Ethics Training

Ethics training is quickly becoming the new necessity in the present-day business world. Due to corporate scandals involving unethical practices as seen in companies such as Enron and Tyco, as well as individuals including Martha Stewart - the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a mandatory United States federal law that companies must adhere to. Intended to protect against corporate fraud and unethical accounting and reporting incidents, ethics training aims to instill corporate values, rules and regulations in the minds of managers and employees alike. Due to these newfound laws, ethics training companies have grown in popularity for their ability to provide the satisfactory level of training that is necessary to comply to federal law.Ethics training provides an important means for achieving needed consensus. When properly structured, it increases employee awareness of ethical issues, expands the scope of their personal awareness, and sparks their imagination of the consequences of non-compliance. Ethics training is beneficial for instilling the continual application of the organization's code of ethics in an everyday business environment. Ethics training offers a mechanism for communication and problem solving to lead workers through the resolution of complex issues that may stem from conflicts of interest. It focuses on ways to apply the organization's code of business ethics in its individual, specific business setting - as each company has its own custom tailored code of ethics, rules and regulations.

Ethics training should help cement the guidelines and parameters for employees and management to follow when exercising discretion, while clearly defining boundaries, limitations and expectations within the walls of an organization. Discretion, properly exercised, makes for an ethical workplace environment, and ethics training is the first step toward corporate compliance.

Business ethics relates to the office, and the possibilities that may arise that can create a potentially serious situation: including but not limited to physical, verbal or sexual harassment, illegal accounting, auditing or reporting practices, network security issues, theft, or even situations where a company's integrity is on the line due to a whistleblower. Business ethics training addresses these issues, and is not limited to commercial workplaces - it also expands into the medical, industrial and education industries as well.

Business ethics training in the present day is typically presented in the form of "modules," which are somewhat like miniature courses, that discuss a scenario or topic in detail. Business ethics training companies present these modules in packages to a company in need of training, as a part of their annual ethics training policy and procedures. Modules are usually presented on a server that is hosted by the ethics training company, and allows trainees to log in and complete coursework, as each course is checked off once finished. A course completion checklist is usually maintained by the moderator or manager in charge of the program, as documented proof of successful training.

> Learn more about Business Ethics

The topics within an ethics training program are typically synergized into a targeted 'ethics training package,' that may begin with a written or revised code of conduct. Code of conduct writing is a service in which an ethics consultant or organization writes a legally legitimate statement of a company's values, rules and regulations in which all employees are expected to adhere to. These codes of professional responsibility cover everything from the consequences of insubordination and malpractice, to executive abuse of power and position.

The goal of a code of conduct is to re-affirm a company's standpoint against bad business practice, and enforce that sentiment within their workplace to provide a fair and properly functional working environment. These lessons have a two-fold goal: to train staff on proper ethical behavior, and to avoid possible legal action due to the negligence of doing so.

Code of conduct writing services update their client's codes to address new laws and regulations. Re-writes generally happen on an annual basis. In ethics training, the code of conduct is typically referred to, to re-instill a company's values to the students (employees). The Code is generally the "law" of the company. In turn, it must be written in a way that is legible to lay people, while maintaining its legal stature.

An important topic in the realm of ethics training is sexual harassment training. The lessons in these courses teach proper behavior in the workplace, which includes tolerance of different races, religions, gender and backgrounds, as well as preventing situations where previously unnoticed verbal or targeted harassment escalate to a high point.

Sexual harassment (also known as the industry code word "AB 1825") training plays an extremely important role in today's business ethics practices, and has extreme repercussions when ignored. Courses typically focus on the highly sensitive, subjective nature of what is perceived as "harassment," and offers case studies and scenarios that illustrate typical situations that show harassment taking place.

The proceeding sections detail the processes underwent in training employees of all levels. Although basic ethics training is a universal requirement, certain categories of employees are exposed to more adverse conditions or unique situations than others. For instance, an entry-level employee does not endure the same ethical risk as that of a member of the Board of Directors.

Employees, while having little authoritative and political power within an organization, pose a risk to that organization due to their behaviors and actions. Don't forget: the biggest security risk of a company is its employees: they have full access to the computer network, sensitive documents and other properties! Therefore, ethics training for employees generally addresses the common topics of security and non-competence, harassment and sexual harassment, workplace attire, tipping and expensing, discriminatory behavior, office romance, proper use of company resources and other such modules.

Ethics training should be a strategically structured, mandatory step for all hires. Business records, auditing reports, payroll information, budgeting and other confidential information may be illegally released to the public through a disgruntled employee. To avoid such occurrences, all business communications must disclose company policy on proper ethical behavior. An effective ethics training program covers all of these bases through example, as well as a statement of the company's actual code of conduct in relation to these situations.

• Legal Resource Network (LRN)
• Employment Law Technologies (ELT)
• RedHawk Communications
• Corpedia
• Integrity Interactive
• SAI Global
• Global Compliance
• Skillsoft

Managers are responsible for their subordinates and their own actions, while maintaining a positive reflection of the department they represent. Their ethics training process involves settling disputes within the office, gifts and bribes, addressing illegal or harassing behaviors and incidents, reporting and record keeping practices, and other topics that not only involve their position, but that of their department, in its own daily routine.

Other traditional apsects of a manager's ethics training curriculum includes company policy on manager/subordinate relationships: stating policy on workplace romance and the company's stand on such situations.

As previously stated, ethics training does not simply limit itself to office workers, but also trains executives from CIOs to the Board of Directors. Court proceedings have shown that nobody is immune from poor business practice, and that certainly includes management staff and their superiors. Executive ethics training focuses on the fundamentals of business ethics, while stressing the factors that have the potential of being perpetrated by those in their high positions: excessive compensation, illegal payments, insider trading, embezzlement, extortion, pursuing trade secrets, and other highly damaging acts that can jeopardize a company, or even a market sector.

Since executives have high influence within a corporation, they must maintain and adhere to corporate ethical procedures and the code of conduct. The ethics training procedures involved in doing so involves the presentation of case studies that showcase major corporate scandals and their fallout, bribery and the acceptance of gifts, and using the power of authority to ensure proper accounting procedures, as well as truthful and honest record availability for auditors.

While employees of all levels pose significant risk of damaging a corporation's reputation in a conflict of interest scenario, an executive can pose to be a threat to the company's future by violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulations.

[Technorati Profile]