Why ethics training

Money scandals and poor business practices can cause a major loss in profit. These can lead to a loss in motivation in employees and ultimately bankruptcy. Maintaining quality and productivity by not cutting corners can only create a good reputation and preserve a good code of ethics for the company. This is why having training in ethics is necessary for a successful business. They not only help promote awareness to the ethical practices in the company, but ethics training programs boosts morale so that employees work more effectively and harmoniously with their co-workers.

Being ethically aware helps to maintain a positive corporate culture and upholds a strong public image. Work ethics include the concept of shared commitment to a purpose. According to Change Magazine, a business is a type of social interaction in which participants come together to build something that cannot be accomplished singly.

As a small-business owner, it is important that you and your workers plan and work together to achieve goals. For example, you can implement a Monday morning meeting in which the staff designs a work plan for the week that might include promoting a particular product.

Then, as a team, everyone can focus efforts in that direction. A workplace in which an ethics code has been instilled is a naturally pleasant place. Employee morale rises in an atmosphere that promotes good behavior and honest interactions.

Workers feel more valued and, in turn, value the work they are doing when they feel the company they are employed by is respectable and purposeful.

Expect your workplace to be livelier and more work to get done when employees are trained in ethics. Chris Adkins: Ethics training still has a way to go to be effective, despite the millions of dollars invested companies are not always seeing the outcomes they need and expect. To optimize the impact, one should design training by recognizing that values and leadership are learned differently than analytical skills.

We learn values and leadership through our social experience with others, often by modeling the behaviors of role models. We are learning all the time at work, and whether we learn the right lessons depends largely on who we have around us, as well as the opportunity for everyday feedback and reflection.

When I work with both executives and emerging leaders, we often discuss unlearning some of the unethical leadership behaviors they have acquired by association with others over time. Once these influencers have been identified, they can choose specific behaviors they can emulate in their own situation, and seek out mentors or coaches.

This way, employees begin to own their leadership development, and focus on the positive behaviors they want to practice. Finally, ethics training should be aligned and integrated with other leadership training, for example, diversity and inclusion training.

So many of the core skills of an ethical leader also lead to high-performing teams and organizations, such as empathy, building trust, effective feedback, managing conflict, and appreciating strengths and differences across cultures and generations. Making a clear connection between ethics and performance can be a powerful way to engage employees in ethics training and reinforce development of these core leadership skills. Ideally, companies should identify ethical influencers with whom employees can relate to in their day-to-day work.

In telling their stories, these ethical leaders can nudge employees toward appropriate behaviors and good decision-making as studies show positive examples have a greater influence on behavior than highlighting negative examples. Internal and external social media tools are sources for finding those influencers, but consideration should also be given to quiet leaders who support the ethical vision and have a useful story to tell, but who may not be broadcasting it.

So to be effective, ethics training needs to be closely tailored to the organization and the day-to-day issues and challenges their employees experience, and the ethical decisions they may face.

Using social networking and data analytics tools, companies can more easily identify influencers who employees are more likely to follow and listen to when presented with an ethical dilemma. Q: How can organizations make speak-up or whistleblower programs more effective? Skip to content. Call Us at Facebook page opens in new window Twitter page opens in new window YouTube page opens in new window Linkedin page opens in new window. Ethics Management: Professionalism in the Workplace. Get a Quote.

Ethics Training Program — Supervisor Edition. Buy Now. Examples of Unethical Behavior. Dishonesty: Gossiping; spreading rumors; using false advertising to lure in potential customers. Attendance: Chronic tardiness; absenteeism. Abusive conduct: Abusive behavior; bullying; coercion; threatening an employee for complaining about working conditions.

Denial: Ignoring safety mandates; ignoring a potentially harmful problem at work; withholding information. Characteristics of Ethical Behavior.