Most of us go to the office to work to earn a living, build a career, be a professional, and grow in life. But what if the office we respect does not treat us well? Bad colleagues, harassment, commenting, teasing, etc. can although be minute if present, it can take a toll on your mental health and well-being in the long run.
Work culture is an integral part of an average office-goer as they tend to spend more time there than with family in a day. Developing an ethical work culture in the office creates harmony among the employees and helps the business grow exponentially.
But how can we achieve it? Here are some practical applications for office implementation.
- Integrate core values into daily activities
- Start from the top
- Reminders
- Open space for communication
- Rewards and punishments
Integrate core values into daily activities
Every ethical workplace needs a core value. This can reflect the business values and how they want to be viewed. Business core values educate clients, employees, and prospects, and lead them to behave in a certain mentality that aims for growth. Take ownership of the core values and integrate them into daily activities. For example, humble and positive interactions with customers.
The integration of core values into daily activities can influence and motivate people to put forth the best behaviors.
Start from the top
The creation and integration of core values into the system is just the beginning. To keep the ball rolling, employees need motivational sources – the best option is the leaders. In an organization, everything starts from the top. The mentality and attitude of the managers, C-suite, directors, or founders are reflected in the employees. If the leadership is filled with an ethical culture and a positive mentality, the same will be seen in others.
A united ethical leadership can lead by example and diminish more than 90 percent of the issues among the employees.
Reminders
Establishing and maintaining a perfect ethical work culture in an organization can be difficult based on the size. One solution for this is the constant circulation of reminders or messages. HR leaders can publish ideas, comments, posts, motivational quotes, inspirational messages, etc. every once in a while. It can be done via emails, on company websites, social media handles, conferences, or internal chats.
Daily reminders like this can constantly engrave the importance of maintaining the ethical culture of the company to employees.
Open space for communication
HR leaders can create an open space for communication for employees to convey their issues in the workplace. Take the issues positively and help them to solve the problem. If they keep the issues to themselves, it can only become a bigger issue in the future. If they can open up openly set up anonymous messaging facilities where the issues can be raised.
By publicly discussing common issues, HR leaders can bring the problems out in the open and notify everybody of the same. It ensures awareness among the staff and can avoid facing the same problem later.
Rewards and punishments
A good ethical code of conduct deserves rewards in an organization. By acknowledging the good behavior of employees in the company, the people are motivated to work better. It promotes a positive attitude. Similarly, punishments also need to be given out for serious offenses. The HR can choose to make it public or deal with it personally depending on the situation.
But whatever the choice, the issue needs to be publicized and mentioned that such and such punishment has been meted out for the offender. This can be detrimental to those who are on the wrong track while rectifying their behaviors.
