Workplace Ethics [Episode 3] Meric Bloch: Ethics and Compliance are Two Different Things
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
One of the biggest challenges that organizations have is after investing the time and resources into developing a code of conduct and designing ethics training, stuff still happens. As a human resources professional, we might say to ourselves, “Why? Didn’t employees read the standard? Didn’t people pay attention during training?” And the answer might be that we’re not doing a good job of drawing the distinction between ethics and compliance.
Compliance involves company expectations. It could be compliance with a law, or an agreement like a union contract, or maybe compliance with a company rule. Compliance matters might change over time as laws, agreements, or rules change. If someone violates the law, agreement, or rule, they are non-compliant.
Ethics are the values and moral principles we live by – both in our personal and professional lives. And they rarely change. When we talk about ethics and compliance, it’s possible to be non-compliant, but still ethical. It’s also possible to be non-compliant and unethical.
The challenge for organizations is to bring ethics into compliance standards. We’d like to think we all know what ethical behavior looks like. And what compliance looks like. But maybe we’re not doing enough to explain it, including using real examples into ethics and compliance training. That’s why I’m excited to share with you this episode of The HR Bartender Show.
Meric Bloch is the strategic advisor for Winter Investigations. His experience includes roles as an ethics and compliance officer for three multinational Fortune 500 companies and a healthcare system. He has designed, implemented, and managed each company’s workplace investigations process worldwide.
Meric has personally conducted over 800 internal investigations of fraud and serious workplace misconduct in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He developed the “Winter Method” for workplace investigations and has trained thousands of HR and compliance professionals. He is the author of three books on investigations: “Workplace Investigations: Techniques and Strategies for Investigators and Compliance Officers”, “Investigative Interviewing”, and “The First Information Is Almost Always Wrong”.
One of the things I appreciated about my conversation with Meric was the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) when it comes to ethics and compliance. Organizations might say to themselves, “I get it. But I’m under pressure to deliver results.” And that’s exactly the reason that organizations need to think about the connection of ethics to the business. It’s not just about doing the right thing. Organizations that do not operate ethically or in a compliant way can hurt their brand, their products and services, and ultimately the bottom line.
If you want to connect with Meric:
Website https://winterinvestigations.org
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mericbloch/
Season 3 Episode 3 – Meric Bloch Show Notes
Season 3 Episode 3 – Meric Bloch Transcript
Thanks for listening to our podcast. This season of the HR Bartender show is brought to you by our friends at Case IQ, the leading provider of modern investigative case management software to handle virtually any type of workplace incident. With millions of cases resolved, and billions of dollars in litigations avoided, trust Case IQ to help you protect your employees, your organization, and your brand.
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