Did you know that 34% of employees think their managers are unethical, and 42% of employees say their companies’ ethics cultures are weak? Those statistics come from the new State of Business Ethics in the U.S. infographic from Bolt Insurance, which is shown below.
According to the data in the infographic, most reports of employee misconduct include more than one “violation.” Misuse of company time ranks in the top spot with 33% of reports citing it, followed by abusive behavior (21%), lying to employees (20%), company resource abuse (20%), and violating company internet use policies (16%), respectively.
A lack of ethical behavior in the workplace is unlikely to end based on the statistics around retaliation against whistle blowers found in the infographic. One in five whistle blowers report that they have faced retaliation, and that number is considerably higher than it was five years ago when it was reported at just over one in 10. Retaliation most frequently comes in the form of being excluded from business decisions or activities by supervisors or managers, followed by being given the cold shoulder by other employees, verbal abuse, nearly losing jobs, and not receiving promotions or pay increases, in that order.
The infographic offers several suggestions to improve business ethics, including:
- Invest in an ethics program to educate employees.
- Praise employees’ responses to misconduct.
- Use social networks to start discussions about ethics issues.
- Monitor the effect of whistle blower protections on employee reporting patterns.
- Make ethical leadership part of performance evaluations for managers.
What would you add to that list or change? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
And here is the full infographic for your review.
Via: BOLT Insurance
