Doing the Good Work: Steps for Creating Engaged, Ethical Workplaces

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations face numerous challenges when maintaining a productive and engaged workforce while, at the same time, ensuring compliance with various regulations. 

For GAN Integrity’s podcast, Risky Business, Jane Broberg, Chief Human Resources Officer at Basware, a global provider of networked accounts payable automation and cloud-based procure-to-pay solutions, shared valuable insights on these topics.

Below are some quick key elements of creating and managing a workplace that employees feel engaged and safe in.

The Importance of Employee Engagement

One of the primary objectives of HR and compliance professionals is to ensure employee engagement. Once the right people are hired, it's crucial to keep them immersed in the organization to enable high performance and job satisfaction. 

To foster engagement, it’s important to create a culture of:

• Respect
• Trust
• Empowerment
• Collaboration

These cultural elements should be regularly measured and reinforced through employee feedback and behavior observations.

The Role of Management in Fostering Engagement

Ethical leadership fosters a positive corporate culture where employees are engaged, motivated, and feel good about coming to work, leading to increased productivity and lower turnover rates. 

Creating an engaging work environment is not a one-person crusade but requires involvement from the entire leadership team. Some key strategies include:

1. Encouraging managers to lead by example
2. Promoting continuous conversations between managers and employees
3. Focusing on individual growth and personal development
4. Addressing employee wellbeing

Adopting any changes within an organization, it’s imperative to have support from the top-down. These values should be reinforced throughout brand messaging, internal communication, and leading by example.

Companies with strong ethical practices can attract top talent, build customer loyalty, and enhance their public reputation, ultimately benefiting the bottom line.

Adapting to Changing Employee Expectations

In recent years, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, employee expectations have evolved. While fundamental factors like interesting work opportunities and growth potential remain important, flexibility has become a crucial consideration for many workers. 

One of the ways companies have responded to this shift is by implementing a hybrid working model that allows employees to work remotely up to three days a week while still maintaining in-office presence to foster collaboration and engagement.

By meeting evolving modern workforce needs like work-life balance, growth opportunities, and meaningful work, companies can boost employee satisfaction, productivity, and loyalty while reducing costly turnover.

Ensuring Employee Wellbeing in a Hybrid Work Environment

While implementing a hybrid work environment helps meet changing expectations, it can also create distance if not managed correctly.

Maintaining employee wellbeing and engagement can be difficult to measure with remote workforces, it’s important to ensure it is working. Initiatives compliance teams can take to help ensure security include:

1. Implementing quarterly growth conversations between managers and employees
2. Providing occupational health and employee assistance programs
3. Maintaining an open and supportive HR team
4. Conducting annual employee engagement surveys with high response rates 
5. Building a culture of psychological safety where employees feel comfortable speaking out

Communicating Company Culture to Prospective Employees

Getting your values across doesn’t stop with your current employees, but should also extend to those being considered, or about to join the organization.

Conveying the softer aspects of company culture, such as respect and engagement, to potential hires within limited timeframes can be challenging. Ways to address this include:

• Clearly articulating career opportunities and development paths
• Highlighting any hybrid working models as part of their employee value proposition
• Emphasizing the balance between flexibility and maintaining a strong collaborative culture

The Importance of Compliance and "Doing the Right Thing"

Teams can’t undersell the significance of compliance and responsible business practices, particularly in the context of implementing new work models like hybrid working. 

Key considerations include ensuring legal compliance and insurance coverage, conducting risk assessments where legally required, and ensuring safety amongst the flexibility.

But, it’s important to not be too heavy-handed. To strike a balance between necessary compliance measures and maintaining a positive company culture:

1. Clearly explain the reasons behind compliance measures
2. Position compliance as a way to protect both the company and employees
3. Using a touch of humor when introducing new processes or requirements

The Evolution of Whistleblowing

An organizational whistleblowing policy is crucial for fostering a vibrant speak-up culture. With an effective incident management system, companies can promptly address issues, conduct thorough investigations, and perform root cause analyses to holistically tackle underlying causes of misconduct. 

This type of policy not only ensures regulatory compliance but also builds trust and confidence among employees, ultimately contributing to a more ethical and transparent organizational culture. This involves:

• Creating an environment where employees feel safe speaking up without fear of repercussions
• Providing multiple avenues for employees to share concerns
• Fostering trust between employees and management

The Role of Training and Education

Continuous education and training play a crucial role in reinforcing company values and compliance measures, raising awareness about new regulations and policies, ensuring that employees are well-informed on compliance topics.

Regular refreshers help employees understand:

1. The importance of ethical business practices
2. How to address concerns or potential issues
3. The company's commitment to responsible business practices

Moreover, targeted training campaigns help engage employees in disclosures, nurture a speak-up culture, and transform compliance programs from mere due diligence exercises into effective risk management advantages.

Meeting Customer Expectations for Ethical Business Practices

Increasingly, customers are demanding that their suppliers demonstrate ethical business practices. It informs stakeholders that the organization is committed to building and upholding ethical practices. 

This includes:

• Addressing modern slavery concerns
• Providing evidence of responsible employment practices
• Demonstrating commitment to environmental and social governance (ESG) principles, including within third-party activities

In an era of increased transparency and social consciousness, consumers are more likely to support companies that align with their values and consistently demonstrate honesty, fairness, and accountability in their operations and interactions.

To meet these expectations, one suggestion is to conduct annual e-learning modules to keep employees up-to-date on ethical business practices and topical issues.

Keeping Up the Good Work

In today's business environment, companies must balance employee engagement, flexibility, and compliance to create a positive work culture while meeting stakeholder expectations. 

By focusing on clear communication, fostering psychological safety, and maintaining a commitment to ethical practices, organizations can navigate these challenges successfully. As the workplace continues to evolve, adaptability and a strong focus on employee wellbeing will remain crucial factors in attracting and retaining top talent while ensuring business success.

Interested in taking next steps in improving employee engagement and experiences? Speak with an expert today. 

This post was extracted from our Risky Business podcast transcript, and edited for length and clarity.