You hire a group of new employees.  You give them a handbook.  You put them through a PowerPoint presentation on the company history, structure, resources, culture, and a slide or two about equality in an ethical workplace.  And then you put them on the floor and all focus shifts to job responsibilities.

Top-notch municipalities and companies are redefining “training” as “on-going training” – something akin to “lifelong learning.”  These employers recognize that legal requirements which, for example, require reporting fraud by government contractors, mean that employees must be able to recognize bad behavior and then know how to report it.

Training employees on topics like discrimination and ethics generates an intelligent approach to the subjects.  Many people have a general feeling for what is “right” and “wrong,” but training gives employees a more concrete definition, a set of relevant examples, and a way to recognize and effectively respond to these kinds of problems.

Employee training in ethical and legal issues in an on-going format builds the kind of workforce skills that create the confidence to make a hotline report of a problem.  First, employees will know that the company takes the issues seriously when training is continual.  Second, employees will build their skills, particularly as the employer resources expand during the creation of and presentation of the training materials.  And, third, the training materials will stay fresh and current as they are prepared and updated on a periodic basis.

When training is on-going, the company will seek partners with expertise in subjects of ethics and discrimination.  The more the company management knows, the more it will recognize that these fields are constantly evolving and progressing our workforce towards the highest standards of ethics and equality.  When companies work with a dedicated and specialized vendor like Ethical Advocate, it adds both focus and depth to its compliance offerings.

With assistance from Ethical Advocate, companies can enhance both their reporting polices and programs, and also their training materials.  Instead of simply showing a slide that says “call a hotline,” there can be a series of slides that explain the Ethical Advocate ethics hotline reporting, the easy in navigating the system, the caring operator who answers calls, and the privacy considerations during an anonymous telephone call or website submission.  This kind of training can shift an employee from a place of uncertainty over who will be on the other end of the phone (like will it be their boss) to a sense of expanded community with a trusted friend to help them communicate an issue of concern.