Developing a Work Ethics Program

Code of ethics and Conduct

All the employees of Fine Consultants shall be required to pay attention to the company’s policies in regard to the financial and advisory consultations addressed to or from the customer concerning his or her enquiries as given below:

1. Avoid, reject and report all events, conduct, actions and behavior that are unlawful in handling all consultancy financial information of customers and unethical in handling customers and fellow workers in addition to adhering to all issued regulations pertaining secrecy and privacy of consultancy information for customers.
2. Protect and ensure security of customer’s consultancy financial information and advises issued by the firm or the consulting customer, within and without the premises, electronic data or otherwise, either on confidential information on consulting financial services or related to, and report any breach to this conduct or appearance of, without delay;
3. Reject and avoid any relationship, offering of gifts, sexual favors and or harassment, agreement, investment or company that contradict to the wellbeing of Fine Consultants as a financial advisor to customers and or its financial consultancy and related services, the consulting customers of the firm, or seek to impair the relationship thereof, whether intentionally or not.
4. Work for the best interest of the firm to accomplish the financial consulting and advisory goals and objectives according to the set-out guidelines, advice and judge impartially regarding consultancy services to customers and those related to the running of the organization. Every worker shall be required to support the company to establish and improve its upright moral code of conduct and report incidences of non-adherence such as all manner of discrimination and violation; sexual, gender, age, tribe, religion, race and color to and by the fellow employee or customer. This is in line with upholding the reputation of the company while offering sound financial advice to customers.
5. Be sensitive to professional financial needs of the customers and fellow workers relating to the financial consultancy job, hold all stockholders and stakeholders with dignity and treat them with respect, practice honesty in job relations and communications and records, and maintain uniformity and consistency thereof;
6. Observe all rules and regulations, integrity, high standards of financial consultancy services and all related operations, observe policies and guidelines at workplace including cleanliness and safety working conditions for all workers and staff and the public;
7. Respond appropriately to all the claims launched against them by the outsider companies but only who are customers with Fine Consultant and only where the matters are made known to the company management and authorities, and cannot be dealt with by Fine Consultant Company. Such cases however must be dealt with after permission from Fine Consultant Services is granted and by liaising with Fine Consultant Company for the interest of the employee.

Ethics Training Program

In order to make sure that all the workers are familiar and equipped with the code of conduct and ethics, ethics program, training, related rules and regulations, and guidelines; there shall be training program put in place as follows (FRA):

1. All the workers shall be required to go through a continuous training program established by Fine Consultant Firm in order to get acquainted with its contents, purpose and intention. the main objective for this training shall be to expose and acquaint all employees with the benefits of adherence to the work ethics and make them aware of the consequences, adherence to the guidelines, rules and regulations set up, and ways to minimize unethical conduct;
2. All the employees shall be required to acquaint with all the company’s financial and non-financial consultancy rules and regulations, standards, company’s work ethics program, and possible consequences on failure to adhere and work towards minimizing or eliminating instances of disobedience and non-compliance. Copies of the work program and those of rules and regulations shall be distributed to all the employees. In addition, a copy shall be pinned on the walls of every department.
3. The company shall on January every year begin to conduct an extensive three months training program through the training staff of three employees identified earlier by the management in the second quarter of the previous year, which shall also be taxed with the duty to identify the training needs and opportunities of the employees and incorporate customers’ consultations needs, company regulations, product quality and employees’ needs into the curriculum within the two months after selection;
4. The curriculum shall be administered in three subjects; financial and general rules and regulation, company’s financial products and services, the internal and external organization, and these shall be administered through workshops and training sessions held every month and taught simultaneously in modules as organized by the training officers. Related printed materials shall be issued to every employee at workplace every month. Other communication shall be made if changes occur.
5. All workers and staff shall be required to attend the workshops unless explained earlier through writing previous to the actual day, and the subsequent approval of the sought permission which shall be in consistent with a genuine and unavoidable circumstance or/and reason. All the training material shall be assessed for the quality of information by an advisory committee a month before training, comprising of the Human Resource officer and the assistant manager who shall make recommendations and advise appropriately;
6. The training staff shall carry out a survey on the effectiveness of the program and the training immediately after training period of three months and report on challenges, identify areas of improvements and recommend as appropriately;

