Now is the time for an ethics audit!

A few years ago, Linda Trevino, now a Professor of ethics and Pen State wrote an article titled: Wanted: Ethical Employer. I was re-reading it today and found that sadly some things never change.

Here are her six points for an ethics audit.

1.   Is there a formal code of ethics? Is it widely distributed and reinforced?

2.   Are workers on all levels trained in ethical decision making? Are they encouraged to take responsibility for their decisions?

3.   Do employees have formal channels to make their concerns known confidentially?

4.   Is misconduct disciplined swiftly and justly?

5.   Is integrity emphasized to new hires.

6.   How are senior leaders received by their subordinates in terms of their integrity? How do they do they model ethical behavior?

These questions would be a great reference guide and starting point to evaluate how companies are doing in their ethics training.

The time is NOW to start planning how effective your ethics training program is? Where are the weaknesses? Where are the strengths? Where do you need to focus your attention, budget, time and effort?

If your ethics training program cannot answer these 6 questions in the affirmative, start there. You now have a topic, focus and need.

Fall is the perfect time to start a revised training approach to quality, integrated, and applied ethics training.

If not now, when???