It is often said that one of an organisation’s greatest assets is its employees, yet many workers are unwilling to reciprocate by swearing unwavering loyalty in exchange for a paycheck. Honest commitment has become a major issue mainly among the younger generation.
Employee disloyalty is a problem that has long plagued employers. Employers naturally expect their employees to be faithful, and to always act in the company’s best interests, however, this is unfortunately not always the case. Employees sometimes betray the trust placed in them by engaging in acts that are strictly for their own benefit, and contrary to the employer’s best interests.
After all, the compensation the employee might have to give back is probably insignificant in comparison to the profit the employee realised from his or her misdeeds and the damage the employer sustained as a result.
Fortunately for employers, courts also often award damages for economic losses sustained by the employer during the period of disloyalty as well. It should be pointed out that disloyal conduct that does not rise to the level necessary to invoke the Faithless Servant Doctrine does not leave an employer without any remedies.
Even if the employer cannot get back what it paid the employee in wages and/or damages for any harm the employee caused, an employer is under no obligation to continue to employ a disloyal “at-will” employee with whom it has no contract. Even if there is a contract, the same will often contain a clause that permits termination where the employee has engaged in faithless or disloyal conduct.
While there is no sure-fire way to prevent employee disloyalty, there are ways to discourage it from occurring in the first place. Perhaps the best way of doing so is requiring each and every employee to sign a confidentiality and non-solicitation agreement as a condition of employment.
There is absolutely no reason to rely solely upon the Faithless Servant Doctrine when a written agreement can provide far better protection. Another equally important way to prevent employee disloyalty is to be vigilant. You should always be on the lookout for signs that an employee might be engaged in disloyal conduct, such as the sudden and unexplained closing of multiple accounts handled by a certain employee.
Likewise, you should always encourage employees to speak up if they notice conduct that seems to be contrary to the company’s best interests. There is after all no more potent antidote to the problem of employee disloyalty than the watchful eyes of loyal staff members.
Performance reviews can provide valuable insight to detect levels of disengagement, as can conducting regular employee opinion surveys or workplace stress audits, and checking on absenteeism and staff turnover rates. Conducting exit interviews when employees leave the organisation can also produce some candid feedback on how workers feel managers and their colleagues value their efforts.
Another way to monitor employee satisfaction levels is to look at comments that employees make on social networking websites. These do not necessarily need to be directly critical of the company, but phrases like “another hard day at the office” might provide some useful feedback.
Firing as an option
Every employee owes his or her employer a fiduciary duty of loyalty. That means the employee must “exercise the utmost good faith, loyalty and honesty toward his employer. An employee breaches this duty when he competes with the employer during employment, or uses his position to obtain material benefits such as kickbacks from third parties in connection with transactions undertaken on the employer’s behalf.
Stealing often comes to mind when the topic of employee disloyalty is mentioned, however that is far from the only way this problem manifests itself. Another common type of employee disloyalty is when an employee diverts a business opportunity that properly belongs to the employer. For example, a dishonest telephone operator might relay a reservation to her driver-husband rather than put it through the central dispatch system. As another example, a sales representative may secretly form a competing company and start diverting business to his new entity, all the while continuing to draw a paycheck from your company.
It is not easy to fire an employee and the process should not be taken lightly, as improper handling can lead to unpleasant results, such as the employee suing the company. It’s, therefore, vital that you follow the law when you lay off or fire an employee and do it in a way that is respectful, calm, and not too traumatic for either you or the employee in front of you. Don’t make a trial out of it when you fire an employee: make it as seamless and stress-free as possible, and follow your normal off-boarding process. Keeping disloyal employees in the company comes at a huge opportunity cost and it’s not worth taking the trouble to ‘manage the issue’ when you can ‘eliminate’ it for the betterment of all.
