Training Business Ethics
The ethical dilemmas and conflicts in the organizations result in huge financial losses, due to which the organization faces successive crises. It is very important for an organization to make sure that its employees should follow certain ethics and values while performing business activities. It is not possible for the managements of every organization to make sure that their organizations follow ethical standards.
A Business Ethics Training Program will help you in ensuring that your employees and the management follow ethics and values while performing their functions in any company.
In the year 1996, a company named Nike introduced ads that were based on hype and celebrity endorsements in the name of Michael Jordan, a basketball player at that point of time. These ads made their mark all across America and they were appreciated by people from several spheres of life including athletes, celebrities and others too. However, when individuals from the third world countries began to concentrate on Nike’s activities with regards to labor, it was found that Nike has been involved in several labor practices and child labor laws. It was later realized that Nike had been engaging women workers under poor conditions along with a meager salary structure.
It is clear from the above example that a business ethics training program was necessary for the Nike to make sure that its employees and management work following ethical norms.
The business ethics training program helps you in making sure that your employees follow the values given by your organization. One of the best ways to achieve this is to understand what ethics are and how it can be used as a business tool. The employees need to identify their ethical beliefs and how they work in certain situations, which may result in conflicts for them. When an organization conducts such training programs, it helps its employees in understanding the difference between right and wrong.
Ethics are also highly related to social responsibility of an organization. This means that your employees need to know what they can do when faced with a certain ethical dilemma in their work place. One of the best ways to achieve this is by conducting business ethics training for your employees, which will ensure that all of them in your organization follow the standards and contribute towards the betterment of your business.
It is also important to make sure that issues like corporate ethics codes, personal code of conduct and corporate objectives are discussed in detail so that employees understand how these work together for improving the values followed by an organization. It is necessary to spend adequate time in discussing the codes adopted by your organization with your employees.
It will also be helpful if the ethics training program of an organization is conducted in such a manner that it makes its employees understand how they can handle ethical dilemmas, which they may face at their workplace. This way, your employees will know what to do when faced with conflicts and dilemmas that have to do with ethics and values.
Following are some of the tips for developing an effective business ethics training program:
1) Training Program must fulfill your organization’s needs-
One of the most important steps in developing an effective business ethics training program is to make sure that it fulfills all the needs of your organization. This means that you need to make sure that the people who will be participating in your training program are actually able to understand all the aspects of your business ethics and values.
2) Training Program must be based on needs analysis-
It is important that a training program for an organization’s employees should be based on a needs analysis. This will help you in ensuring that the program is capable enough to fulfill all the requirements that your organization has for it.
3) Training Program must answer all the questions of an organization’s employees-
The training program that you have developed for your organization needs to be capable enough of answering all the questions surrounding ethics and values. This means that your program should not only focus on making sure that employees follow specific practices with regards to ethics but also make them understand why these are important.
4) Training Program must be an interactive session-
One of the most effective ways to make sure that employees actually learn about ethics is by making sure that they are present during the corporate training program, which is conducted for them. This way, you will be able to analyze the business ethics levels of your employees and work upon increasing them if they lack the expected ethical behavior.
5) Training Program must discuss all aspects of ethics-
One of the most important things about business ethics training program is to make sure that it focuses on every aspect of an organization’s values, ethics and morals. This also includes making sure that your employees understand their responsibilities as employees of an organization.
6) Training Program must involve the top management-
One of the most important things about any business ethics training program is to make sure that it involves all the top level executives of your organization. This will help you in ensuring that all the employees are made aware of what is expected from them by their superiors and also how they themselves can contribute towards the betterment of their organization.
7) Training Program must make employees understand their roles-
There is no point in conducting a business ethics training program for your organization’s employees if it doesn’t make them aware of the role they are expected to play in making sure that an organization continues to uphold its standards with regards to ethics and values.
8) Training Program must provide in depth knowledge-
The importance of any business ethics training program is in making sure that it provides employees with in depth knowledge about an organization’s values, ethics and morals. This will help them to understand why all these are important for making sure that their individual efforts combined together can work towards the betterment of an organization.
9) Training Program must foster creativity-
One of the most important things about any business ethics training program is fostering creativity within employees. This will help them in staying updated with all the latest trends that are taking place in their market and also making sure that they understand what needs to be done to meet up with these demands.
10) Training Program must make employees aware of the risks they are exposed to-
One of the important things about any business ethics training program is to educate your employees to be aware of all the potential risks that their actions may lead them towards in future. They need to understand that there are certain acts which can have serious repercussions, if they are not careful enough.
11) Training Program must make them understand how they can contribute-
The importance of a business ethics training program is in making your employees aware of the fact that success of any organization is dependent upon their contribution. They can be a part in ensuring that an organization continues to grow and work towards its goals only if they are aware of any unethical acts that might hamper its growth.
12) Training Program must have a proper feedback system-
The success of business ethics training program largely depends upon the feedback system that it has. Make your employees aware of how they can provide you valuable suggestions to make this program better and more effective over time. This will only help your organization to grow.
13) Training Program must have a proper follow up system-
The importance of business ethics training program is in making sure that you have a proper follow up system in place which can ensure that employees are made aware of any potential risks they might be exposed to if their ethical behavior is not at its best. This will help you in ensuring that you don’t have to face any major setbacks. At the same time, employees will also feel more motivated about working towards the success of their organization.
14) Training Program must make your employees aware of what’s expected from them-
Towards the beginning of any business ethics training program it is important to make your employees aware of all the things that you expect from them. This will help them in understanding what is expected out of them and how they can contribute towards the betterment of an organization along with upholding its standards.
15) Training Program must try to understand any loopholes-
It is important for you to make your employees aware of any potential weaknesses or loopholes that they might have within them. This will help you in trying to make them more ethical about their behavior and also making sure that an organization continues to work towards the satisfaction of its customers.
Conclusion:
All the above mentioned information will help you in making sure that your employees are aware of all the various things that they need to be careful about when it comes to upholding an organization’s ethics. This will help them stay updated with what is expected out of them and also ensure that they work towards the betterment of an organization along with its customers.
