Workplace ethics is the moral code to maintain the behavior of the employees concerning what is right and what is wrong in regard to conduct and decision making. Workplace ethics focus on the daily behavior and decision-making of the employees. This code of conduct is applied to each and everyone or compulsorily followed by every employee in the organization regardless of the position. The ethics and morals of the organization have the power to determine the success of the organization.

Importance of workplace ethics

Workplace ethics has proven that it has a special role in organizational success. Ethical businesses are seeming to be more successful than the industry competitors. Also, companies with strong ethics are more likely to have a high stock value. Showing respect and treating all employees equally, working truthfully, following company policy, guiding customers and vendors, being responsible for the work done, etc are examples of ethical behavior in the workplace.

Unethical behavior

Doing malpractices in the work or performing money fraud, taking office supplies to home, showing fake working hour reports or overreporting the hours worked, etc are considered as unethical behavior. Also, using company technology for personal use, such as surfing non-work-related matters, online shopping, accessing social media for personal purposes is another form of unethical behavior. When employers spend time promoting and support the importance of workplace ethics reduces unethical activities.

Establish company policy

Specifying what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the organization among the employees is one of the effective means of spreading awareness. All employees should get a chance at the time of hiring to go through the company policy and understand the company ethics. Specifying the policy means providing a printed copy of a handbook that covers the expected code of conduct, make sure to detail the job description as well. Workplace harassment and bullying have to consider as serious offenses, using foul language, employee theft, money fraud, etc have to be mentioned under punishable offense. Employees who are not following the code of conduct may receive a warning and ultimately terminate.

System to report unethical behavior

A system to report unethical activities like whistleblower is essential in an organization. So that the employees can alert the business owners about the illicit activities and save the firm from getting bad publicity. Employers are likely to be the last ones to know that some employees or staff are behaving in a way that could impact negatively the long-term company reputation. This will reduce if you have a strong system for employees to report unethical behavior anonymously.

Also, a platform for the employer to rate the employee’s behavior like TrstScore will benefit in promoting ethics and compliance based on a corporate culture with best practices, thereby preventing unethical behavior.

Employees who violate the rules and culture the employer has established for the business must face the consequences for their behavior. This can be in the form of a warning, suspension, or even termination for violating ethics by harassment, theft, or abuse. The Trst (Trust Score) platform even has the power of blacklisting the employee forever. This will also act as a deterrent for other employees and learn from the former employee’s activities.