Managing ethics is an integral part of any successful business operation, and important decisions that affect the company’s bottom line always involve ethics. Studies have shown that ethical companies outperform unethical ones, and that employees in ethical organizations are more loyal and generally more satisfied with their work.
In addition, ethical organizations:
• Attract and retain higher quality employees, customers, suppliers and investors.
• Earned goodwill with community members and government officials
• Achieve greater efficiency and better decision-making, based on more reliable information from interested parties.
• Achieve higher product quality
• You need less supervision of employees Although the ideal scenario is to hire and work with people who have the same high level of ethics as the management team, unfortunately with a diverse set of employees and personalities that is not always possible.
Business expert and author Denis Collins points to research indicating that the average person lies twice a day. The magnitude of the lie is what is at stake, and the bigger the lie, the greater the impact it has on an organization.
So the question is for management executives to determine how best to minimize the detrimental effect these unethical employees have on the organization. Before people with these characteristics become employees, it’s important to take a closer look at the hiring process. Making a questionable hiring decision and unknowingly hiring someone with a poor moral compass can have a huge impact on a company.
Collins urges managing executives to view the hiring process as an ethical selection process. In addition to interviewing for technical skill, those doing the hiring should also research a potential employee’s code of ethics.
Collins has outlined the following Five-Step Ethics Job Selection Process:
1. basic legal rules: Ensure that all interviewees, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, or disability, are considered for any position.
2. behavior information– Perform a thorough review of behavioral information such as background checks, summaries, and integrity tests.
3. Personality traits: Offer personality tests as part of the interview, so that characteristics such as social dominance, conscientiousness, and organizational citizenship behavior can be assessed.
4. Interview Questions and Answers: Pose ethical dilemmas as hypothetical situations and see how the interviewees respond.
5. Other tests: If possible, take additional tests to look for indicators of integrity, such as drug, alcohol, and polygraph tests.
By following these hiring guidelines, companies will have a better idea of the ethical code of future employees and will be able to better assess if and how these employees can fit into the organization.
