A recent survey conducted by the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM) revealed employers are increasingly requiring all prospective employees to take online personality or integrity tests in hopes of weeding out dishonest or morally incompetent applicants. With unemployment rates as high as 18.7% in CA alone (Washington Post), employers have the luxury of hand-selecting their employees to help reduce stealing and other criminal behavior in the workplace. These pre-screening tests are already being utilized by 19% of the 300 organizations surveyed by IOFM and they are on the rise. The survey also found integrity and honesty testing of all employees is most common among hospitals (37%), security firms (32%), and entertainment establishments (27%).
“This kind of test, in combination with appropriate information-gathering about prospective employees, could be a useful predictive tool,” according to Elizabeth Rowe, a professor at University of Florida Levin College of Law, in a recent research study on causes of workplace theft.
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