An ethical culture is a win for employees and a win for business. It is essential that leaders build trust with their employees by cultivating a workplace culture rooted in shared values, acting with integrity, and respect.
In a recent Alchemizing HR webinar, Erica Salmon Byrne, Chief Strategy Officer at Ethisphere, shared how ethical culture fuels performance, protects intangible assets, and builds trust.
Companies with strong ethical cultures see up to 40% higher return on assets and consistently outperform peers in stock performance. Company value is largely intangible, with 80–85% tied to assets like brand, trust, and people.
Managers are the first line of defense when it comes to addressing ethical concerns. They can detect risks early and act swiftly to resolve them. Training for managers is critical, so they can set the tone for their team.
Nearly 1 in 4 employees feel pressure to compromise ethics to meet business goals. This pressure often stems from senior leaders and managers to voice their ethical concerns. It is crucial for employees to feel safe to come forward.
Ethical culture protects your brand, empowers your people, and drives sustainable success. As Byrne said, “There’s no such thing as ‘just pay the fine.’ Culture is where risk lives—and where resilience begins.”
People want to connect directly with another person when issues arise at work. Employees are 6x more likely to report concerns to their manager than to a company hotline. Managers can build trust in the reporting process by sharing their own experiences, giving employees examples and modeling ethical behavior. Humans are wired to remember stories and will connect with leaders that demonstrate vulnerability.
An ethical culture protects the brand, empowers employees, and drives sustainable success. It is also central to HR’s role in safeguarding people and strengthening workplace culture. To support this work, the HRCI Learning Center offers a wide array of ethics resources, including Pro Series: Ethics and courses on ethics in technology, helping professionals meet HRCI’s ethics recertification requirement and apply ethics effectively in their organizations.