Do you have an ethics problem in your organization?

Or maybe the ethics of your workers is

acceptable but you want to improve them? Perhaps your organization only has a few areas that
need to be targeted. The reasons that leaders of an organization would choose to
implement ethics training are varied.

The best reason is that good ethics is simply good business.

The opposite is also true: Bad ethics is bad business. In fact, over 50% of the largest corporate
bankruptcies have occurred because of unethical practices. If that isn’t bad enough, in 2011 these
bankruptcies totaled $1.228 trillion or close to 10% of the United States GDP. No business can
afford unethical practices.

Yet, knowing this isn’t enough. Good ethics must be taught and reinforced. They don’t just
happen. Your employees must be trained in ethical decision-making and behavior. Quality
workplace ethics training can improve the morale of your employees, which will also improve
the efficiency and profitability of your organization. Engaging and interactive workplace ethics
training can foster authentic team building in order to create a cohesive, productive unit. Here
are 5 workplace ethics training activities you can implement in your organization now:

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #1: Ethics Dilemma

Discussion
In this activity, employees have an opportunity to work through various ethical dilemmas and
decide the best route to take. In order to reinforce the desired decision, a leader should discuss
what is the best route to take. Some examples may be:

 You see a coworker harassing another employee, or you see a supervisor harassing or
bullying a subordinate. What do you do?
 A coworker is consistently late, and you know it’s because of their home situation;
however, they continue to slide into work unnoticed. Do you say something or not?
 You hear a colleague make a pejorative slur against another racial or ethnic group. Do
you address it?

Activity Directions:

1. Employees are arranged in groups of four to six. Make sure the groupings are random;
ensure that no “cliques” or clusters of friends are put together.
2. From a set of cards that explain various ethical dilemmas, one is drawn and read aloud to
all the groups.
3. Each group then discusses the variables of the situation and the best way to handle it.
4. When all groups have reached a decision, the facilitator asks a representative from each
group to explain what the group decided.
5. At this point, the facilitator manages whole group discussion of what would be the best
decision and the pros and cons of that and other decisions.
Workplace Ethics Training Activity #2: Role Play Touchy
Situations and Crucial Conversations
This activity is best suited for difficult situations that arise quickly and require a prompt
response. Usually such situations don't allow much time for deliberation, so it’s important to
have a set plan from the outset and to have walked through it. Some examples may be:

 If a coworker states that they want to kill themselves or harm others, do you report it?
 Variation: You hear that a child wants to kill themselves or harm others. What do you
do?
 You are working in retail and you see a coworker taking from the cash register or
overcharging a customer and pocketing the rest. Do you report them?
 You work in a company that has petty cash and it’s supposed to be turned in everyday,
however, you find a coworker who is pocketing the cash.
 In a group setting, everyone is asked to give a verbal vote or show of hands, you don’t
agree but you don’t want to be the only one to disagree. Do you go along or no?

Activity Directions:

1. The facilitator holds various scenario cards and a participant chooses one.
2. The facilitator chooses the number of volunteers necessary to role play.
3. Participants take a few minutes to decide who will play which role, discuss the scenario
and the possible outcomes, both good and bad.
4. Participants act out the scenario with bad decisions as well as the correct, most ethical
outcome.
5. Everyone discuss the outcomes and what would be the best decision.

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #3: Generate Ethical

Dilemmas
It is often a great idea to allow your participants to generate ethical dilemmas. One, it saves you a
lot of work. Two, it allows them to be creative and provides you the opportunity to see this
creativity.

Activity Directions:

1. Arrange employees in groups of four to six, again with no friend clusters.

2. Each group brainstorms within itself what are the most tricky or common ethical
dilemmas.
3. They select one dilemma to explore.
 4. On a piece of poster paper, have each group write down their best ethical dilemma and
what would be the best decisions to make related to it.
5. Share out to the entire group.

Related: Workplace Ethics Training Tips to Improve Employee Accountability to Improve

Employee Accountability

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #4: Match Up

Competition
In this activity, participants match various scenarios with the appropriate and inappropriate
responses. Every scenario will have an appropriate and inappropriate answer.

