Thursday, June 19, 2008

Integrity Counts

Many of us have been brought up on the role of integrity in our profession. Certainly in human resources integrity is everything along with confidentiality, honesty, and knowledge sharing. So what does integrity really mean to you?

As I see it, it is our foundation and how our reputations are built along with the other things I mentioned above. Employees all interpret integrity differently based on what the circumstances are. So as HR practitioners, we need to make sure that we strive for clarity in our decisions, honesty in how we communicate those decisions, keeping those things that are important from a liability prospective and personal effrontery's confidential, and making sure that the knowledge that is gained from a particular circumstance is shared among the organization. This will surely build or maintain your level of integrity.

So on with a short story. I felt in one of my past working lives that my manager had integrity but recently I was informed that this person made a decision that really sunk all the ballast this person had by eliminating a position so this person could fill it. You have to know that the person whose position was eliminated was an outstanding individual, had a high level of all the elements above and was a real good & hard worker. So what do you think people now think of this person who made a position for himself/herself. Well I can tell you "no integrity there folks".

Have you a story in your working lives like this, if so I would like to hear from you at wgstevens2@gmail.com .