Developing Business Ethics in Your Employees
Posted December 21st, 2010
With corporate scandals garnering widespread public attention, as well as government notice, training in business ethics has also been attracting more interest as well.
If they accomplish their goal, these training programs should help workers and managers to examine their own moral values and develop approaches for handling ethical dilemmas at work..
But for a company to really develop an ethical business culture, the training has to be more than a one-time thing. Training in ethics needs to be a continual process to emphasize its importance Linked to a code of ethics, training in ethics can provide a guide for a everyone in a business, especially if training becomes a common practice. It will help employees regard ethics as not just onerous rules to be obeyed, but as a more effective way of doing business.
A business that is ethical is made that way through its culture, its values and its leadership. Company leaders must show the way in acting ethically. There must also be openness, fairness and good communication to establish an ethical workplace.
Training in business ethics can be delivered through a variety of media, including Web-based lessons.
But to make this type of training truly effective, a company must be willing to commit the time, effort and resources. The majority of companies still have not yet made such a commitment, but observers expect that to change as more companies see the value of this training in helping firmss avoid investigations and fines. Most see the value of having these programs to avoid problems in the long run, but making the investment now is still something many companies still are unwilling to do.
Managers also need to be aware of the effects of these programs. If they have been successful, they may actually increase the number of ethical lapses that are reported because the training has raised awareness among employees. However, there is a lag time between employee awareness and a change in behavior.
Before committing to a particular program, companies should take the time to look over different training courses to find the ones that they consider the most effective and most interesting for their employees. If the training program is simply a lecture series on what compliance is, it probably won’t grab employee interest, and probably won’t have the impact the business is looking for.
Ethics training, at its best, is about more than just warding off legal problems. It can help to form employee attitudes about good business practices and affect the whole corporate culture.
When you need honest and hardworking IT professionals for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments at your San Francisco-area firm, call upon Bayside Solutions. We will source, vet and place reliable and skilled workers who will help your firm achieve success in 2011 and beyond. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