Activity Directions:

1. Arrange employees in groups of two (any larger and it’s easy for some to not participate).
2. Each team will be given a set of scenarios with corresponding appropriate and
inappropriate actions. These will be shuffled.
3. Now each team must match up scenarios to actions.
4. The pair that finishes first wins. Be sure to have a prize, to make the competition fun and
engaging.

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #5: Technological Ethics

Search and Find
In this activity, employees will use their cell phones to search real world situations that
demanded ethical decision making. Once they have found a situation, they will analyze it. This
activity is geared especially for millennials who favor the use of technology (with

86% of those ages 18-29 owning a smart phone).

Activity Directions:

1. Arrange employees into groups of three.

2. Each group will find an ethical dilemma that has happened in the “real world.” This
dilemma should pertain to the business or industry of your company.
3. Participants will analyze the situation and determine:

 What was the actual dilemma?

 What were the possible choices?
 What was the actual choice taken?
 What would be the best course of action?
 4. Participants will then share their findings with the whole
group.

Start Using These Workplace Ethics Training Activities To

Improve Your Workplace Today
Every company needs strong workplace ethics training for its employees. With careful planning
and action, you can create well-designed workplace ethics training activities that are beneficial
for all your employees. The five shared here are a springboard. Feel free to use these and adjust
them to best suit your organization or design your own. Just be sure to thoroughly address ethical
decision making and behavior. A strong ethical foundation will improve the morale of your
employees and increase productivity and profitability.

Using Ethics Training To Navigate Ethical

Scenarios In The Workplace
Every organization faces its share of dilemmas that pose tricky ethical and moral questions.
Yours will, too. It’s best if you can address these situations with your employees before they ever
occur. Using well-designed ethics training activities to effectively train your staff in consistently
choosing the correct, ethical response is your best, most proactive option.

However, it must be noted that even all the preparation, forethought and training in the world
won’t prepare you or your employees for the myriad of situations that may arise. There are
simply too many possibilities to be able to address them all with an applicable set of ethics
training activities. In that case, after a situation occurs, you should train your employees in
making the best possible choice for such a scenario.

Common Ethical Dilemmas and their Corresponding Ethics

Training Activities
What are some common ethically-challenging scenarios, and what ethics training activities
would best address them? Here are examples of two of the most common ethical dilemmas that
employees face in their workplace:

1. What do you do when you’re faced with an opportunity to lie, cheat or steal for the
betterment of yourself? Of course it’s easy to say, make the moral, ethic choice; however,
is it easy when you’re strapped for cash and the register is fortuitously open?

2. What do you do when you observe a colleague (or even more challenging - a supervisor)
lying, cheating or stealing, and you know that to report them is to risk negative
repercussions for yourself? Or, what do you do when you discover a coworker making
 dangerous threats against himself or others and you're not sure whether to take him
seriously or not?

Ethical Dilemma #1: What do you do when faced with an

opportunity to lie, cheat or steal for the betterment of
yourself?
Unfortunately, this a very common dilemma. If you add a qualifier to the action - “it's just a little
white lie,” “I'll take one from here and move it to there,” or “I'll borrow this, no one will notice”
- it becomes frighteningly easy to justify. Often this sort of behavior is excused under: “Everyone
does it” or "It doesn't hurt anyone."

Ideally, you want to teach your employees that “No, everyone doesn’t do it” and it's best to
choose otherwise. You want to prepare your employees in advance to choose the right behavior
before the decision ever has to be made. How best to handle this dilemma that can come in a
range of behaviors?

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #1: Ethics Dilemma Discussion

With this training activity, you can think up a series of probable ethics conundrums that
may occur that deal with lying, cheating and/or stealing. It helps to devise some dilemmas so that
some of the correct choices are fairly obvious while other correct choices are subtle and tricky.
Have your employees sit in small groups and discuss the dilemmas and the range of possible
behavior options. Finally, have them whittle down their options to the appropriate responses,
making sure to guide them the entire time. You don’t want them walking out of your ethics
training activities with the wrong set of beliefs.

