The Hire Success® Pre-Employment
Honesty and Integrity Test

Hire Success pre-employment integrity testing

Hire honest, responsible, and reliable people

Employment integrity testing helps you identify candidates that you can depend on and avoid future problems such as workplace theft, drug use, or violence.

Confidently hire for jobs requiring a high level of integrity

Quickly test job applicants in 10 to 15 minutes

Receive specific integrity focused questions to ask in an interview

Trusted by 2,000+ companies. Qualifying talent for 25+ years.

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What is integrity testing?

A pre-employment integrity test (also referred to as an honesty test) is a type of personality test that assesses a job candidate’s tendency to be honest, responsible, and reliable. Integrity testing can help employers identify behaviors like theft, violence, drug use, and negative attitudes toward colleagues and supervisors. The Hire Success® integrity assessment requires candidates to self-report and answer questions based on past behaviors and tendencies.

what is an employee integrity test

Common problems solved by integrity tests

Hiring managers can use integrity tests for employment in order to spot potential problems in advance and, if necessary, follow up with past employers or request complete background checks prior to selecting job candidates for interviews.

Although integrity testing can’t eliminate theft or violence in the workplace, it can help employers limit it as well as identify candidates who may be less suitable for or less productive at a particular job.

How many of these common problems apply to your company?

  • Employee theft
  • Employee substance misuse
  • High turnover
  • Low productivity
  • Absenteeism
  • Problem/disruptive behavior
  • Conflicts with managers or supervisors
  • Customer complaints

Chances are that you've checked off at least one item on the above list. The Hire Success® Integrity Survey is an honesty assessment tool that can help you identify high-risk job candidates so that you can make better hiring decisions — with results that go straight to the bottom line.

Why companies use integrity tests

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Jobs that can benefit from having pre-employment integrity tests

Integrity tests are used in the workplace for hiring a wide variety of job roles, but they can be especially important when hiring for positions involving money, security, sensitive data, personal safety, or trade secrets. In short, this type of honesty assessment may tip off hiring managers to risky behaviors or unsafe practices that could threaten a company’s finances, employee health, or business information or interests.

Jobs that may especially benefit from integrity testing include:

Bank tellers and cashiers

Security guards

Childcare and/or daycare providers

Home healthcare workers

Field service technicians

Government employees

Apartment complex workers

Warehouse and distribution workers

Hire Success pre-employment integrity test checklist
Hire Success pre-employment integrity testing

Why should companies use integrity testing when evaluating job candidates?

Without a pre-employment integrity test, you may be more likely to hire candidates who don’t fit well in a given position. And this isn’t a cheap problem to fix. Most companies report that a bad hire costs between $1,633 and $4,425 — and some cost far more.

Workforce statistics of concern for hiring managers:

  • Roughly 2 million Americans are victims of workplace violence each year.1
  • Workplace violence is an epidemic that costs American business in excess of $36 billion annually.2
  • Businesses in the U.S. lose approximately $50 billion each year due to employee theft.3
  • Workplace absenteeism is estimated to be 4 to 8 times greater among people with alcoholism or who use alcohol excessively.4

People with addiction issues are 3-4 times more likely to have an accident on the job and 5 times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim. In light of this data, smart hiring managers are focusing their efforts on the best methods for employee selection, including pre-employment integrity tests.

  • 1 Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: National Crime Victimization Survey
  • 2 Workplace Violence Research Institute
  • 3 Temple University Fox School of Business
  • 4 U.S. Office of Personnel Management

What does the Hire Success® integrity test include?

The Hire Success® Integrity Survey consists of 97 questions and takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. The test includes a comprehensive assessment of a job candidate’s behaviors, including:

Theft from previous employers and businesses.

Drug and alcohol use.

Integrity and work ethics, including attitudes toward employers.

Willingness to accept and follow directions.

Propensity toward anger/violence.

When taking the Hire Success® pre-employment integrity test, all job applicants must acknowledge that they understand that their answers are being considered as part of their application for employment with your company and that you will be relying on truthful answers to make a hiring decision. Lying on an integrity test or job application may be grounds for termination or not being considered for employment.

Employee integrity test results sample
report screenshot

Get valuable insights into a candidate’s risk factors

The Hire Success® integrity test report provides you with valuable information and insight regarding your candidate’s perceptions towards employment and employers.

The report is based directly on the answers chosen by your candidate. and in some cases, includes the actual text response he/she entered into the form. The report is broken down into 5 sections.

