Handle Employee Dishonesty Consistently

Your employees should know what you define as dishonesty and what to expect if they are found to have acted in a dishonest manner. This has become more important because of compelling evidence that a substantial percentage of young people who are entering the retailing workforce are accustomed to cheating.
     A New York Times article described how University of Central Florida—America’s third-largest campus as measured by student enrollment—initiated a broad range of methods to curb dishonesty. The article reported that about 60% of college undergraduates admitted to cheating on assignments or exams.

• Decide on the degree of honesty you want your store to project. Does this sound to you like a strange suggestion, retailer? Well, the fact is that some customers prefer to deal with salespeople who are what I call Rascals. The Rascal exploits other people. Especially in individualistic cultures like the U.S., consumers are fascinated with famous rascals. When the retail personality you aim for includes “exciting” and your target markets include people from individualistic cultures, you might decide to have your salespeople project an image of testing the limits and squeezing around authority. Petty cheating is tolerated.
• Once you’ve decided on the degree of honesty you want your store to project, be as sure as you can that employees know your expectations. This in itself is a bit tricky, since retail owner/operators who tolerate or even encourage Rascal behavior may be unlikely to say that out loud. You can communicate your expectations through your own behavior. Do you fudge the truth when talking to employees and then laugh it off? Are you obvious about using store equipment and supplies for non-business purposes? And then there’s another layer of possible confusion: You might have different expectations of strict honesty for different types of employees. Maybe it’s fine for a salesperson to tell customers, “I’m 100% sure this product is ideally suited for you,” even if they aren’t 100% sure, but you don’t want your bookkeeper to say, “I’m sure our cashiers were 100% accurate yesterday,” when your bookkeeper really isn’t so sure.
• Because of these sources of confusion, also communicate your expectations via consequences. Have consistent consequences for any dishonesty that is not acceptable. Minimize the surprises. Provide your staff opportunities to discover what is okay and what’s not.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Analyze the Role the Customer Expects
Consider Publicizing Your Rascal Image
Fight Employee Theft with Expectations