Pre-employment screening to weed out "bad apples"

Specialists who study theft and other illegal activity in thw work place agree that some type of pre-employment screening is an important preventive step. Three procedures that have been used widely are the interview, the polygraph test and attitude measurement tests for surveys. Integrity tests provide the employer with insight into the prospective employee's attitude about issues such as stealing, drug and alcohol abuse, and violence. The tests help to identify what the applicant views as ordinary, normal acceptable behavior. The pre-employment attitude-measurement survey is not a panacea, but these surveys do identify the vast majority of individuals with a tendency to be hostile, to steal or to abuse drugs or alcohol.