Ethical Dilemma #2: What do you do when you observe a

colleague lying, cheating or stealing, and in order to report
them you have to risk negative repercussions for yourself?
This sort of ethical dilemma is extremely tricky. The trickiness is increased if there’s a risk of
negative consequences for the reporting employee. Often, in such cases, decisions must be made
quickly, and they must be the correct decision the first time around. Your employees have to be
prepared to give the correct response.

Consider this Scenario: Rita the Pilfering Head Manager

Rita is the head manager of a bustling, on-campus fast food facility that serves several thousand
students each day. She has only five years left until retirement and is one the corporation’s major
revenue generators. Rita runs a tight, efficient ship and turns a hefty profit for the company. She
has one day-shift supervisor and one night-shift supervisor, who are student managers. One
evening, the night-shift student manager, Jennifer, walks into the back room during closing and
spies Rita stuffing a handful of $20 bills into her pocket. Jennifer quickly backs out before Rita
notices her. That night, like every night, the receipts balance for the day’s sales, so there’s no
proof. What should Jennifer do? If she tells, she risks being fired by Rita as retribution, and
there’s no proof anyway. If she doesn’t tell, she’s colluding with Rita. This is where Workplace
Ethics Training Activity #2 may help.

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #2: Role Play Touchy Situations and Crucial
Conversations

This is where the “Jennifers” must be prepared, and well-trained, to make the correct choice,
regardless of the repercussions. They must be trained to come forward and share what they've
seen. Additionally, the organization must embrace a culture where telling won’t come with a
penalty. The organization must protect those who come forward about their colleagues and
superiors when they observe them committing unethical, illegal or immoral acts. Well-designed
ethics training activities can help.

Ethical Dilemma #3: A la’ Carte

This isn't based upon any particular ethical dilemma. Rather, it's a brainstorming session for
coming up with real-world situations. The training activity that best suits this brainstorming
project is Workplace Ethics Training Activity #3.

Workplace Ethics Training Activity #3: Generate Ethical Dilemmas

In this activity you allow your employees the opportunity to address situations they may have
experienced or observed that they haven’t been free to resolve. Ask them to share true situations
(not made up) of ethical, moral or legal conflicts they may have found themselves in or may
have observed. This activity will reveal ethical dilemmas in your organization, many of which
you will have no clue are occurring.

Workplace Ethics Training Activities are a Must

You must have high-quality ethics training activities in place to prepare your employees to make
the right choices at the right time. Often with challenging situations, time is of the essence and
snap decisions are the norm. Your employees must be ready to make these decisions correctly
and consistently. Making this a priority in your organization will pay off in the long run with
employees who are amply prepared to make correct ethical choices that honor themselves and
your organization.
5 Ways To Identify Symptoms & Eliminate
Toxic Work Conditions
Symptom #1: High Stress Levels

Certain jobs inherently carry more stress than others. For instance, it’s safe to say an ER doctor
maintains a higher level of stress than a high school janitor. When managing high-stress jobs, it’s
important to pay close attention to the people in those roles. Employees who are chronically
stressed tend to get burnt out more quickly. In addition to dissatisfaction with work, it can cause
potential dangers such as depression, fatigue, and more mistakes at work. But at what point does
working through stress become toxic?

Solution: When it comes to stress, it’s important to understand what your employees are like
when they’re not stressed out. When you first hire an employee, make notes about their
demeanor, their performance, their ability to communicate and more. Keep monitoring these
qualities through the duration of their employment. Keeping notes will make you more aware of
changes and encourage you to take action when needed.

Symptom #2: Low Team Morale

A toxic work environment isn’t always marked by arguments and mistakes. Employees should
be motivated to contribute instead of simply punching the clock every day. A company with no
“team spirit” can be just as damaging as a company that has clear personnel problems. That
doesn’t mean your employees need to be uncontrollably excited to get to work, but they should
feel generally good about their personal performance and the overall health of the company.

Solution: An effective way to boost team morale is to hold regular team functions. Host a
quarterly company event or take 20 minutes each week to get the company or department
together. The more opportunities your employees have to communicate and work together
outside their daily whirlwind, the more they will bond.

Another great way to boost team morale is to get them more involved in the company’s bigger
picture. If your employees are working in a bubble, without knowing what it’s all for, they will
care less about the final outcome. To avoid this, create a shared company goal that you keep
track of on a wall or via email. This visibility will increase your employees’ desire to help the
company reach that goal. This works especially well if you add incentives, like bonus pay or
vacation time, for reaching the goal.

