Creating an Employee Code of Conduct

While operating an ethical business certainly demands a top-down philosophy in which you set the example for employees to follow, at some point it behooves you to let your staff know what is expected of them when it comes to conduct. And there’s no better way to do this than to create a written code of conduct that you can add to your employee handbook (which you hopefully give out upon hire). Of course, it pays to be concise. While you can certainly try to think of every way in which an employee might misbehave in the line of duty, so to speak, it’s not like you’re dealing with toddlers here, and you don’t want your staff to think that you see them as children. So omit the obvious stuff and hit just a few points that are of major concern to the business world. Here are a few things you may want to consider before you put pen to paper.

An employee code of conduct is not something you can copy from a template. While there are certainly a few standard areas you’ll want to cover, such as sexual harassment, theft, and other legal issues, each company that creates an employee code of conduct is going to have different ideas about how employees should act in order to best represent themselves and your company. For example, you may have strong feelings about tolerance and respect. Or perhaps you want to stress the importance of collaboration amongst groups. Maybe you have had problems in the past with employees following through on safety procedures because of a lax attitude on the subject and you’d like to rectify it by way of the code of conduct. The point is, you need to make sure that the document you create is tailored to the specific needs of your business and that it reflects your actual expectations for employee behavior in the office.

Whether you are just starting to develop a code of conduct or you think it’s time for a revision, you should also consider including some of your employees in the process. This is a good idea for a couple of reasons. For one thing, each person involved is bound to bring a unique point of view to the table, making for a document that is as diverse as its makers. And employees are in the trenches; they see conduct issues each day that you have probably missed, being above the fray. Beyond that, though, anyone involved in creating this important policy will no doubt take pride in their effort and do everything they can to make sure the staff understands and adheres to the code. You don’t have to be in an mba executive program to understand that when people are involved in a process they are more invested in the outcome.

Of course, you can’t stop there. If you want to make sure that all of your employees recognize the importance of following a code of conduct you need to keep it fresh in their minds. So begin by giving each employee a personal copy and also posting it on your internal server for easy access. Then offer periodic seminars on ethical issues and encourage employees to attend so that you are sure they are up to date with the rules and regulations that affect your business and that they understand how they are expected to behave in a professional setting.