How to Put Maverick Spenders in Their Place
By Russ Warner, VP Marketing —
Overly expensive dinners are the most common example of maverick spending, or using company funds for personal expenses.
Many American workers admit to “maverick spending” — using company funds for personal expenses to supplement their income.
Maverick spending includes a number of different things, such as inflating the cost of a taxi ride on a blank receipt, padding tips given to waiters, accepting refunds for previously expensed items, expensing personal items, expensing items more than once, and creating fake expenses.
A Breakdown of Deception
Researchers found that 54 percent of workers buy things without pre-approval from a manager, with 23 percent purchasing office supplies for home use, 18 percent buying unapproved smartphones, 9 percent acquiring exercise equipment, and 7 percent charging for personal clothing. Sometimes, instead of buying an item for themselves, people will take an approved purchase and let it get unnecessarily expensive, like an opulent dinner or airline upgrade.
Many employees seem to feel entitled to receive this type of compensation and, based on some of the examples, might even go to devious lengths to accomplish this deception.
Fraud and corruption are serious problems, costing employers billions of dollars each year.
Potential Solutions
Thanks to EyeDetect®, employers can fight back against employee fraud. EyeDetect can also help reduce fraud and corruption in government entities and businesses across the globe in those countries that allow lie detection tests in the employment sphere.
EyeDetect is an affordable, non-intrusive, easy-to-administer lie detection test. The test is quick and involves scanning subtle behavioral changes in the eye of a person as they respond to true/false questions on a computer screen. One of the goals is to reduce subjectivity, which can occur in a standard polygraph test.
EyeDetect has the potential to be a significant player in ethical business practices and government checks. Imagine if companies evaluated employees for fraud each year. This could be a game-changing tactic.
