|
 |
|
Your business will gain by participating in Robinson Ethics Seminars.
Here are just a few of the benefits:
- Your business will develop a more favorable corporate reputation, earning the respect of your customers, clients and competitors.
- Your business will attract better applicants.
- Your business will retain your better employees and a more committed workforce.
- Your investors will confidently place their trust and funds in your company.
And, you should know:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act ("SOX") mandates disclosure of whether a code of ethics has been adopted. If your company does not have a code of ethics, it must explain why. Obviously, the Securities and Exchange Commission deems it important to have a code of ethics.
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines require the sentencing judge to reduce the penalty if the business has an ethics and compliance program that creates a culture of ethics. The business must have an "effective program to prevent and detect violations of the law" and it shall evaluate periodically the effectiveness of its compliance and ethics program. The business can be held liable for its employees’ illegal conduct. Unlike SOX, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines apply to all companies, whether or not it issues stock.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states that employers with 15 or more employees should establish and enforce a policy prohibiting harassment and should set out a procedure for making complaints. Any employment decision or treatment of an employee based on a factor other than ability is unfair and calls the employer’s ethics into question. Aggrieved employees and former employees have sued their employers resulting in huge verdicts and settlements, not to mention attorney’s fees.
Your organization needs this training before a problem arises. Robinson Ethics Seminars will improve employee morale and confidence and, ultimately, your bottom line. Businesses which have failed to act ethically have paid the price, including, hefty fines, lost profits, dissolution of the company and deflated stock values. And, some executives are in prison serving lengthy sentences.
All employees need this training. Supervisors, upper level managers and corporate officers need to learn how to manage for ethical behavior and to create and maintain a culture of ethics so they can effectively lead with integrity. Subordinate employees need ethics training to learn the organization’s values and to develop a sense of responsibility and accountability. The federal sentencing guidelines require that everyone in the organization be trained. Robinson Ethics Seminars is designed to reach every employee in your organization.
Your most valuable asset, your workforce, from your CEO to support staff to laborers, needs to learn how to:
- Create a culture of ethics by:
- drafting a values statement for your organization, department or team or, improve your values statement
- using the values statement in a meaningful way
- inspiring and encouraging everyone to "walk the talk"
- Detect the ethical issues
- Handle common ethics issues, such as:
- human resources issues
- discrimination
- harassment
- nepotism
- whistle blowers
- conflicts of interest
- kickbacks
- proprietary information
- inappropriate use of influence
- customer confidence issues
- product safety
- confidential customer information
- truth in advertising
- misuse of corporate resources
- corporate property
- corporate reputation
- investor relations issues
- investor trust
- Sarbanes-Oxley
Robinson Ethics Seminars is composed of two steps. The first step is a thorough analysis of your organization’s ethics culture and ethics system. This analysis will tap into the ethics needs and problems of your ethics system. The second step is a customized training plan that addresses your organization’s problems. As ethical and legal compliance are intertwined, this may include training in the law relative to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, whistle-blowers, employment and discrimination and contracts. As partners in the process, we will discuss the analysis results and the proposed training plan. The ultimate goal is for the organization to take on its own ethics management. Follow up analysis and training is available.
By the end of the seminar, participants will have a variety of ethics "tools" they can use immediately. They will benefit and so will your company.
The training is offered in seminar format. Participants engage in dialogue, a question and answer session, surveys, hypothetical problem solving and role play. If needed, key members of management will participate in drafting a values statement and ethics policy. The training will last from one-half day to full day or multi-day depending on your company’s needs and the number attending.
Robinson Ethics Seminars empowers people with practical, easy to use tools to prevent, detect and handle ethical problems. So many ethics training programs lecture about theory. They quote philosophers and ethical theorists. Or they assume ignorance. Most ethics training professionals profess to know what is best for your company without knowing your company’s ethics systems and culture. Robinson Ethics Seminars works with management to custom fit the training that suits your company’s needs.
I urge your company’s leaders to consider just a few questions:
- Does the organization have a written ethics code that is read and understood by every employee?
- Does everyone in the organization know the organization’s values?
- Are leaders perceived as ethical?
- Do leaders "walk the talk?"
- Are whistle-blowers encouraged?
- Is there a system for anonymous reporting of illegal or unethical behavior?
- Are people of integrity promoted?
- Is misconduct disciplined quickly and fairly within the organization?
- Are managers trained in ethical decision making?
- Does the organization emphasize values and ethics to its newly hired employees?
- Are workers at all positions and levels encouraged to take responsibility for their actions?
If you answered "No" to any of these questions, then your organization needs the benefits of professional ethics training. While these questions are no substitute for the thorough and customized onsite evaluation that Robinson Ethics Seminars offers, your answers give you some idea regarding your company’s ethics health. Make the decision to protect your company and your employees. Contact Robinson Ethics Seminars today.
|
