Question

How would you teach ethics to employees in your firm? What would you cover in an in-house training program on ethical behavior of employees?

Answer 1

Employees may be taught ethics in the following ways:

1. By creating an ethical work environment- Employees generally follow the type of work environment they have to work in. So, if the work environment creates a positive culture on ethics, the employees would also learn to follow the same.

2. Ethics should be part of an organization's mission and vision- This will also motivate employees to give the highest importance to ethics and would learn it in the process.

3. Every new employee should attend mandatory ethics training- This will make sure the employees learn about ethics from the time they join the organization and make it a part of daily work.

4. Any unethical conduct should be acted upon strictly. Also, good ethical conduct by employees should be suitably rewarded. This would ensure that employees learn ethics and follow it in the organization.

The following should be covered in an in-house training on ethical behavior of employees:

1. Organization's code of ethics - This would teach employees what they should be doing and what they should not be doing as a part of ethical behavior.

2. How employees should conduct themselves when they are outside organizational premises for work- Employees are supposed to follow ethical conduct even when are working outside their workplaces eg: Customer meetings, Supplier visit, etc.

3. Discussion on real-life cases and role-play exercises based on ethical behavior- This will help employees to have a more practical understanding of ethical conduct

4. How to handle and maintain the privacy of customer data and other confidential data.- Ethical management of all kinds of critical data is very important and employees should be fully aware of the same

5. How to handle ethical dilemmas- This will help employees to correctly handle situations when they face an ethical dilemma.

6. The importance of ethical conduct for employee and organization - This would help employees to understand how important ethical conduct is for the organization's image as well as their own integrity.