Ensure that all your employees are aware of behavioural rules before joining your organisation, and give people the confidence to bring discrimination to light. Develop a diverse workforce by hiring individuals who represent various backgrounds. Having a diverse workforce will lower the risk of discrimination and bring in different perspectives and knowledge. Maintain a fair and transparent pay scale and always keep a check on if anybody is over or underutilised for what they are paid.
Read more about workplace entitlements and obligations on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. According to a report by Safe Work Australia, Australian workers lost their lives at work due to injuries sustained doing a work-related activity.
Although the overall the number of fatalities has been decreasing since , every number above zero is one number too many. It's also wise to remember that an employee's psychological well-being is just as important as their physical health, and it's important to pay attention to both. Regularly inspect your workplace for any potential hazards and assess if your business follows all necessary safety standards.
Make sure your business meets the mandatory requirement for having an adequate number of trained first aiders. Apart from that, you can also train all your employees on how to handle emergency situations and give them a hands-on demonstration to use basic first aid equipment. Talk to your employees about their work-related stress and regularly check in to see how they're doing.
Read more about workplace safety on the Safe Work Australia website. It's hard to determine the ethics of dismissing or disciplining workers for their social media behaviour outside of work hours. In most situations, an employee can be fired for their online behaviour given that there's a justifiable reason such as breaching your business policy rather than an attempt to cover up a business's unlawful activities.
However, when the process of determining the valid reason is mishandled, it can cause serious trouble for your business. What you can do to address ethical concerns related to your employees' social media use :. Set a clear social media policy for your business to help employees understand what online behaviour is expected from them, why it's important, and what consequences they may face for violation.
Use clear and simple language while drafting your social media policy to ensure that its objective is not misunderstood. With advancements in surveillance technology, you can now track every step your employees make on your business-owned devices. While this move is intended to ensure productivity, it can quickly become unethical when it crosses the line into snooping.
The increased use of face coverings, hand washing and social distancing will likely decrease rates of the seasonal flu going forward. Dennis Bell, Founder and CEO of Byblos Coffee explains how accounting has always been at the forefront of ethical issues in any business. This type of misconduct seems unavoidable and needs to be reported in all cases:. They misrepresent their earnings and expenses to qualify for tax deductions.
They manipulate their financial reports to make them look more successful. Business owners are now personally reviewing their records to ensure their accuracy.
They even use accounting software tools to help them manage and keep track of their finances. As businesses struggle to survive in this pandemic, they tend to inflate their reports to look successful despite the situation.
They risk themselves to legal implications for them to sustain their lives. Even if you take all of the necessary precautions, you should always be prepared to handle them. Use them as an opportunity to learn in building a better and more ethical business in this industry. As mentioned above, businesses can learn from these mistakes, and the best way to make this happen is to report any concerns to upper management. Whether it's suspicions of illegal activity, witnessing misconduct or having ethical concerns, these can be voiced privately using an anonymous whistleblowing hotline.
With the recent shift to remote work in response to the pandemic, new privacy concerns have developed. Rishi Chawla, Partner at Premier Brains shares her insights:. One of the most common is the monitoring of their employees. While many provide equipment for their employees, many others do not, and require them to install some form of monitoring software.
It is essential for any business to have clear communication across the board and to establish healthy boundaries. Should situations of conflict arise, employees need an outlet to safely and confidentially raise their concerns. In this case, whistleblowing software is essential for giving employees the confidence they need to speak up and enhance their workplace environment.
The COVID pandemic has created several opportunities for individuals to engage in fraud, specifically in terms of unemployment benefits. Nance Schick, Esq.
This is a classic example of how we can understand behavior without condoning it. In the United States, federal and state governments establish rules and procedures for how a business should be run. Businesses that fail to follow federal and state guidelines often face large fines and other penalties. Larger companies sometimes decide that breaking laws and paying the fines involves lower costs than the financial gain made from breaking those laws.
However, consistently breaking laws can lead to costly legal battles that outweigh the initial gain. Additionally, executives at companies who break laws and engage in unethical behavior that leads to harmful practices for employees and customers could find themselves facing criminal charges. A lack of ethics has a negative effect on employee performance.
In some cases, employees are so concerned with getting ahead and making money that they ignore procedures and protocol. This can lead to additional paperwork and careless errors that result in the task having to be completed again. Additionally, employees who feel acting ethically and following the rules will not get them ahead in the business sometimes feel a lack of motivation, which often leads to a decrease in performance.
When a manager or head of a business exhibits a lack of ethical behavior, he faces losing the respect of his employees. It is difficult to have a successful business without well-respected leaders.
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