2. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Introduction
• Definition 1:
• Ethics training programs refer to the programs which are
designed by a firm to promote ethical behavior. An ethics
training program provides employees with instructions on how
to deal with ethical dilemmas when they occur and improve
their overall ethical conduct.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Definition (2):
• “Ethics training programs are designed to help everyone
understand where the line is drawn between acceptable and
unacceptable workplace behavior.”
• Nowadays consumers have become more aware of ethical
business practices than before. Because they can
easily access information about businesses and the way they
perform business. Consumers are immensely conscious of this
information and they decide to invest their money accordingly.
4. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• . Because of this easy access to information, individuals have
become very conscious of ethical businesses and their impact.
Staying away from unethical business practices not only helps
to develop a good reputation but also keeps the business safe
from lawsuits or litigation.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Unethical business practices and money scandals can result in
a huge loss in profit leading to a decrease in employee
motivation and ultimately bankruptcy. Fulfilling and
maintaining productivity and quality can develop a suitable
reputation and keep a healthy code of ethics for the business.
For all these reasons ethics training programs are essential for
a successful business.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Ethics training for employees is vital to ensure the
most successful working environment. Businesses
that engage in unethical behavior will realize quickly
that these practices are bad for business. Such
companies risk incurring millions of dollars in fines, in
addition to losing customers and lowering the value
of the company. More than 50% of the largest
bankruptcies in the corporate world have occurred
due to unethical practices.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Carrying out an ethics training program is also vital
for the purpose of establishing what personal
behavior is acceptable. Is harassing or bullying
taking place in your company? Are conflicts being
resolved in a productive manner? Are employees
conducting themselves as professionally as possible?
Ethics training for employees is key to quell bad
habits or conduct before they fester into more severe
situations, affecting morale and motivation.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• What makes Ethics Training programs effective ?
• So what are the best practices a company must carry out
in order to ensure maximum retention of an ethics training
program? As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse
to water, but you can’t make him drink. It is not only
beneficial, but absolutely vital to your company to take
whatever steps possible to assist employees in
internalizing lessons learned. Here are some tips to
create an effective ethics training program:
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 1. Establish a solid foundation
• First off, you must create a solid foundation of values in
your company in order to successfully articulate your
company ethics. There are no shortcuts here. What is the
culture of your company? Is it communicated clearly in a
code of conduct?
• It is easy to assume that senior employees are aware of
the values you are trying to impart, but are they? If senior
employees have trouble communicating it clearly, how
can you expect new hires to fully grasp it?
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 2. Pinpoint the types of ethics training necessary
• It is necessary for senior management to define
which ethics should be instilled and which must
be. Some ethics considerations related to company
culture, ethical conduct, both in and out of the
and ethics trainings related to diversity are vital to
maintain a positive company cohesion.
• On the other hand, ethics related to regulatory and
compliance training, data protection, and customer
privacy must be maintained or companies risk facing
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 3. Train employees where they are located
• Now that you have defined what kind of ethics
training needs to be implemented, you can begin to
coordinate the actual training sessions. The amount
of money spent on compliance training in the US
totalled roughly $90 billion in 2018. Outrageous,
right? Flying employees from all over the world to
one place costs a tremendous amount of money, in
addition to having to pay for food, lodging, and a
large auditorium to train all the employees. Skip it if
12. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Nowadays with video conferencing software
or online virtual classroom platforms, you can
communicate the various requirements of your ethics
training for employees simply over the internet. An
instructor can conduct a full webinar that
communicates vital information most effectively and
ultimately save time in the process by reaching a
large audience at once.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 4. Ensure compliance, proof of presence, and proof
of focus
• It is not enough to inform employees of the
guidelines of compliance. You must also ensure
employees have fully absorbed all the
information. When moderating a remote session, it
can difficult understanding how focused your
participants are. Reporting on the success of your
ethics training program or compliance requirements
may require additional reporting beyond an
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Some online virtual platforms offer a browser focus
alert feature that send an instructor a notification if
their employees failed to stay focused on the main
browser window by clicking away. Afterwards,
instructors can access detailed session stats that
summarizes total focus. You can also assess learner
understanding in real time by building
multimedia, online quizzes to measure learner
success and gauge the overall effectiveness of the
course. This ability to get live feedback is invaluable
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 5. Encourage Group Activity
• You will obtain quality results if you make your
session as dynamic as possible. Think of the last
you were in a training session in a physical location.
Perhaps you were sitting in a large auditorium,
lectured to by a moderator. How many times did
you take out your phone to pass the time? Let’s face
it, training sessions can be quite boring if you are a
passive audience member sitting in the back row.
