Workplace Ethics is at the heart of Personal and Business Success.

Workplace Ethics are basic human behaviour principles/morals which make us different from other forms of life. The ethics we hold greatly influence outcomes of our every action, be at home, at school or at work. Ethical behaviour at work helps people to evolve into better human beings and therefore Businesses have to encourage ethical behaviour as it also results in higher productivity. Business Owners and /or Employers have to set the example in the same way that parents would set an example of acceptable behaviour to their children!

Employer Behaviour at the Workplace
Shareholders/Owners/Directors of a Business should at all times strive for TRANSPARENCY in policies affecting employees such as in recruitment, for example if competent and productive job applicants are left out due to personal interests of top management/owners, whilst this may satisfy immediate needs that would negatively affect  the Business in the long run.  Employees should be confident that ONLY their performance and level of productivity determine their climb up the career ladder and nothing else.  This is critical for any size of an organization, whether it’s public, family, privately owned , small or big Business.

Equity at the workplace should mean exactly that: No employee would be discriminated against on any ground, which means, they should all be treated equitably irrespective of their: age, colour, nationality, religion or disability unless that discrimination is owing to the inherent requirements of the job and/or through positive discrimination.

Employers often treat employees unfairly in their quest to making more profits, for example, by non compliance with  bearest minimum standards expected of all employers such as: legally employing people, making statutory deductions and paying them over, giving staff certificates of service when terminating employment so that they could access benefits earmarked for this purpose, making employees work for longer hours: 18 hours at a time!!!! In seeking to multiply returns employers would even avoid writing job profiles so as to give staff undue workloads, whilst this could help the Business in the short term, in the longer term it’s bad for any Business, resulting in higher employee turnover, when the word gets out in the market, you end up getting people who have no choice but to work under any circumstances with disastrous results.

Employees Behaviour at the workplace
Once you have been employed, it becomes important that you bring your side to the table and that is through being committed to your employer: being where you are supposed to be and not dilly dallying when it comes to carrying out your tasks.  The probationary period is meant to see if this is there.  Owing to this problem (lack of commitment), some employers have adopted the short term contract approach in order to ensure that whoever they bring on board, are committed to their work and doing an honest day’s job.

By being on your employer’s payroll, you bestow all your loyalties to them and therefore you should not be reminded of your duties/tasks at every turn.  Disloyalty shows itself in much dishonest and unprofessional behaviour which tarnishes the image of the employer or results in allegations of theft, misrepresentations, regular absenteeism, etc

Acting professionally towards fellow workers and/or acting with compassion towards colleagues would do your career a lot of good in the future.  It is accepted that the workplace is a highly competitive environment but it doesn’t mean that people should adopt unethical behaviour towards their peers just so that they could get ahead.  In the short term it may yield results but would negatively affect the Business and your career in the long term.

Workplace ethics is at the heart of personal and Business success as it promotes an environment where individual employees can do their work confidently and without fear which results in higher productivity and sustainable growth.