Section 1: Risk Factor Overview

This section of the report provides you with a convenient bar chart graphic outlining your candidate's risk factor scores in each category of the test. It’s a quick, visual way to recognize possible areas of concern that might need evaluation before an interview.

Risk factor overview for employee integrity report

This visual summary is followed with detailed information about each of these categories and customized interview questions designed to help you assess possible additional risk factors.

Section 2: Detailed Information

Within this section, the report identifies the responses that your candidate provided to certain questions which could be considered risk factors.

Although no single response – or even several responses in a group – would or should disqualify someone for a position, we urge you to review this information carefully. It’s provided so you can decide whether the responses indicate a level of risk you may not wish to take.

Section 3: Evaluating Inconsistencies

Our Integrity Survey is designed with multiple questions on the same issues so that inconsistent answers can be identified. This section of the report provides you with information about any discrepancies that are detected based on how your applicant answered the questions.

The scoring system checks to see if the responses are exactly the same. It may find some answers that are slightly different, and this may or may not be important to you. However, if significant inconsistencies are found, you should review these carefully prior to an interview.

If no inconsistencies are found, this section of the report will be empty.

Section 4: Anger/Violence

This section of the report includes answers to several questions that, although not counted in the Risk Factor Overview, are of importance to many employers. These questions deal with the applicant's attitude toward and history of anger and violence in the workplace.

Due to an increased problem of workplace violence in recent years, this section has been added to help interviewers be more aware of this issue and have a way of objectively screening candidates for potential problems.

A person should not be rejected for any position based solely on their responses to the questions, but responses could indicate that you, as an employer, should conduct a thorough background check and try to discover if there have been any problems in this area during previous employment.

Section 5: Interview Questions

Instead of starting your interviews with the usual question, "So, tell me about yourself," Hire Success gives you the ability to specifically target areas of potential concern by providing sharp, effective questions that get right to the heart of the issues at hand.

This section of the report evaluates how your applicant responded to questions on the survey, with particular emphasis on groups of related questions. Because it’s not possible to know the circumstances surrounding the issues that may have led to your applicant's answers (or generated a high risk score in any given category), it’s important to discuss some or all of these issues in order to provide an opportunity for the candidate to explain answers in more detail.

Hire Success's report format gives you an area for documenting the applicant's responses to these questions, as well as any observations you make during the interview.

Testimonials for Hire Success

Why clients love our honesty test

"I love the Integrity Survey report, as it is very easy to read. There are several questions within the survey that I have deemed my go-tos, as the responses give me so much insight into each of my candidates. I love reading through the reports, and even if no risk points are assessed, I still get a lot of great information on each person."

— Janet Stupek, Nolan Real Estate

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Integrity Test FAQ

Let us help you answer the most common questions you might have about pre-employment integrity checks.

Will applicants answer integrity test questions honestly?

Research — as well as feedback from past clients — suggests that applicants usually answer integrity and honesty assessment questions truthfully; however, they generally underreport behaviors and problems. Our integrity test generates custom questions that you can ask later to further explore any areas of concern.

Is it legal to administer integrity tests?

Some states and countries do have requirements about integrity testing for employment. Hiring managers who believe that they may have an issue with their state or country should consult their legal counsel about the rules surrounding pre-employment integrity tests in their area.

Do you offer the pre-employment integrity test in multiple languages?

The Hire Success® Integrity Survey is offered in English, Spanish, and Canadian French; however, accommodations can be made for employers who would like to offer our integrity test in another language.

How long does it take to complete an integrity test?

The Hire Success® Integrity Survey takes job applicants an average of 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Hiring managers will have to determine whether this is too much to ask, especially if they’re having job candidates take additional tests, such as our Personality Profile (under 10 minutes) or any of our Cognitive Aptitude Assessments or Job Skills Assessments.

Should I test current employees for integrity and honesty?

Although integrity tests are useful throughout the interviewing and hiring processes, we do not suggest that employers use the assessment to test the integrity of current employees.

What does this say about my company that I’m using integrity tests?

Most of the time, a pre-employment integrity check shows a sincere interest in finding the best candidates for the job and protecting the workplace. Employers will have to determine whether any potential damage to their reputation could result from asking these questions.

Ready to take your hiring to the next level?

Now that you understand what an integrity test is, get a demo to see exactly how the Hire Success® Integrity Survey can help you start hiring the right people for the job.

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