Monitoring, Auditing and Reporting misconduct

In order to ensure detection and punishment of all corrupt activities, indiscipline, non-compliance to the guidelines set out, work ethics, and all company rules and regulations, the company shall conduct surveys, investigations and employees shall comply as follows (Anderson, 2005):

1. All the employees shall be required to sign the compliance documents to ascertain their agreement to the set work ethics program guidelines, rules and regulations of Fine Consultants and consent to the fact that all measures stipulated against non-compliance to financial advisory guidelines and work ethics shall be punished once proved true. The compliance documents shall contain the personal information of the employee and the work ethics program and guidelines, rules and regulations he will be expected to adhere to;
2. All employees shall be required to participate in any surveys, interview, cross-examination, and investigation against any complains whether against them or their colleagues on non-compliance to work ethics, financial corruption or any indiscipline matters, unless proper explanation is provided and approved by the authority. All employees must consent to the fact that any false witness, or issuance of wrong financial advisory information is equally punishable as the offense itself;
3. Investigations and cross-examination against all financial or non-financial accusations against compliance shall be launched once they arise and the results forwarded for necessary actions. The period to be taken shall depend on the need and progress. The employees found to have not adhered to guidelines and work ethics program, rules and regulations shall be warned, fined, terminated immediately and any charges levied against them deducted from their salaries. The amount of charges and the course of action shall be determined by the level of committed offense. Disciplinary actions taken against the members by the company, customer or colleagues to other bodies such as the court of law for very serious crime shall rely on the evidence based on investigation by the company. The company top management shall together with the Human Resources Manager form a committee which must prove independent for the purposes of investigation;
4. An employee who is implicated in a case of disobedience or non-adherence to the work ethics or both, shall be pardoned only in instances where he or she has already reported or brought to awareness the incidence or matter in time to the Human Resource Manager, and such reporting should be clear and mention all the persons who have violated the work ethics and the accompanying evidence filed. Any false financial information or financial accusation on any other ground such as not related to company matters shall be punishable since they may amount to compromised integrity;
5. Surveys shall be conducted after one year to ensure that all employees are adhering to the work ethics program and activities, financial rules of the organization and the stipulated guidelines;
6. In case a customer is violated in the case of an employee’s non-adherence to work ethics program and set out financial services guidelines, the company shall assist him or her produce all evidence for investigation and such shall be given priority but must prove valuable and related to the case in question;
7. Where the company has been charged for improper financial conduct or work ethics by a customer company or governmental bodies, the workers so involved will bear the burden according to the level of blame on them;
8. The employee’s adherence to work ethics shall be analyzed and ranked from time to time and the best performers identified for rewarding each month. Such ranking will be based on adherence on financial rules and customer advisory procedures, reporting of incidences, discipline, and customer service based on the customer’s response;
9. All the company financial and related data shall be audited by external auditors from time to time to ensure that the cases of financial corruption are minimal or non-existence. Any employee so implicated shall face an immediate suspension pending investigations and any further charges levied against him or her be proceeded after investigations;

Reviewing the Ethics Program

1. A report on the effectiveness of the program by the committee taxed with the responsibility and comprising of the employees views and recommendations shall be forwarded to the Human Resources Manager and analyzed in consultation with the senior management to implement the recommendations;
2. The committee taxed with the responsibility to carry the surveys yearly on employee adherence shall be taxed with the duty to collect the customers’ view through interviews and surveys after every year to make sure that the customers’ views and demands are inputted to the work ethics program. In addition, the customers shall be requested to fill Relations Forms to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction after the financial consultancy services. All the forms shall be analyzed for customer recommendations and views on financial consultancy and advisory services rendered;
3. All the regulations on financial advisory and consultancy and related issues that shall be issued by the governmental bodies charged with the mandate to ensure that companies develop and comply with the work ethics according to the rules and regulations of the government, shall form the basis of the development and update of the work ethics program, so that the company will avoid any illegal amendments or rules and regulations that are not sound and in line with the governmental financial advisory regulations or work ethics. The company shall individually, or in collaboration with other financial advisory and consultancy service-companies from time to time consult and liaise with these bodies to ensure that the rules and regulations, goals and recommendations developed are attainable and to the best interest of all the stakeholders including the employees;
4. The work ethics program shall be reviewed every year to include the recommendations and update;

References

Anderson, Chris. (2005). How to build a business ethics program. EzineArticles. 

FRA. (n.d.). FRA Code of Business Ethics and Conduct Program. Web.