•
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Conducting an online training session can help
increase interactivity to keep employees more
engaged. When employees are beginning to lose
focus, encourage group collaboration by splitting
your participants into breakout rooms to talk, share
and work together.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 6. Role Play
• It is easy for an employee to simply explain what
behavior is considered good or bad, or to spell out
exactly how to fix a problem. But most real life
that arise are nestled in an unclear, gray area. Role
playing a scenario allows participants to work
through ethical dilemmas that might arise in the
workplace, debating the variables of the
situation and best practices in handling it.
•
18. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• The facilitator might ask each group to present their
conclusions to the larger group, allowing feedback
and a larger discussion to form. The facilitator can
then focus on the pros and cons of the various
decisions. By fleshing out the discussion in this
manner, employees will better internalize the lessons
learned.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• 7. Balance the fun/seriousness
• Gamification and role-playing can help keep the
of the session light, which in turn might make it
easier for the participants to walk away with the
required knowledge. Remember, there is no reason
an ethics training program cannot be enjoyable for
your employees. Just make sure to take the details
planning seriously, setting aside enough time,
resources, and consideration to make sure the
training program checks off all the necessary boxes
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Ethics training is essential for your company to
successfully communicate and carry out its main
goals. Effective ethics training for employees ensures
your company is situated for success and that
individuals within the company will stay committed
to their tasks at hand in the best and most
comfortable manner.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• The advantages of ethics training for employees and
organizations
• Ethics is all about making integrity-based decisions —
decisions that are grounded in closely-held values.
• According to Christopher Adkins, executive director of the
Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership,
“Simply knowing the rules and how to call the ethics
helpline does not necessarily mean employees will raise
their voice when they see ethical issues in the workplace.”
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• In other words, organizations that establish a code of
conduct but fail to provide ethics training are unlikely to
see much behavioral change. Simply reading the code,
without the opportunity to delve deeper into how it applies
to their work, won’t do much to build a culture of integrity.
23. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• This is why it’s beneficial to provide ethics training for
employees. Its advantages can include:
• Trust and enhanced teamwork among employees
• A stronger, organization-wide sense of responsibility for
dealing fairly with customers, suppliers, and service
providers
• A positive organizational culture with enhanced employee
morale
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Loyalty from consumers who value and reward ethical
business practices
• A better brand reputation and the avoidance of costly
scandals or litigation
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Having a reputation for unethical business practices can
hurt an organization’s ability to attract and retain talent. A
2019 Glassdoor survey showed ethics matters more than
salary to many job seekers, with 82% of professionals
stating they would take a lower-paying job to work for an
organization with more ethical business practices.
26. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Developing ethics training for employees.
• Organizational ethics involves making individual and
group decisions within the boundaries of organizational
values and guidelines. Many organizations have
developed a “code of conduct” to help translate their
values into standards that guide behavior. Some also
operate within the larger context of a legal and regulatory
framework, such as those provided by HIPAA, OSHA, or
the SEC.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• A code of conduct may address such concerns as:
• Treating coworkers, customers, and the public with
respect
• Appropriate use and protection of confidential, proprietary,
or personal information
• The giving and receiving of gifts to or from customers,
suppliers, etc.
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Employment practices
• Permitted use of company assets
• Avoiding conflicts of interest
• Compliance with applicable laws and regulatory
requirements
29. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Ethics training typically covers the following topics:
• The organization’s code of conduct and cultural values
• Common ethical dilemmas
• The ethics of customer relations
• Diversity training topics
• Data privacy and protection
• Regulatory and compliance requirements
• Ethical employment practices
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Ethics training best practices.
• Employees at all levels of an organization can benefit
from ethics training, but ethics must be fostered by
leaders first and foremost. Ethics training can help leaders
become more open-minded and receptive to employees’
concerns. It can also train them to:
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Lead in such a way that engenders trust and models
accountability
• Help employees see the connection between ethics and
the work they do
• Foster a culture of integrity and ethical conduct
• Communicate the company’s values
• Notice the signs of a toxic workplace, such as bullying
and harassment
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• Leaders at all levels of an organization should model
ethical behaviors and help foster the mindsets that bring
about cultural change.
• Effective training helps learners strengthen these skills in
role play scenarios, case studies, and discussion groups.
For example, employees might engage in role plays
around situations such as:
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BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Continued
• An employee witnesses another bullying, while other
witnesses do nothing to intervene
• An employee notices a coworker plays video games on
their cell phone at work
• An employee discovers that a coworker is
misappropriating the organization’s funds
34. AMITY GLOBAL
BUSINESS SCHOOL Bhubaneswar
Conclusion
• When designing ethics training for employees, one
message that should be built in is that it’s always okay to
do the right thing. There should never be negative
consequences for shining light on ethical issues or
questioning business practices that could cause harm to
internal or external parties. When this message is
conveyed and truly felt throughout the organization,
choosing what’s right over what’s simply convenient or
profitable becomes the norm.
