Business Ethics

Creating an Open and Non-Retaliatory Workplace Emily Heard and William Miller

One of the major challenges in business ethics today is creating a safe environment where employees can raise concerns about possible misconduct and wrongdoing.

Despite the creation of helplines and ethics offices, creating a safe environment where employees can raise concerns about possible misconduct without experiencing retaliation is still one of the least well developed elements of most business ethics programs.

Organizations can face an up-hill battle in creating an open and non-retaliatory environment.

Companies also must oppose cultural and historical barriers to speaking up.

However, companies can effectively work against this resistance.

By implementing the seven keys outlined in this article, organizations can start to build open and non-retaliatory workplaces, and demonstrate to employees that it is safe to raise concerns.

International Business Ethics Institute launched a study to investigate two

questions:

How can organizations create an open environment that encourages the reporting of misconduct?

How can organizations reduce retaliation?

7 key factors

The Institute has identified seven keys that companies can implement to create an open and non-retaliatory workplace.

Key 1: Foster an Organizational Culture that Values Open,

Two-way Communications Corporate culture has a tremendous impact on how

quick employees are to communicate with an organization.

Organizations must create a corporate culture where dialogue and feedback are regular practice – and this should extend to every level of employee throughout the organization.

Such a culture can build the foundation of an open problem-solving environment, demonstrate to employees that it is safe to raise concerns, and exhibit that the organization takes retaliation seriously.

As a first step, organizations should conduct an internal assessment to diagnose and rectify the cultural barriers that prevent employees from speaking up.

The assessment should encompass a representative cross-section of the organization and should include a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

The assessment should examine such issues as:

• Commonness of misconduct observed by employees• Tendency to report misconduct• Reasons for not reporting misconduct • Usage and perceived effectiveness of the channels available to report wrongdoing• Perceptions of retaliation

The assessment will identify areas that companies need to address and to promote an organizational culture that values ‘speaking up.’ Companies should then resolve company-wide challenges, as well as regional or functional challenges.

After the survey is complete, companies should organize focus groups and conduct interviews with employees to gain more insight into the general issues identified in the survey.

It is important that the conversation be framed in simplification so that employees will provide more straight feedback.

Key 2: Create Effective Communication Channels All organizations should have multiple

resources in place through which employees can seek guidance and raise concerns.

While it is recommended that organizations encourage employees to go to their manager first, having multiple channels in place empowers employees by giving them the opportunity to select the method with which they are most comfortable.

While many companies will already have multiple channels in place, it is crucial that employees know how to use each channel.

It is also essential that organizations ensure that these channels are operational and effective.

For example, if a company uses an external helpline vendor, it is very important to conduct test calls to assess the effectiveness and quality of service provided by the helpline operators. Test calls should be conducted in several languages in order to monitor the consistency of the service for international employees.

Information Richness of Communication Channels

Formal reports,bulletins

Lowchannelrichness

Highchannelrichness

Prerecordedspeeches

Online discussiongroups, groupware

Live speeches Videoconferences

Memos, letters Electronic mail Voice mail Telephoneconversations

Face-to-faceconversation

Key 3: Develop Effective Standards on Raising Concerns and on Discouraging Retaliatory Behavior Having effective standards on raising concerns and retaliation can help demonstrate that

an organization values open communication. Corporate standards on raising concerns and retaliation should apply to the entire workforce.

For these resources to be effective, standards must: • Allow employees to understand that the company is open to hearing reports of

wrongdoing

• Demonstrate that the organization takes employee concerns seriously

• Explain the processes and procedures for telling misconduct to the company

• Provide a list of resources for employees to contact

• Let employees know what to expect when raising concerns

• Send the message that the company does not tolerate retaliation

Key 4: Implement Dedicated Training for All Employees on Raising Concerns and Retaliation Recent surveys show that just over half of employees

that observe misconduct actually report the behaviour.

Often, employees believe no corrective action will be taken, fear retaliation, or see reporting as outside their area of responsibility.

Providing dedicated training on raising concerns and retaliation – not simply including it as part of general ethics or code of conduct training – provides an opportunity to address employee hesitation to report misconduct, educate employees on how to raise concerns, and address fear of retaliation.

It is important to deliver the training to the entire workforce. Dedicated training can be offered as classroom training or e-training.

Some of the elements that training should address include:

1. Discuss reasons to report concerns

2. Show that speaking up have positive impact

3. Discuss where and how to report misconduct or seek guidance.

4. Outline what to expect when raising a concern

5. In order to allow employees to understand how to incorporate lessons from the training into daily situations and demonstrate the relevance to their work, it is important to integrate interactive exercises in the training (e.g., scenarios, role-plays).

Key 5: Implement Dedicated Training for Managers on

Creating an Open Environment and Addressing Concerns In a recent survey published by KPMG, 81% of employees

indicated that they would most likely report misconduct to their supervisor or another manager.

Yet, managers are often not prepared to listen to and follow up on employee concerns.

Accordingly, organizations should offer dedicated training to managers on how to create an open environment, as well as how to listen to and follow up on employee concerns.

Due to the important role that managers play daily and in relationship to raising concerns, this is an essential component to developing an open and non-retaliatory environment.

Key 6: Implement and Maintain Problem-Focused

Processes for Investigating and Resolving Concerns When handling reports of misconduct and conducting

investigations into wrongdoing, companies have a tendency to do one or both of the following:

1. “Shoot the messenger” – Rather than focusing on resolving the misconduct, organizations retaliate against the individual that identified the report.

2. Emphasize punishment of the “bad apples” while failing to correct the root-cause of the problem – At times, companies can be so focused on punishing the employees responsible for the wrongdoing that they fail to identify a systemic cause or rectify the actual problem.

Companies should make sure that the investigation and follow-up processes that they have in place focus on actually solving the problem.

This will contribute to creating an open and non-retaliatory workplace by demonstrating that the organization takes reports seriously, showing that action is taken to address wrongdoing, and illustrating that employees will not suffer retaliation for speaking up.

One way in which companies can ensure they have

problem-focused processes is to assess and strengthen their existing investigation processes.

Key 7: Establish an Effective Ongoing Communication

Strategy Ongoing communication is an important tool in creating an open

environment.

Messages should be sent continuously and address the following:

1. Repeat that raising concerns is valued

2. Remind employees about the channels available for raising concerns

3. Illustrate that action is taken to address the problems

4. Organizations should use a variety of methods to communicate these messages. Using “Scrubbed” Reports of Actual Cases is one effective method of communication. Such reports include descriptions of actual wrongdoing and the action taken by the company to solve the problem. Such an approach illustrates that misconduct is taken seriously.