Honesty and Integrity, everyone says they have it. Do they?

I had a friend today tell me about a story about his mother.  This was an older friend, whose mother raised him during the great depression.  He said that his mother had worked in a laundry mat for 25 cents per hour.  Can you imagine?  He said that they lived very frugally and that it was rare that they were able to purchase any kind of luxury items.  Life was tough in those days.  Anyone that lived during that time will tell you that. When she was walking home one day she found a $20 bill lying on the ground.  During those days that was probably about 2 weeks’ worth of wages.  Can you imagine if you found your two weeks of salary on the ground?  What would you do with it?  She told him that she was so disappointed in herself for picking it up, pocketing it, and hoping that no one would be around to possibly claim it.  Back then, honesty and integrity was a really big thing for people to adhere to.  It was socially expected to be honest. It seems that companies these days really walk a fine line with honesty and integrity.  But it may not even be the company, but the employees that hold positions in the company.  They make decisions all day.  I think that most are looking for companies to just be honest and do business with integrity and to be honest in their dealings with one another.  It goes both ways for both customers and vendors. Trinity Employment Specialists is a recruiting firm that has employees that have the ethical compass pointed in the right direction.  We want everyone in our company to be the kind of person that when they pick up the dollar bill to look for its rightful owner first.  I’m not saying that most companies would make a different decision given the scenario, but there are definitely those that just do not have that ethical DNA. It is the same with recruiting top talent for companies.  It is definitely one thing to find someone who has the right kind of talent, but it is equally as important to have someone who has an ethical DNA that will add integrity, honesty and character to the company they will be joining.  Most companies that I meet with today say that they would like to find someone with the right kind of background, but they would rather find someone who has the right kind of character, drive and work ethic and train the skill rather than have someone with great skill-set, with no character and work ethic.