More than eight-tenths of HR have admitted to lying in the workplace, which is more than the amount the average worker does.
This comes from research from Viking, an office supplier. Viking found that 83 per cent of HR have admitted to lying in the office. HR lies more than the average UK worker, as only 69 per cent admitted to lying in the office.
A quarter (25 per cent) of HR said they have told a lie to keep a client happy or to stop their workload increasing.
Those in HR think the most acceptable lie to give is to say how much they enjoy working for their company, (58 per cent). More than a third (38 per cent) of HR said lying on a CV is fine, with 30 per cent of HR saying they have done so themselves.
Managers seem to be reluctant to approach HR. According to CoachHub, under a fifth (15 per cent) admitted that they would not reach out to the HR team for fear of being seen as unqualified or ineffective leaders. Also, under half (42 per cent) feel that HR does not prioritise personal development beyond onboarding.
Bob Huibers, marketing executive at Viking said:
Our survey was intended to explore the attitudes of workers towards lying at work, and the results have certainly surprised us. As flagbearers of honesty and morality in the workplace, we certainly didn’t expect to see HR professionals leading the way when it comes to lying at work.
We found that 48 per cent of HR professionals actually thought it was acceptable for an employee to take the blame for their manager’s mistake. In the modern workplace, with an increased focus on mental health and wellbeing, these attitudes need to change so that employees can feel supported and protected by their HR department.
Juliane Sterzl, vice president of UK & Ireland at CoachHub, said:
These results highlight an urgent need for change in HR processes – if senior members of staff don’t trust HR departments enough to talk honestly, why would other employees? Provisions in place for professional development and support need an overhaul. Our research shows that current offerings tend to consist of old-fashioned, generic processes that haven’t changed in decades. With many digital HR tools now available, such as personalised digital coaching, HR departments can move away from this one-size-fits-all approach and make the transition to tech-enabled solutions that are much better suited to the modern workplace.
Viking gathered these results by talking to 2,000 UK workers and CoachHub, 1,000 managers.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
