Voice Risk Analysis to Identify Those Feigning Sick – Is This a Joke?
In the age of employee engagement – I thought this article on using a lie detector to catch out lying workers was a joke. But is it?
According to the London paper, lie detectors could one day be used to spot people who are "pulling a sickie" from work. The technology is apparently already being used to identify people who make fraudulent benefit claims.The technology works by identifying changes in a caller's voice which may indicate they are not telling the truth.
After successful trials at seven councils, anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt announced last week that the scheme would be extended.
Now employers have given a cautious welcome to the idea of using the Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) system to identify people who may be lying when they phone in sick.
Susan Anderson, director of human resources policy at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the technology could be very useful.
“She said research from the CBI and insurance firm AXA showed that employers believe 12 per cent of absence was not genuine and that these 'sickies' amounted to 21 million lost days every year, costing businesses £1.6 billion.” =Personally, I think this story is absolutely ludicrous. Rather than introducing lie detector tests maybe employers should look internally at themselves. Employers should:
- Look inside - after all it is their responsibility to create an environment that energizes their employers rather than one where they feel the urge to call in sick.
- Deal with those individuals who are obviously abusing the system. There is no doubt in our mind that employers know who the abusers are. Maybe they should remember that dis-enchanted workers pull down productivity, increase churn and darken the morale of the people around them.
To read the article, click here.
Comments
It's almost enough to make me take a look at my calendar and make sure I didn't wake up 100 years earlier. To think we're no longer in the industrial age...yet the old thinking is still there: employees are just raw capital, they're easily replaceable cogs in a machine.
It's made all the more saddening that a director of HR policy at CBI endorses this kind of tactic. As if most folks don't see HR in a poor light and the sock puppet of the corporate executive branch, this will do little to shake it.
I'm in full agreement with you. If companies think they have a problem with 'sickies' (and don't you just love how they classify these folks?) they better take a good hard look at their own issues that are causing folks to care less about their work.
Posted by: Chris Bailey | May 18, 2008 06:46 PM