CareerCurve™

I’ve posted previously about the culture of an organization and the various roles it plays in retention, trust, engagement level, and overall productivity of the company.  I’ve also said that culture is to an organization what character is to an individual.  But did you ever think about the connection between an ethical culture and effective compliance programs?

A strong ethical culture exists when doing the right thing takes precedence over getting the job done.  In short, HOW things are done matters most.  The Ethics Resource Council has published many fascinating studies on numerous topics related to ethics but one I found particularly interesting discusses the effectiveness of workplace compliance programs depending on the ethical culture.  This study also discusses the most important factor in establishing a strong ethical culture.

Compliance programs are meant to both reduce misconduct and increase reporting of misconduct.  If you have a strong ethical culture your employees feel less pressure to commit misconduct. Because they don’t feel pressured they are also far less likely to observe misconduct by others.  In strong cultures employees are much more likely to report misconduct and the retaliation rate drops considerably.  This means your compliance program is far more likely to be effective.   To me it seems as though a strong ethical culture is key to uniting the organization toward a common goal where those that want to break the rules are not welcome and should be reported.

So what is the most important component in creating a strong ethical culture in your organization?  The behavior and perceived behavior of top management and executives. 

Keep in mind that most of this is based on perception.  When considering ethics, perception is reality.  It doesn’t matter nearly as much WHAT is happening.  It’s all about what the employees THINK is happening.  The actions and perceived ethics of top management drive the culture and the culture has the largest impact on the critical components of compliance issues. 

To  implement effective compliance programs building and maintaining a strong ethical culture needs to be a business goal.   This has an impact on the risks and costs of misconduct (legal action, turnover, retaliation), as well as company reputation and employer brand.  Creating this culture has to start at the top and can be accomplished by transparency, communication, building trust, and walking the talk.

This is one situation where a top down business model is still the most effective.

Do you have effective compliance issues?  Do you have a strong ethical culture in your organization?

Everywhere you look online you will see articles about all the people preparing to quit their jobs.  One article says 95% percent of employees will consider looking for a new job.  The Spherion Workforce study released last week shows many reasons why, including lack of security, increased workload with no additional pay, and an inability to completely disconnect from work when on vacation or even when sick.

But a manager’s role is the most important factor.  A Gallup poll of more 1 million employed U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor.  ERC, Ohio’s leading HR organization, recommends 5 ways to engage employees to help retention.  Numbers one and two involve training managers to pay attention to certain behaviors so that they can be addressed and holding managers accountable for retaining their best team members.

If you want to assess whether managers at your company are responsible for the loss of talent there are few questions you can ask yourself. 

 Have you heard of an employee who left to take the exact same job somewhere else for LESS money?

 Have you learned about people leaving and saying that they would be a “better fit” somewhere else?

Has anyone ever told you they are leaving because they just have differing philosophies than their boss?

If you have, you might need to hire better managers. 

The best managers are those that are going to take accountability.  They will ask “What didn’t I do that resulted in one of my members wanting to leave my team?” 

Do you have employees leaving for non-better jobs?  Do you pay attention to the relationship between your managers and their teams?  Do you train your managers and hold them accountable for retention?

Social Media is creating quite the stir for businesses on multiple levels and bringing up a lot of questions that haven’t had to be answered in the past.  There is the challenge of how an organization can use social media to boost sales, how it can be used effectively for customer service, how to not only institute policies and governance for your employees but then how to enforce these rules. And then there is the question of ethics and acceptable usage in the hiring process.

Many human resource departments consider it unethical to Google a potential recruit.  I don’t really understand this position mainly because each candidate has a fairly decent level of control over what information exists about them in social media.  If a candidate chooses to put something out there, why would you, as a human resource employee, have an obligation not to look at it?  I understand that there are times when things may appear about an individual that he or she doesn’t want on the web, but it is possible to take steps to remove these things, or at the very least, hide them from view.  My position is that if you put it out there, I’m going to read it and I don’t see how that is unethical.  I also use common sense and understand that it is the internet and you can’t believe everything you read.

