| Establishing Ethics in the Workplace: Key Ideas for Eating and Sleeping Well! |
|
|
| Written by Christopher Bauer, Ph.D. | |
| Tuesday, 31 July 2007 | |
|
Page 2 of 2
Hostile work environment and discrimination actions are two of the fastest growing causes of litigation in the work environment and you need to be at least somewhat knowledgeable about them. In addition, if you are not up-to-date on EEOC mandates for handling concerns and complaints in these areas, you must get at least the basic information, if not more, immediately. There is far too much at stake not to.
An often-cited figure is that the average settlement cost in the United States is $250,000 for both hostile workplace and discrimination actions. However, this figure often triples when attorney fees and litigation costs are added. Though I have heard some question the $250,000 figure, roughly as many experts seem to consider it an underestimate as an overestimate.
How about the prevalence of other ethics problems for which your coworkers or employees might be responsible? In KPMG's 2003 fraud survey, 75 percent of surveyed companies reported that they had experienced instances of fraud during the previous year. Of those, employee fraud was the most prevalent (60 percent). However, financial reporting and medical/insurance fraud were the most costly. The most rapidly increasing types of fraud in their sample were theft of assets and expense account abuse.
Remember that, in addition, the rate of construction equipment theft, including heavy equipment, has ballooned in the last several years and you need to be especially careful to develop effective anti-theft systems. It doesn't take too much employee theft to add up to some serious financial setbacks. Along with this, the rate of fraudulent insurance claims for lost or stolen equipment is also on the rise. Here again, if you become aware of it, you must act on it. It doesn't matter how much you may like, value, or otherwise trust the perpetrator, not acting makes you a party to the illegal acts.
Frequently, after a problem is discovered, minor changes are made and organizations return to wishful thinking that those minor changes will be sufficient to greatly reduce the risk of ethics and legal problems. Even more frequently, compliance programs are refined and improved, but ethics programs aren't even reviewed, let alone improved. The risks created by this type of approach are extensive and will be present regardless of the type and size of business or office in which you work.
Many Construction Business Owner readers work in small offices where the time and budget for ethics training is limited. However, it is important to remember that ethics violations are frequently so costly that even small investments in training can still be expected to pay for themselves many times over. Not only will that investment pay off through a reduced risk of potentially extremely costly ethics and legal violations but you will be able to sleep better at night knowing that you are doing the right thing!
Christopher Bauer, PhD, of Bauer Ethics Seminars helps companies save significant time and money by preventing ethics problems instead of cleaning up after them. His latest book, "Better Ethics NOW: How To Avoid The Ethics Disaster You Never Saw Coming," has been a "Top Seller" on Amazon.com. Information on Dr. Bauer's programs as well as free subscriptions to his Weekly Ethics Thought can be found at http://www.bauerethicsseminars.com/. He can be reached at 615.385.3523 or 800.884.1569. Comments (0)
 Write comment
|
