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Ethical behavior and integrity in the workplace help foster a healthy work environment and mitigate certain organizational risks. However, these behaviors and habits don’t come naturally to everyone, so code of conduct training is essential in modern businesses.
Code of conduct training educates employees about your company’s policies, ethical standards and general expectations regarding workplace behavior. These programs help each worker understand their responsibilities and rights and guide them on the principles to use when making decisions on the job.
These trainings also improve awareness and promote compliance with regulatory requirements to help avoid legal liability. They empower workers to address ethical dilemmas and thus help build trust with investors, customers and other stakeholders.
You can include the following information and teaching methods to make training both informational and successful.
One key element of code of conduct training is exploring ethical gray areas. This involves applying company policies and procedures to complex scenarios. By doing so, employees are encouraged to consider and analyze how they would respond in such situations and how they can uphold company values in their responses. Using real-life scenarios makes the training more effective and relatable.
A successful code of conduct training for employees is one that you tailor to your organization. This training should never be general enough to fit any business but include specific regulations and policies in your company’s code of conduct. This facilitates a more immersive learning experience that helps employees understand how to handle realistic scenarios that may come up in the workplace.
These meetings should promote ethical behavior in every aspect of the workplace through learning experiences to help engrain the company’s mission and values in each worker. You can achieve this by introducing incentive programs and other ideas for rewarding ethical behavior during training.
Role-playing exercises in code of conduct training workshops can help employees imagine themselves in another’s shoes and see each scenario from their perspective. You can use role-playing to model appropriate solutions to ethical dilemmas in the workplace. Alternatively, you can have employees split into small groups and role-play to find their own solutions and then come back together to share and discuss.
Use success stories or real-life situations for these exercises. This will help workers better grasp the fundamental principles and concepts you’re trying to convey.
Consider the specific needs, learning styles and interests of all the employees participating in code of conduct training. Adjust your delivery to these needs. You can also let workers choose from several training formats, which allows them to learn how they learn best. For example, you can offer workshops, peer-to-peer discussions or e-learning modules. Being accommodating can pay off, as employees are more likely to learn faster and take the training to heart when it meets their needs.
The gamification of learning uses challenges, quizzes, simulations and other elements to make training seem like a game or friendly competition. This can effectively enhance employee participation. Think about how you can use leaderboards, badges or points to make training more enjoyable and foster a sense of enthusiasm and teamwork.
Technology is a powerful and versatile tool ideally suited for enhancing code of conduct training. With a wide range of platforms and tools, you can create dynamic and accessible training that engages your employees and improves their comprehension and retention of the material.
Learning management systems and other online platforms have already created engaging training programs. These may include presentations, videos, quizzes, simulations and more. These platforms improve comprehension and retention of information and work well with various learning styles.
Look for platforms that are mobile-friendly. Making the training accessible means that employees are more likely to complete it. Flexibility and the right platform go a long way in enticing employees to complete training on time.
Technology can also help you create interactive simulations to help workers hone their critical thinking skills and apply ethical principles to any situation.
Some workplaces even incorporate emerging technologies like augmented and virtual reality. This makes training more realistic, much more engaging and something your employees will likely want to participate in.
Analytics tools monitoring each employee’s progress in a code of conduct training course makes this easy. You can see quiz scores, completion rates and levels of participation, which allows you to customize and tweak any future training to suit your workers’ needs better.
This can help you create increasingly effective programs and assist employees in reaching their learning goals.
You can train your workers all you want, but it’s all for naught unless they learn something. There are several ways to assess the effectiveness of your training methods and modules.
While it may seem hard to measure, you should look for ways employees comply with the code of conduct and whether it influences their decision-making at work. Monitor reports of misconduct, disciplinary action and the number of incidents before and after training to see if it has made a difference.
If the number of issues is reduced, for example, it means that workers have learned to apply their knowledge to real-life incidents.
Another way to measure the success of your code of conduct training is to directly ask employees to share examples of ways they have applied what they learned in code of conduct classes and training.
If planning and delivering a code of conduct training together seems daunting, look for a compliance company to help you find the perfect materials or training program for your needs.
Contact Compyl today to get started. We can help you with everything from policy management to automating tracking progress toward compliance.
