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1905 called and they want their 'legal speak' back It's time to put a stop to all that legal mumbo jumbo and 18th century 'speak'. It's time to 'time-travel' our policies, codes, procedures, and other legal documents on over to 2016. In an article for the Association of Corporate Counsel's website, startup lawyer Olga Mack compares many of today's legalese sounding documents with purging outdated clothing from our closets. Yes! Finally! (we did a little fist pump) We've been emphasizing this very topic - write so your employees can actually understand what they are reading. Don't write to make your employees eyes cross and have them keel over from boredom.

Should you consider an internal, or external ethics reporting system? If you are considering implementing a whistleblower hotline, there's much to take into account regarding features and benefits of an outsourced program compared to an internal system. Things to think about are budget, resources, and implementation plan, training and report review, response and analytics. What policies and codes need to be developed to support the system? What types of reporting do you need? How do you measure success? And of course, how important is an anti-retaliation policy?

Ethics 101 Communicating and training employees on your ethics policy is vital to the success of your organization. Many organizations have a policy in place but have not communicated it fully to achieve its optimum success. You’ve taken the time to put a policy in place in order to promote your organization as a responsible employer who values its employees and you want to protect them and your business. But if your employees don’t know about the program, how can it be effective? So what's the best way to train your employees on ethics? According to the Chief Audit Executive at the Campbell Soup Company, it all depends. A company’s ethics program depends entirely on the company.

"Companies that invest in ethics reap an enormous return. Better workplace ethics cut business risks by reducing the chance that serious ethics problems will throw companies off course and distract them from their core business" ERC CEO Patricia Harned In the latest National Business Ethics Survey from ECI (Ethics & Compliance Initiative), it's no surprise that an organization's culture, leadership, and values-based ethics and compliance program makes a huge difference in increasing an employee's willingness to report workplace misconduct. Employees feel free from retaliation! The survey, conducted on large organizations of 90,000 or more employees, shows that with an effective values-based ethics and compliance program, employee reporting of wrongdoing increases by 61 percent. These such program also decrease retaliation by as much as 93 percent. The likelihood of retaliation against reporters is also lessened in instances where employees believe that individuals at all levels of the organization are held accountable if they violate company standards or the law.

Ethical Decisions Ensure That Everyone's Best Interests Are Protected An ethics reporting system is such a simple and cost-effective way for businesses to protect themselves from employee misconduct. Every day we hear stories related to frauds committed in the workplace. In the vast majority of cases there is someone who was privy to the impropriety, didn't necessarily benefit from it, yet never reported it.

These Five P's Have Perfect Potential! Defining the ethics policy in your organization is part of establishing an effective ethics hotline. There are a variety of different codes, different names, styles and content. Some are concise and straightforward and some are more detailed and are accompanied by an ethics program.