Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi everyone. You've got questions and we've got answers. Welcome to another Bella Asks episode of the Ethicast.
The Business Ethics Leadership alliance, or bela, is a global ethics and compliance community that provides exclusive access to helpful data, benchmarking events and and other resources to advance your ethics and compliance program.
One of those resources is Bella's Concierge service in which members can submit any question regarding ethics and compliance and our internal experts will provide an answer, plus helpful resources with more information.
Now, while we invite everyone watching and listening to join bella, we know that there's no competition in compliance, so we're using this program to thematically respond to high level questions from the Bella community for the benefit of ENC teams everywhere.
Joining us once again to share her keen insights is Bella Chair Erica Salmon Byrne. Erica, thanks for joining us.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Oh Bill, thank you so much for having me back. I'm delighted that the Bella community keeps asking questions.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Well, our next question is on a favorite topic. It's all about Speak up and it reads, how should managers respond to reports of misconduct?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yep, I love this question, Bill, as you know, because it combines a couple of my favorite things, specifically Speak up manager preparedness and a forward thinking ethics and compliance team that is wondering how can I do this better? So gold stars across the board as longtime listeners of the program will know. Bill, we have the evidence here at atosphere that at the end of the day, managers are absolutely the linchpin around which everything else that you do is going to spin. We know from employee data, self reported employee data that for every one employee that called your helpline, six of them said that they brought an issue to their manager and more often than not they were not thrilled with how that process went and it's largely because the manager didn't know what to do. So a couple of thoughts on this one. First off, as the ethics and compliance team, I really hope that you are involved in your manager preparation process. So that means you are part of the manager training infrastructure at your organization. You are talking to managers when they become managers, you are talking to managers when they have been managers and you are talking to managers when they become even more senior managers. In other words, you're not just one and done on your manager training, you're part of the ongoing dialogue. So look at your manager training process. How have you talked to managers about what it is that they need to do when an employee brings them a concern?
Also and equally importantly, how have you taken on board the fact that adult learning research tells us that if we can't use something within the first six weeks of learning it, 70% of it is gone. So not just how are you training managers at that moment in time when you're talking to them, but when something happens, how are you preparing them? How are you using your communications channels to regularly talk to them about the fact that their employees are probably bringing them questions and concerns and they're not on their own when that question or concern comes up? So really making sure that you're reinforcing that message, that you're using your communication channels to do it. If you are lucky enough to have a strong ambassador liaison program, use that to talk to your managers about these issues. Whatever way in which you can get in front of your managers, maybe it's your er, team or your people team, whomever it is that is in front of your managers, making sure that you're having conversations with your managers about the fact that this is happening.
They might not hear it as a question or a concern, but their employees are bringing them questions and concerns and so they need to make sure that they are handling things accordingly. So that's a big piece of the puzzle.
Last thing would be because there's a way we could flip this question on its head and say when something has happened in your part of the business, how do you want managers to respond? And here I would strongly encourage our listeners to think about what they can give managers as a leave behind. Because I can tell you from personal experience, when you come to me and say we're opening an investigation in your part of the business or your team or this issue, all, everything like it's, I'm just going to go white noise, right? Everything else, when you say those words to me, particularly for the first time, it's all just going to go to static and when you leave, I'm going to have almost no recollection of what it was that you told me. So is there a leave behind? Right.
Do's and don'ts. Here are the things to do and not do. Here's my phone number. I'll be in touch on Tuesday. Right. The more you can give managers so that they have guardrails. Because the other thing we know from self reported employee data is that the people who are most likely to be involved in retaliatory behavior are either your manager, him or herself or the people on the team. And your best defense against that kind of retaliatory behavior, ostracism, reputational damage, things like that, is your manager so much like your managers are the linchpins around which all your speak up culture spins. Your managers are also the linchpins around which any retaliatory behavior is going to spin. And you want to find a way to put some, Some. Some sand in that wheel as fast as possible. So having something you can give the manager here are things to look out for in similarly situated teams. This is where we see, you know, kind of retaliatory stuff start to happen.
Keep an eye on this person. Remember, speaking up is an act of courage. That kind of stuff.
Critically, critically important.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Well, it was an outstanding question and a fantastic answer. So, Erica, thank you so much once again for bringing your expertise to the program.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Oh, Bill, it is 100% my pleasure. You know, any chance I get to talk to you is a highlight of my day. And anytime I get to answer any one of these questions for our Bella community, I just love it because it means that we've got a bunch of people out there that are thinking really strategically about their programs and trying to make sure that they're. They really are just putting the best possible work product in front of their people they possibly can. Because at the end of the day, that's what makes your company a better place to work. So to all those Bell members out there listening, keep the questions coming. Bill and I are thrilled to keep coming back to answer them.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: To learn more about Bella, visit ethisphere.com bella to request guest access to the member resource hub and to speak with the Bella Engagement director. If you have a question that you would like answered on this program, contact the Bella Concierge Service and we'll get to work on it for you. Thanks for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you have not already, please like and subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And be sure to tell a colleague about us as well. It really helps the program.
That's all for now, but until next time, remember, strong ethics is good business.
