The importance of Ethics for Small Business - arinobe.com

When trying to gain the competitive edge over their competitors many small businesses tend to focus on tangible methods such as reducing prices and improving customer services. Too few small businesses look at how their business operates to gain the competitive edge.

In the study, "Does Business Ethics Pay?" by The Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), it was found that companies displaying a "clear commitment to ethical conduct" consistently outperform companies that do not display ethical conduct.

From this we can conclude that businesses, regardless of size, that has a code of acceptable, desirable and responsible behavior, above and beyond compliance with laws and regulations generally out-perform businesses that do not.

What is an ethics policy?

According to the?The Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), an ethics policy:

• Sets out an organization's ethical values, standards and commitments to stakeholders that will underpin the way that it does business
• Confirms leadership commitment to the above
• Describes how this will be achieved and monitored through an ethics program
• Identifies the main ethical issues faced by the organization/sector
• Identifies other policies and documents that support and detail aspects of the ethics policy ? such as a code of ethics, a speak up policy, a bullying and harassment policy, a gifts and hospitality policy, an environmental policy etc.

The key to an ethics policy is to ensure that all of your existing and potential customers are aware of it and your staff are trained supported to uphold the principles of the code.

How to implement an ethics policy

Implementing an ethics policy and documenting your code of conduct is a relatively simple task, ?remember to keep it as simple as possible at first as a good ethics code develops over time.?

Below are the key elements of an ethics code:

Be Trustful
Have Clear Documents
Become Community Involved
Maintain Accounting Control
For more information on developing an ethics code go to the IBE website www.ibe.org.uk

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Source: http://blog.arinobe.com/2012/10/the-importance-of-ethics-for-small.html

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