, you can steer your workplace culture in a more positive direction. While eliminating dishonesty entirely is impossible, you have immense power to make it a rare exception rather than the norm.
Get proof of dishonest behavior
Before charging an employee of any suspected behavior, you should get proof. You should never accept another employee’s word blindly. By doing so, you can put your company at risk of a potential lawsuit. Obtain proof legally after taking into account privacy regulations. It is essential to consult a lawyer as a means of ensuring that your actions comply with laws and regulations.
Implement a time tracker
Using apps to track employee hours is a great way to find out if your employees are being dishonest. Using time tracking systems is an effective way to help you monitor the actual time your employees are spending on their tasks and whether they are in the habit of inflating their hours. By doing so, you will reduce time-card theft and increase your company’s productivity levels.
One Way to Protect Yourself against Dishonest Employees
How do you deal with dishonesty in the workplace?
Establish a clear code of conduct. Employees need to have the opportunity to research and learn what the office rules and responsibilities are. Not having a clear rule book may make it difficult to assess a case of dishonesty in the workplace. Be consistent in establishing and enforcing workplace policies.
What should one do if they cannot hear anything?
Sudden hearing loss in one or both ears may indicate an infection, ear wax, a head trauma, a tumor, or other health problems. If you start to experience muffled hearing or hearing loss in one ear, you should contact a physician, preferably a physician specializing in diseases of the ear. He or she can examine the issue and refer you to an audiologist to properly evaluate and diagnose the hearing problem. You will be treated accordingly.
Is dishonesty a problem in the workplace?
David DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and the author of Emotional Success: The Power of Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride. Dishonesty in the workplace can be a major problem for any business. Recent estimates suggest that theft and fraud by employees reduce the profits of U.S. businesses by $50 billion annually.
How to handle dishonest employees?
The simple answer of how to handle dishonest employees is: get rid of them. A successful organization can have zero tolerance for dishonest or corrupt employees. Consider these suggestions for how you identify potentially dishonest employees, and then how to prevent them in the future. 1. Document your cultural values