Symptom #3: Responding To Workplace Injuries

You want your employees to work hard to fulfill their responsibilities. It’s great when employees
voluntarily work overtime to complete projects and ensure the company stays on the right track.
That may even remind you of your own work ethic. But, there’s a fine line when it comes to
working hard and being overworked. Your employees may seem eager when talking to you, but
then complain when they get home. If you think one of your employees is working beyond
what’s expected or necessary, it might be time for a conversation.

A more clear symptom of a toxic workplace is when the number of injuries or illnesses rises. If
your company has physical demands, the risk of injuries is high relative to other work
environments. Keep detailed records of who and how people are getting injured. If the same
people seem to be getting hurt or they’re getting hurt during certain tasks, immediate changes are
necessary. Showing a lack of action over a situation as serious as employee health sends a
dangerous message.

Solution: Take a proactive approach to ensure employees are maintaining a healthy work-life
balance and that they’re satisfied with their role in the company. Team leaders should hold
regular one-on-one meetings with each employee as often as possible (weekly or monthly is
recommended). The goal of these meetings is to encourage positive relationships in the
workplace and to offer employees the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns.

When a workplace injury does occur, the well-being of your employees should be of utmost
importance. Make sure your employees are okay, but also investigate all injuries in an effort to
decrease the risk of repeat incidents. If you notice a pattern of injuries (in one person, in a
particular position, etc.), take action to create a safer environment or alter bad habits.

Symptom #4: Poor Communication

Poor communication throughout the workplace should be a red flag for any business owner. In
nearly every business, effective internal and external communication is essential for productivity
and viability. If your employees are unable to work well together, it will have a tremendous
impact on your company’s performance and could create negative indirect impressions on
customers.

Likewise, ineffective communication with external parties, including customers, could be just as
damaging. So, what’s the cause of these communication problems? It could be because of
employee friction or basic apathy. If you find your employees have chronic communication
issues then you need to figure out why it’s happening and determine how to fix it.

Solution: Internal communication issues should be dealt with before external issues. If your
team is unable to work together then it won’t matter whether or not they communicate well with
distributors, customers, etc. Similar to building team morale, improved communication is
attainable through increased team meetings, events, and other vehicles for bringing employees
together.

Symptom #5: Chronic Productivity Problems

When you hire someone, it’s because you think they can satisfy or exceed their position’s
demands. If that employee fails to live up to a certain expectation, you will naturally investigate
why. But, when an employee is constantly underperforming, it creates problems beyond that
individual. It’s not uncommon for a colleague to observe an individual’s faults long before their
supervisor. By the time the supervisor becomes aware of an individual’s productivity problems,
the problem has already festered within the team. The timeliness and severity of the supervisor’s
actions sends a strong message to the entire team. Lack of action, for what has now become a
lingering problem, can result in significant cultural issues.

Solution: First, look at your production expectations to make sure they’re reasonable. If your
employee was able to meet goals last year but has failed to reach a higher goal, the new goals
may be unrealistic. Be sure your setting optimistic yet attainable goals for your employees and
departments. Also, be sure to talk with team members so everyone’s on the same page en route
to those goals. If an employee misses their goals constantly with no feedback, she may become
less motivated over time.

If the established goals seem reasonable and your employees are still underperforming, then it’s
time to take more serious action. Whether it’s the employee’s personal life seeping into their
work, an equipment problem, or a personnel issue, the goal is to identify potential causes and
work to resolve them. Remember: Your actions will be observed by the entire team, not just one
individual.

Eliminate And Prevent Toxic Work Conditions

Being able to identify toxic work symptoms before they become destructive is essential for
keeping your company moving in the right direction. The larger your company grows, the more
personalities involved and the more potential issues you could have.

To truly provide a toxic-free workplace, you should be taking a proactive approach to employee
and productivity management. Talk to employees before they have the chance to become
disengaged in their work. Host team events before their ability to communicate diminishes.
Preventing toxic work conditions before they start is just as important as extinguishing problems
when they arise.