Employers generally view the question of “What are some benefits of good business ethics practices?” in terms of what it means to their operation. In this post, as a business ethics speaker, business ethics consultant and author, I would like to turn it around and look at it from an employee point of view.
How do employees feel about ethical companies?
If employers wonder if employees care about corporate ethics and corporate social responsibility, they might want to take a glance at a recent survey by Reliable Plant magazine shows that 94 percent of employees say it’s critical or important that their company is ethical and 82 percent would rather get paid less and work for an ethical company.
Is this a bluff? No, it isn’t. And as a business ethics speaker and business ethics consultant, I advise that employers should take serious note of the following finding:
“Employees are willing to leave when they are dissatisfied with their employer’s ethics. More than one-in-three respondents, or 36 percent, said they have left a job because they disagreed with a company’s ethical standards.”
At a time when dissatisfied employees are walking off jobs by the hundreds of thousands, or are unionizing for better benefits or conducting/planning job actions the issue of business ethics must play into corporate thinking.
Furthermore, in 2022 employers must take note of the following:
- 80 percent of those leaving companies is due to ethical misconduct by fellow employees, a supervisor or management.
- 21 percent leaving felt “pressure to engage in illegal activity”
- 72 percent, and employees felt pressure to compromise their own ethical standards.
Clearly, managers and supervisors unethically pressuring employees, at any level of the corporate hierarchy and in every field will, in this new era of greater worker engagement and corporate social responsibility, result in people walking off the job.
The pandemic has had a profound effect
The Pew Research organization found in 2021 that:
“Approximately 68% of employed respondents with a postgraduate degree and 58% of employed respondents with a bachelor’s degree said their professional tasks could be done mostly from home.”
Why does this matter to unethical companies? If professional employees are leaving unethical companies and at the same time are comfortable with remote work, it gives them wide latitude to remotely work anywhere in the world. That is exactly what is happening.
The so-called “Great Resignation” was at one time mocked as a reaction that would lead to the “Great Regret.” Most who walked away after months of lockdowns and frustrations did so, according to Pew research:
“(Due to) low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work…” Most interesting, the survey found “those who quit and are now employed elsewhere are more likely than not to say their current job has better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility.”
The Great Regret has not happened. As a business ethics speaker, business ethics consultant and writer, I feel that so-called judgment was advanced by the same unethical characters who were responsible for poor conditions and unethical behaviors.
To ask, what are some benefits of good business ethics practices? Is also to acknowledge that the balance of power is shifting. Companies insistent on poor ethics will suffer and employees won’t have regret. Companies displaying exemplary ethical practices will triumph. I, for one, find this change refreshing.
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