That being said, I do think it is absolutely unethical to try to “friend” someone for the purpose of being nosy and attempting to learn things that are none of your business.  A candidate may feel obligated to accept a request whether they want to or not to get a job and that is not a fair position for the candidate to be in.  There is a line between things that are work related and things that are personal and using your “power” to cross over that line and use personal information to screen someone’s ability to do a job is wrong.

Maybe the issue isn’t as simple as whether it is ethical or not, but whether the intention when it is used, is ethical. This creates a whole new challenge.  If an hr person is viewing the accessible information for the purpose of getting the “dirt” on someone, that is wrong.  But if he or she is doing research in the hopes of finding documentation that supports the information they’ve been given by candidates or seen on a resume, I just don’t see a problem with this.  So how in the world can you assess this with your hiring managers?

Even given the issues surrounding the ethical usage of these platforms for screening candidates, isn’t a large part of this whole equation the candidate’s responsibility?  Where is the accountability?  Is it with the person who is doing the reading, or with the person who is announcing their personal information all over the web? 

I vote that each potential hire is an adult capable of making choices.  If he or she chooses to call in sick to go to the beach and announces it on Twitter, or chooses to bad mouth their colleagues on Facebook but NOT ensure that this information is not viewable by anyone in the free world, I am not going to feel bad about reading it.  And it will color my impression of the candidate in a professional sense.  This provides a lot of relevant information about this candidate that I would have to take into consideration.  At the very least, he or she is irresponsible in using social media at all, whether due to ignorance or just plain lacking the common sense.  Edit yourself!  This is not an ethical concern for me but a responsibility concern for the interviewee.  Although common sense by the reader does come into play here as well.  Was it one tweet out of a hundred?  Or is there a constant stream of disparaging remarks about the employer or the co-workers?

What do you think?  Do you use these tools when screening potential hires?  Do you feel bad about it if you do?  Should candidates be held accountable for what exists about them in the world of social media?  Are you obligated not to use these tools for ethical reasons?  Do you have hiring managers on your staff that use social media for the purpose of evil rather than good?  How do you handle that if you suspect that is what’s happening?

Listening is definitely a skill and it is one that pays off.  The better a manager can listen, the more likely an employee will be productive. 

People want to be heard.  This is true in all relationships, whether they are personal or professional.  Think about arguments you’ve had with people who are important in your life.  If you’ve ever experienced a “successful” argument, you know what I’m talking about.  This is a situation where you may be angry and upset but it is discussed and resolved.  I’d bet one of the factors that made this happen was that you felt you were heard.  Being heard provides validity to your feelings as well as creating respect and appreciation for the person you are arguing with, no matter how angry you are at that moment.  Professional situations are no different. 

Let’s say an employee feels that there are unrealistic expectations as far as their work is concerned.  If you truly listen, you can then ascertain whether this is genuinely a problem that needs to be addressed or if it is simply a situation where your employee is feeling overwhelmed and needs some reasssurance.  Either way,  it won’t matter as much if the actual solution is effective right away.   They will feel better because you listened well enough to understand what it was they were trying to say.  It is easy to sit there with someone and hear the words they are saying but then miss the meaning.  Many times we are too busy forming our response and we don’t even hear a lot of the words.  Sometimes you may have too many other deadlines and concerns on your mind to pay attention or you may truly be pressed for time.  Other times you may not really respect the person enough to believe there is anything you could learn from the conversation.  These are dangerous mistakes to make because it is very difficult to fake listening.  Can’t you tell when someone isn’t really listening to you?  My kids can and they are barely school age. 

How can someone respect a person who won’t take a few minutes to really care ?  (Because that is what it feels like to not be listened to - they don’t care.)  Then that same uncaring person demands certain things from you.  How motivated will you really be to meet those goals?  Now you can see how productivity is affected.

