A newly hired chief human resource officer (CHRO) discovers a flaw in the time-keeping policy that allows senior executives to receive full salaries and benefits without working the expected full-time hours. The CHRO reviews corporate data and identifies three senior executives in the sales department who regularly worked half the expected full-time hours for the past two years. The CHRO also discovers that the sales department has the lowest levels of employee engagement and morale across the corporation. However, the CHRO knows these three senior executives have been with the corporation for over a decade and have established strong alliances with the CEO. The CHRO presents the issue to the CEO and learns the CEO was unaware of the flaw in the policy. The CHRO and CEO agree to discuss the issue during the next executive team meeting.
Prior to the executive team meeting, the three sales department senior executives confront the CHRO in person. The executives state that working less than the expected full-time hours is justified because the CEO has made them return early from vacation on multiple occasions. How should the CHRO respond?