“Ethical culture, a culture of integrity, more people are prioritizing this in the hierarchy of what they’re looking for in a job…If your brand is public, the court of public opinion doesn’t afford due process. If you come across as unethical, you’re done.”
— Nick Gallo, Chief Servant & Co-CEO, ComplianceLine
Building an effective corporate ethics and compliance approach is no small task, but it is worth the effort. It requires commitment, consistency, and meaningful reinforcement. Not doing so is devastating, costly, and even the end for some organizations. Moreover, instilling strong compliance and ethics lays a foundation for a positive, healthy culture of trust and integrity. Top talent and customers want to work or spend money in businesses with a good reputation and demonstrated integrity. This week, we explore how ethics and compliance help mitigate toxic culture and allow businesses to thrive.
The Importance of Ethics and Compliance to the Overall Corporate Mission
The goal of ethics and compliance is to prevent and detect future law violations, regulations, corporate policies, procedures, and internal controls. However, a culture of ethics and compliance takes it a step further. It extends to promoting a company’s business mission, purpose, values, and ultimately to its definition of “success.” A company with a strong ethical culture and corporate mission will likely perform well because of employee engagement, productivity, and commitment. Employees benefit when they observe a robust ethics and compliance function that is accessible, embedded in the business, and responsive to employee needs and expectations. An organization can only realize those benefits when it commits to ethics and compliance as an essential business function.
Building Better Culture and Compliance with Trust
Building an effective compliance and ethics program cannot be achieved without a culture built on trust. And this only happens from doing the work actively, consciously, and continuously. It is easy to blame leadership, communication, or resources for an ineffective program rather than looking at low-trust culture. However, trust takes time to build, requires a continuous process to maintain, and is well worth the effort. While research demonstrates the case for trust, many employers and employees are unsure how to break into the trust-building business. Once trust is achieved and daily decision-making based on compliance and ethics occurs out of habit, the success of the trust-building program can be seen through employee engagement, problem-solving, innovative ideas, and loyalty from employee retention.
eBook: The Road to a Toxic-Free Culture
The practice of compliance and ethics is evolving, along with technology, workplace dynamics, and adult learning preferences. In addition, HR and compliance leaders face one of the most challenging times in history on the heels of the pandemic. For many, this is uncharted territory and an opportunity to start fresh—to be the facilitators and ambassadors of great company cultures. It’s an open road for HR and compliance leaders—a chance to push the reset button and re-imagine how to conduct training. While there’s no proven path for creating a culture of respect and integrity, a few elements are critical to current adult learning theories to ensure the information sticks.
How to Develop Effective Ethics Training for Employees
Organizations that establish a code of conduct but fail to provide ethics training are unlikely to see much behavioral change. Simply reading the code without the opportunity to delve deeper into how it applies to their work won’t do much to build a culture of integrity. More than half of the largest corporate bankruptcies resulted from unethical business practices. Plus, having a reputation for unethical business practices hurts an organization’s ability to attract and retain talent. Internally, a code of conduct guides day-to-day decision-making while telling the rest of the world something about what the organization stands for. But even with a code of conduct in place, it’s not always easy to know the right thing to do in any given circumstance. That’s why it’s essential to provide ethics training for employees at all levels, to help them develop the capacity to assess a situation and act with integrity. Learn the importance and best practices of developing effective ethics training.