Here are some suggestions that I find helpful.  I’m certainly no expert but I’ve seen these things make a difference for me in numerous relationships, both personally and professionally.

Care enough to make the effort. 

Nothing feels worse than talking to someone and having them be off in la la land.  Or worse yet, I interact with someone who will turn and join a different conversation while I am answering a question that he asked me!  Why did you ask?  Now I just stop talking in the middle of a sentence and most of the time it goes unnoticed.   I get that some people aren’t good listeners, but for crying out loud, at least pretend you care for 5 minutes or don’t converse with me at all.

Reiterate or summarize what they said to be sure you really understand what was meant. 

One of my favorite lines (annoying to a lot of people who know, me I’m sure) is “If I heard you correctly, you think…”  Then again, I think I overcommunicate, so maybe you should disregard this one.  It is very helpful though to find out as early as possible that you are not on the same page, especially if you are trying to work through an issue or solve a problem.

Be honest. 

If it is not a good time, just say so.  If you have too many things on your mind, admit it.  No one has ever offended me or made me feel they don’t care what I have to say if they are too busy at that moment.  Delivered properly, this can be a great message that proves exactly the opposite.  Something like, “I’d really like to dedicate my brain and my time to this conversation, but I have to get on a call in 5 minutes.  Do you want to try to talk now or can we sit down at 3 o’clock?”

Be humble. 

A little humility goes a long way.  When I was a bartender I was constantly amazed at the way I was viewed versus the person I am.  Shock and surprise often followed someone finding out I went to college.  Or after having an in depth conversation about anything.   To be fair, the same was true in reverse at times.  I loved surprising people who began a conversation thinking one thing and walked away thinking another.  And I loved being surprised.  If you really listen, you learn quickly that almost everyone has something of value to offer – you just have to be paying attention.  Do not assume because you know three things about someone that you know that person.  And do not assume that you have nothing to learn from the person you are interacting with.  We can all learn from others, all the time. 

Practicing some of these things will help them become second nature.  Once it is second nature to listen well, your employees will respect, appreciate, and produce for you.

I posed some questions in my previous post regarding trust in an organization – how much it matters and what are the benefits.  As I’ve read other articles and participated in conversations on this subject it would seem as though it matters.  A lot. 

There have been some surveys recently that show that trust is very low right now out  in the workplace and that this is a dangerous trend that HR leaders would be wise to pay attention to.  This article references some of the issues that arise in an environment that lacks trust. 

One interesting point that is mentioned is the lack of trust not only between management and employees but between co-workers as well.  I hadn’t considered the impact of this in my previous post but it seems as though this trend can be just as dangerous.  It appears as though some companies actively discourage trust between co-workers to avoid unionization, which can result from a group trusting each other but not their managers.  The result  is decreased productivity. 

To discourage trust means that personal relationships in the workplace barely exist.  I suppose logic would show that less time spent on personal conversation means more work gets done.  I can’t buy into this though because happy people work harder.  Don’t they? If you don’t trust the people you work with, you don’t talk to them much and I would imagine when you need a break, you are more likely to waste time surfing the net, sending personal emails or calling your friends that you do trust.  None of this helps your company in any way. 

Is 15 minutes of personal conversation by the water cooler really that detrimental in the long run?  Wouldn’t personal relationships at work create more of a team environment where people ultimately work more efficiently?  When there is trust with your co-workers, don’t you use that time to talk about work anyway?  I know I do.  I  have personal conversations with the people I work with and they always end up being work related.  The difference is we are not chatting to complain or avoid working but just want to touch base and catch up.  We usually end up brainstorming and problem solving.  We are always trying to help each other do a better job.  Maybe the important thing to consider when assessing the role trust plays with co-workers is not to calculate the time spent in personal conversations, but instead to focus on what those conversations are about.