Be Ethical and Sustain your Business Forever
In any business, there is a great deal of competition from everywhere. You must have that extra edge to stand apart from the crowd and stay ahead of your competitors.
It is essential to be honest, and ethical in your approach to sustain for a longer time and be different from others.
Employees want to work for a company that stands strong on its ethics and follows morality. Your business should practice integrity in its working for which everybody will feel proud.
Many people wish to start their own business, but they cannot do so due to the current post-pandemic situation.
This pandemic has affected a lot on the financial condition of people and has made them disabled in terms of finances.
Lending Options Come as Useful
To cater to the needs of such budding entrepreneurs, banks and direct lenders provide loans at easy repayment terms and lesser interest rates.
These loans are coined as coronavirus bounce back loans and help many people become self-sufficient and successful entrepreneurs.
It is essential to stay ethical and moral to become a successful entrepreneur; clients and customers also prefer businesses that follow an ethical approach over a business that does not pay much heed to ethics. Working gives a feel-good factor in any transaction that you make.
Here are some tips for you to make your business more ethical and raise the bar for your competitors:
Form a code consistency is one of the main ingredients for any business. Any business needs to formulate proper codes and ethics for its smooth functioning.
Since employees have regular customer interactions, it is essential to work as per the ethics to get the desired results. Any business working on strong business values can set an example and be a source of inspiration for others.
For example, some businesses promote enthusiasm and unity as their primary business values, while others believe in promoting entrepreneurial spirit within the organization to boost the morale of their employees.
Not the same thing works for everybody, so it is essential to customize your business ethics and values as per your employees and the business environment. It is crucial to be unique rather than running in the rat race.
Customer and employee engagement
If your employees are engaged in creating the business code, it is more likely to yield positive results. To understand and be aware of your employees and colleagues’ opinions, carry out different engagement sessions to make everybody a part of the policy.
This can be a good way to have an employee-friendly vision and mission. Apart from your employees, you can also involve your customers, giving you authentic feedback to make the required amendments in your codes and values.
Customers also prefer to interact with businesses that work ethically and practice what they preach.
Strengthen the code benefits
Formulating strong codes and ethics is a significant milestone for the business. But, it should be followed religiously and consistently.
Your business goals should be realistic, achievable, and employee and customer friendly. The ethics and codes should encourage your employees to work hard and achieve their targets on time.
Lead by example
According to a survey, most managers think of themselves as the perfect manager. Still, simultaneously when asked by the employees, they do not see their manager as the right senior person.
Ethical behaviour starts with the management, including directors, seniors’ chief executives. The hierarchy goes down, and the same behaviour is expected out of the subordinates, and the leaders are behaving appropriately.
It is always suitable to lead by example. There can be no separate rules for the senior and junior positions. It should be uniform throughout the organization.
Employee training
Formulation of ethics and codes is fundamental of any business, but the effort goes in vain until the employees understand its importance.
It is crucial to make your employees understand the importance of working ethically and as per the business codes. You can teach them the repercussions and consequences of not working ethically and the importance of it.
To make your employees an integral part of your business functioning, train your employees on a regular basis by conducting various training programs and workshops.
These sessions should be interactive and should involve two-way communication. You can also take the help of presentations and take examples of successful businesses as to how they work.
Take up specific situations to address varied situations of your employees to clear all the doubts and make them confident about the codes. This is the best way to uphold the integrity of your business.
Promote ethical behaviour
Having employees who work on the ethical path and following the business codes is a good promotion tool.
It would help if you did not shy away or lesser promote your ethical behaviour. Your employees are the face of your business, and your employees need to behave in a way that can attract more customers.
For example, if you believe in not wasting natural resources and preserving them, your employees will follow the same policy and promote it too.
Ultimately, your customers are getting involved because of your motive and are actively associated with your business.
Reward
Rewarding favourable behaviour increases the chances of boosting their morale and increasing their efficiency.
Employees who follow the company codes and ethics honestly and in a dedicated manner are assets for the business in any situation.
Employees who are honest in their approach should be rewarded in some of the other forms. You can reward your employees in many forms, such as an award, cash prize or star cards.
Also, you can praise them and set them as an example in your team meetings and discussions.
Learn from your mistakes
The value of any good thing is not realized until something bad happens. Similarly, the value of ethics is not realized till the time something goes wrong.
A small mistake can lead to big blunders and should be taken care of. Once the damage has been done, it takes a long time to repair or start it all over again.
The only way is to learn from other’s mistakes and prevent them from happening at your business premises.
Report unethical behaviour
If honest behaviour is being rewarded, unethical behaviour should be reported as well. If it is not prevented on time, it may set a bad example for everybody else.
You may feel that report and punishing employees is not an option but weighing unethical behaviour versus ethical, unethical side always weighs heavier.
Your employees should comfortable in bringing their concerns, problems, feedbacks to you. Also, the senior management should be well equipped to sort all the queries and problems at the lower level.
Move with the times.
The times are changing, and so are the business ways. The customers’ demands and preferences are dynamic and ever-changing.
There will be constant shifts in the views and opinions of people. It is essential to move with the times and make the required changes from time to time to survive within the competitors.
Your codes and ethics should always be inspiring and motivating for everybody, from your customers to your employees.
Your business codes should reflect the true essence and the real motive of your business at every point in time.
Ailsa Adam is the Editor-in-Chief and former content head at Hugeloanlender. She has been a valuable member of the content strategy team since 2017 due to her abundant experience in the finance sector. Passionate about helping individuals navigate the world of loans and personal finance, she has dedicated herself to acquiring extensive knowledge on various financial products. Before her role at Hugeloanlender,
Ailsa worked as a seasoned journalist and writer, specialising in creating informative blogs and articles on diverse loan types. She is known for her meticulous research and commitment to delivering accurate and engaging content. She holds a degree in MBA Finance and has a keen interest in creative writing and art.
