Reporting unethical behavior at the workplace is the rightest thing to do for the sake of the business. But speaking up against the activities might put the reporting person in an awkward situation and he might be the reason to get his coworker in trouble. If the reporting person doesn’t have enough evidence, wait for a chance to get evidence and document it for further inquiries for the management. Employers should always take action after identifying and understanding the genuinity of the report.
Employee Reporting Unethical Behavior
When you find or sense unethical behavior at your workplace, the first thing you have to do is to consult your company’s rules and policies to find out if the disreputable behavior you observed is prohibited. Before reporting unethical behavior, you need to make sure that you have firsthand knowledge of a clear privacy violation and the required evidence that support your complaint.
What do employers have to do?
Employers have to encourage employees to report unethical activities when they find any kind of misconduct in the workplace. Any fraudulent activities such as faking overtime claims, coming to work inebriated or lying to customers, etc. Provide the facility to report anonymously, so that the reporting person does not have a concern about attaching his name to the complaint.
Educate the employees about the procedures for submitting the report of suspected ethical misconduct. Provide all the instructions in the company handbook or in an employee code of conduct policy. Prepare employees to meet managers or supervisors to report concerns about unethical behavior. With enough evidence and documents on the fraud activity conducted by a coworker submitted by the employee has to be studied and made sure that the misconduct needs to be prevented from happening further.
When you have enough evidence that an employee in the organization has shown unacceptable unethical behavior, it is essential that you react appropriately and timely. In case of any serious situation, firing the employee on spot might be the right thing to do. However, firing from the organization may help to resolve the current issue that happened in the organization. But reporting the issue on the TrstScore Platform can help other employers to understand that the particular person has an unethical past and have to be cautious before hiring the individual. A warning for other employers in the platform may prevent creating chances for similar situations to happen in another organization. Also, it acts as a deterrent to other employees in the organization, it will make other employees hesitant to perform similar unethical behavior to the organization which is good for the employers.