Omnicor’s assessments reveal red flags before they cost you time, trust, or money.
Integrity in the workplace isn’t just a slogan on a mug or a rule in a handbook. It appears in our daily choices, often in grey areas where right and wrong aren’t always clear. People at all levels balance ambition with ethics daily. Do we manipulate the numbers or stand by them? Should we cut corners for speed or build trust in the long term?
A Brief History of Integrity Testing
Integrity tests first appeared in the 1950s as “honesty tests,” asking people direct questions about theft or rule-breaking (Reid, 1957). When polygraphs were banned in the U.S. during the late ’80s, paper-and-pencil versions took off. By the 1990s, research showed they could predict counterproductive behaviours and overall job performance (Ones et al., 1993; Sackett & Wanek, 1996).
Over time, two main types of integrity tests emerged. Overt tests ask direct questions about honesty and rule-breaking, while covert tests are less obvious in their questioning. Instead, they look at underlying traits such as conscientiousness and dependability, which are strongly linked to ethical behaviour.
In South Africa, integrity testing has its own story. The Employment Equity Act set strict requirements in that tests had to be valid, reliable, fair, and certified by the HPCSA. That last part is changing. The 2022 Amendment Act (effective 2025) drops the HPCSA certification requirement. However, assessments still need to be fair, valid, and reliable.
The Cost of Integrity Lapses in South Africa
In 2023, local South African businesses lost over R3.3 billion to fraud and related financial crimes, and even after an 18% drop in 2024, losses still sat at around R2.7 billion (SABRIC, 2024). On top of that, for every R1 lost to fraud, organisations typically spend another R3.64 on recovery, investigations, and admin costs (LexisNexis, 2024). SMEs are hit especially hard, with South African firms losing roughly 5% of annual revenue to fraud, and each case averaging around R2 million in damages (Duja, 2024).
Why Integrity Matters
When you look at the numbers, it is no surprise that integrity has become a top concern for leaders. A recent global survey found that 97% of leaders believe integrity is crucial for corporate success (EY, 2022). Workplaces that promote integrity tend to have staff who are higher in trust, collaborate better, and have strong productivity. Employees who believe their leaders act ethically are more engaged, loyal, and willing to go the extra mile.
The flip side? When integrity slips, the fallout is real. Individuals may cut corners or shift blame, leaders lose credibility, and teams start hiding information. At an organisational level, these small cracks can snowball into reputational damage, compliance failures, financial loss, and even legal consequences.
Ot Omnicor, our own data tells a similar story. In nearly 10,000 candidates assessed, about 1 in 10 raised serious concerns around integrity. Some key red flags include:
• Manipulation (1 in 6): Using others for personal gain, eroding trust and teamwork.
• Management Integrity (1 in 11): When trust in leadership is low, tension rises.
• Behaviour (1 in 19): Negative conduct patterns that escalate over time.
• Work Ethic (1 in 21): Weak responsibility and motivation, leading to poor performance.
• Attribution Style Index (1 in 22): Shifting blame onto others, leaving teams powerless to improve.
The Business Impact of Using Assessments
This data helps point to a bigger truth: that integrity is not just about values but business outcomes. Integrity assessments help aid recruitment by sifting out potentially risky candidates before they are hired or promoted. Hiring just one person who lacks integrity can lead to years of hidden expenses in lost productivity, team conflict, and replacement costs. In fact, replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary, depending on their role (SHRM, 2022). That is before you account for the hidden costs of team disruption and lost trust. Combining integrity insights with problem-solving, cognitive, and personality assessments helps create a holistic picture of a person’s likely job performance. The result? Confident hiring and stronger leadership development. Omnicor partners with organisations to turn integrity from a value into measurable, actionable decisions.
Want to learn more? Contact Candice Masterson, Senior Psychometrist at Omnicor (candice@omnicor.co.za), with over 12 years’ experience helping leaders and teams unlock their potential.
View the Employee Assessments page to learn more: https://employee-psychometric-assessments.omnicor.co.za/
References
• Reid, J. E. (1957). The Reid Report. Chicago, IL: Reid Psychological Systems.
• Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Schmidt, F. L. (1993). “Comprehensive meta-analysis of integrity test validities.” Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(4), 679–703.
• Sackett, P. R., & Wanek, J. E. (1996). “New developments in the use of measures of honesty integrity and conscientiousness for personnel selection.” Personnel Psychology, 49(4), 787–829.
• EY. (2022). Global Integrity Report 2022.
• Deloitte. (2023). Trust: Increasingly hard to win, easier than ever to lose. Deloitte Insights.
• Institute of Leadership & Management. (2021). The truth about trust: Honesty, integrity and leadership.
• Springer. (2024). Business Integrity: Key to performance and retention. In Ethical Business Leadership and Corporate Success.
• SHRM. (2022). Cost of losing an employee. Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/people-managers/pages/the-real-cost-of-losing-an-employee.aspx
