Examples of Positive Results for Ethics Reporting
Examples of Positive Results for Ethics Reporting
The last article was pretty gloomy, so let me change it up to be more positive. To follow are examples I have been involved in where the employees/professionals timely report potential issues and how they were addressed.
1. Facility Manager wants to hire their spouse as a direct report. It was a mark of desperation that the manager even considered employing their spouse. The main issues were their location in a generally undesirable geographic area and the skill set was both unique and sought after. The Manager sought input from the Ethics team when their facility and corporate HR struck out with no viable/affordable candidates. The Ethics team worked out a reporting and monitoring structure that generally separated the spouses at work and a third party validated the work, pay, and working environment.?
?2. CPA’s new client was very talkative and over communicated … thankfully – CPA started review of documents to get them in order and prepare for tax season. Notice of audit came in and client asked what would happen to the audit if their records were destroyed in a fire. CPA warned them not to have this accident and consequences if talk continued or actually happened.
Result - Talk continued and CPA dropped client and reported them to IRS.
This was a no-win situation. If he stayed with the client he would be paid, but would the money be worth the risk that the client would turn on them or worse, living with his actions.
?3. Operations team completed review and vendor site and on way to another vendor site with 8-hour drive ahead. Vendor scheduled to fly their employees to same area and offered seats to Operations team. They flew to the site to conduct scheduled vendor site visit. For cost saving team to drive to another vendor site and then fly home. First vendor had company plane and had a scheduled trip to same area for their employees. Learned of Ops team trip and had empty seats and offered ride to Ops team. No significant measurable extra cost to Vendor and cost savings to Ops team
Result – Declined due to perception, especially since close to contract renewal
Great for connection, Bad for appearances and perceptions of others
4. Slipped on the slippery slope. In the beginning a Sales Agent helped their friend with a free worker’s compensation policy … or did he? Sales Agent’s friend was contractor and complained to the agent about the need for a worker comp policy to get a lucrative contract. Unfortunately, the cost of a worker’s compensation policy was too much for them. The Agent agreed and offered to help the friend out and issue a paper policy for them to show and get the contract. Unfortunately, as luck would have it one of the friend’s employees got hurt on the job and submitted a claim. The result was the claim was denied, the agent terminated, and the friend lost the contract. In this case the road was paved with good intentions, just not good ethical choices that everyone suffered for in the end.
I hope the above instances demonstrate that asking permission on ethics almost always wins out over asking forgiveness.
Other resources to consider on this topic can be found on:
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners - https://www.acfe.com/search?s=ethics?
Compliance and Ethics Newsletter - Compliance and Ethics: Ideas & Answers. Edition 101 | LinkedIn
Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics - Corporate Compliance and Ethics Resources | SCCE Official Site
Please let me know if I can help or be a resource for your questions / comments on the content of this article. ?If you would like all the articles, please let me know at?[email protected]?and I will share. ?My ethics experience has included interim Ethics Director, reporting, policy development, and investigations.
George