Federal and state laws encourage employees to notify government or law enforcement when they believe their employer is breaking a statute or regulation. Companies that violate whistleblower statutes face hefty fines, as well as wrongful discharge claims. To help reduce your exposure to such claims, here are some suggestions:
- Be clear about the type of ethical/legal issues that come up in your business. For example, if you’re running a nursing home, patient care would be the most likely source of concern.
- Define your ethics policy and publish it prominently. Let workers and managers know that employees and executives who flout these guidelines will be quickly and severely disciplined, if not immediately terminated.
- Train managers on how to handle corporate pressures and the possibility of malfeasance.
- Educate employees and offer them a safe place to go to with concerns.
- Distribute an Ethics Disclosure Statement (there’s one on the HR That Works site) that asks employees if they’ve witnessed unethical conduct. This is an important step, because few employees will volunteer this information.
- If a problem arises, deal with it immediately and properly. Realize that your actions could end up on the front page or in a courtroom. Whatever you do, resist the human tendency to ignore, bury, or deny the situation.
For more information on maintaining your corporate integrity, visit the Ethics Resource Center at
http://www.ethics.org or the Michael Josephson Institute at
http://www.josephsoninstitute.org.