Human resources professionals spend a lot of time working to create a respectful work environment. Much of that effort is necessary to stay in compliance with antidiscrimination and other workplace laws, but a true focus on ethics goes beyond legal compliance. 
Susan Alevas, an attorney, management consultant, and president of Alevas Consulting Group, Inc., recently conducted a webinar titled “Workplace Ethics: Tips for Boosting Your Organization’s Ethical Culture” in which she pointed out that the stakes are high when employers study their ethical culture.
Alevas cites a study showing 80 percent of consumers say they consider an organization’s ethics when deciding where to put their money. Also, employees have reported in surveys that they think unethical behavior would drop dramatically if their managers were better role models.
Checking ethical health
So how can HR help employers gauge their ethical health? Alevas says it “really starts before your employees become employees.” She says organizations need to consider the standards and procedures they use in their recruiting. “Is the ethical commitment woven into the standards by which you assess people to determine whether they are well-aligned with your organization when you bring them in as an employee?” she asks.
Alevas also suggests surveying employees to find out what they think of the organization’s ethics. Such data gives senior leaders valuable data to assess. Exit interviews including questions about how employees were treated and how they were expected to treat others also can yield information useful when senior leaders make policy decisions.
When examining alignment between organizations and individuals in terms of ethical standards, Alevas suggest picturing three circles. One represents the organization’s ethics, the second represents the ethical values of a particular department or subsidiary, and the third represents employees’ individual ethics.
“While you’re never going to get those three circles to align perfectly, what the goal of an organization should be is to ensure that they are recruiting, selecting, and retaining employees whose personal ethics align very, very well with the department or subsidiary to which they are assigned and to the organization as a whole,” Alevas says.
Getting to where you want to be
Besides taking steps to hire people whose ethical standards align with the organization, HR professionals can help develop the organization’s ethical code. Alevas says that code needs to be well articulated so that it’s well understood. It also needs to be publicized and supported by top management.
In examining what highly ethical organizations have in common, Alevas says “they have a clear vision and picture of integrity across the organization.” All employees understand the company’s ethics regardless of their title and responsibility. Also, in highly ethical organizations there’s a clear desire, particularly among leaders, to never give even the appearance that they’re trying to coerce others into setting ethics aside to achieve a business goal.
When facing important organizational decisions, highly ethical employers consider more than just strategic, legal, and fiscal elements. They also consciously consider the ethical implications. They consider how to maximize profitability in a strategically, legally, fiscally and ethically sound way. “That’s the formula that these companies consistently focus upon,” Alevas says.
Highly ethical organizations also understand that people at all levels will at some time face an ethical dilemma, Alevas says. When that occurs, employees supported by an ethical employer can be confident that the organization will provide resources to help decide what to do. With that support, employees understand that it’s not acceptable to just look away without dealing with the issue.
“Ethics is not an event in these organizations. It’s not a check off the box. … Ethics is an ongoing conversation,” Alevas says.
Right vs. right dilemmas
Even the most ethical organizations face ethical dilemmas in which there’s not a totally right choice, Alevas says. Often it’s not a choice of right vs. wrong, where the choice may be difficult but at least clear.
Instead, it’s a matter of right vs. right, such as fairness vs. compassion. Alevas gives the example of an employer with a policy that makes employees eligible for a particular benefit after serving a certain length of time. That policy serves the value of treating people with consistency and fairness.
But there may be a situation in which something catastrophic happens to an employee and the benefit is needed before the required length of service is achieved. Should the employer deviate from the policy in the interest of compassion, or should it consistently follow the policy that employees have relied upon to ensure fair treatment?
“Right vs. right is the far more challenging ethical dilemma to navigate through,” Alevas says, but leaders of ethical organizations will support employees as they sort through such quandaries. “Highly ethical organizations are not afraid to take on these challenging conversations.”