Creating a Workplace Code of Ethics:

An organizational code of ethics guides everyone from company leadership to frontline employees by providing a foundation of conduct expectations from which all can base their workplace behaviors. The size of the organization doesn’t matter. It’s best to have a code of ethics that leaders, employees and even vendors may use. In today’s virtually connected space it’s even more important to have a code of ethics since your employees may easily reach out and connect with other organizations and people all over the world.
Many resources exist that will help you create your own organizational code of ethics or tweak the one that you already have in place. This article highlights a few resources that will assist you as you begin to create a code of ethics.
A good starting point is the Ethics Resource Center, www.ethics.org. This nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization’s website offers an Ethics Toolkit that has everything from an Ethics Glossary to Writing Tips for an Effective Code of Conduct. Just click on Resources in the top menu for a variety of free-to-download items.
10 Tips for Workplace Ethics
One particularly helpful article from the Ethics Toolkit that can stimulate your thinking about ethics is “Ten Things You Can Do to Avoid Being the Next Enron,” by Dr. Stuart Gilman, Dr. Patricia Harned, Frank Navran and Jerry Brown. The following points are covered:

1. Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place.
2. Don’t just print, post and pray.
3. Build a robust ethics infrastructure that is self-sustaining.
4. Publicly commit to being an ethical organization.
5. Separate auditing from consulting functions.
6. Talk with employees at all levels often!
7. Build ethical conduct into corporate systems.
8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the seven main provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind. (These guidelines require that specific individuals within “high level personnel of the organization be assigned overall responsibility to oversee compliance with (the organization's) standards and procedures.”)
9. Choose to live your corporate values.
10. Keep the lines of communication open.