A code of conduct and complete employee handbook can help define expectations for employee behavior outside work. These tools protect an employer’s reputation in the community when behavior is clearly ethically indefensible, besides being illegal. They also help co-workers feel that standards–and possibly their personal safety–are taken seriously.
Review our free Toolkits for steps to create a Code of Conduct and to hire people who match your values, as well as other ways to build an ethical corporate environment.
Stacey Supina, Executive Fellow, Center for Ethics in Practice, and faculty member, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas
