The Importance of Having a Code of Conduct in the Workplace

Every company must have a code of conduct in place. This only needs to be one document because an employee code of conduct is basically the same as a corporate code of conduct.

A company's code of ethics in business is only effective if it is written down and it has a firm buy-in from all employees, managers, executives, and directors. Additionally, all of these parties must review and sign a business code of ethics every year because laws, policies, and regulations do change. It is also important for organizations to review their corporate code of conduct policies at least once a year to ensure they are in accordance with laws and regulations.

A code of business ethics conduct should have specific procedures for dealing with employee ethics, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, insider trading and more. It should protect the integrity and legal liability not only of employees, but for customers and business partners as well.

You don't have to have a lawyer develop your corporate code of conduct. You can do it yourself. Consider the following business code of conduct guidelines when developing business codes of conduct:

• Identify key business ethics behaviors needed to adhere to the values in your code of ethics. Don't forget to consider values from laws and regulations that may apply.
  
  
• Include wording in your corporate code of ethics that show all employees that they are expected to conform to the behaviors in the code of conduct. Add wording business code of ethics that indicates where employees can go if they have any questions.
  
  
• Include code of conduct scenarios that help bring to life the topic at hand. Employees may tire of reading the legal information and may appreciate some real-life code of conduct scenarios that relate directly to code of business ethics that your company has.
  
  
• Make sure your legal ethics department reviews the drafted code of conduct.
  
  
• Ensure each employee has a copy of the company's code of business conduct and that your corporate code of ethics is clear.
  
  
• Include business and ethics examples such as: preferred style of dress, avoiding illegal drugs, following instructions of superiors, being reliable and prompt, maintaining confidentiality, not accepting personal gifts from stakeholders as a result of company role, avoiding racial or sexual discrimination, avoiding conflict of interest, complying with laws and regulations, not using organization's property for personal use, not discriminating against race or age, and reporting illegal or questionable activity.

Character Training Inc. and Global Ethics University has programs that support most company's codes of conduct and any corporate code of ethics. Our programs have been designed to follow general ethical principles that are included in top Fortune 500 company codes of ethical conduct. All of our programs have an employee code of conduct and appropriate corporate code of conduct. Let us help you meet your code of conduct training needs today.