Tuesday 24 July 2007

10 tips to create an ethical culture in your workplace

This is an excerpt from article published on Forbes.com recently. Maybe its too basic for most of us professionals in HR, nevertheless, every point is worth a thought .....
1. Don't Fire On A Friday
Never fire someone on a Friday, or on a significant day, such as right before the holidays or before their pension plan vests. Always fire an employee in person, in private, preferably in his or her office or a neutral space. There's nothing worse than making that person "walk the gauntlet" past co-workers.

2. Meeting Etiquette
In meetings, don't multitask, interrupt or speak more than 60 seconds at a time. Keep an open notebook in front of you when an employee is talking to take notes on good ideas.

3. Keep Meetings Short
At Starbucks, the CEO and president, Jim Donald, limits one-hour meetings to 45 minutes--and tells employees to use the extra 15 minutes to call someone they usually don't contact every day.

4. Greet Employees By Name
That means you have to learn all of their names. But it's well worth it. Spend two minutes talking with a different employee about non-work topics every day.

5. Say Thank You
Make it a point to thank employees for work well done. Slip a handwritten note into their pay envelope, or write "thank you" on the back of your business card and leave it on their desk. Compliment three people every day.

6. Have Lunch With Employees
Cisco Systems' CEO John Chambers hosts a monthly hour-long birthday breakfast for any employee with a birthday that month. Employees are invited to ask him anything.

7. Surprise Employees With Small Gestures Of Recognition
At Cigna Group, executives push coffee carts around the office once a week, serving drinks and refreshments to their colleagues to get a chance to hear their concerns and answer their questions

8. Take An Employee's Job For A Day
At one Chicago bank around the busy holiday season, executives worked as bank tellers so the tellers could enjoy a day off for shopping

9. Acknowledge Good Work
Another low-cost way to recognize employees who have done a good job is to let them pick their next project or swap a task with someone else.

10. Celebrate Random Holiday
Relieve workplace stress by celebrating holidays not usually celebrated such as Groundhog Day, Arbor Day, Bastille Day, Polish Independence Day and summer solstice.

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