Codes of conduct are crucial to culture and performance in the workplace. If you have standards you want staff members to adhere to, then having a written code will help you enforce them.
How do you build a code of conduct? What should you include in your code? How do you make sure employees abide by your standards?
We answer all of these questions and more in this article, and even provide a free code of conduct policy pdf for companies to use. Click here to skip straight to the download or keep reading for more information.
What is a Code of Conduct?
A code of conduct is a set of internal guidelines that employees must follow while they work for you. It outlines your corporate values and commitments as a company. More specifically, it sets the standards and expectations for employee behaviour, and allows you to tailor your company culture.
Don’t confuse code of conduct with code of ethics. While the two are very similar, and often used in tandem, a code of ethics helps staff members make the right choice when facing ethical dilemmas when conducting their work.
Why is a Code of Conduct Important?
There isn’t just one reason why a code of conduct is important. The benefits are numerous.
It provides a written fallback should you face a conduct issue. You set behaviour benchmarks in a code of conduct meaning when an employee falls short, you can hold them accountable.
Setting out expected behaviours from the outset means staff are more likely to follow the guidelines. If they’re posed after they’ve been with the business for a while, they’ll find it harder to adjust.
A code of conduct also provides an external statement to clients and prospective customers. This allows external parties to see what your company ethos is, and whether they want to work with/for you.
Overall, it makes working life easier for you, employees, and customers. Of course, your code of conduct should be well thought out and well-written. To ensure this, you can download our free code of conduct policy template at the bottom of the page or read the next couple of sections.
Code of Conduct Rules
When you build a code of conduct, it should be specific to your business. That means no two codes of conduct look the same. However, to help you pick and choose which areas to cover, here are some code of conduct examples you can utilise.
Integrity
One category of rules often used in a code of conduct is “integrity”. This refers to maintaining the reputation and dignity of the company. This is done through addressing topics related to:
Impartiality
Conflicts of interest
Fair competition
Confidentiality & privacy
Bribery & corruption
Handling client money
Here are some examples of clauses you could use in your company policy relating to each of these areas:
Impartiality
“Employees must not allow themselves to be improperly influence by others.”
Conflicts of interest
“When a conflict of interest arises, employees must declare it to all parties affected, and their immediate superior.”
Fair competition
“The organisation will not engage in price fixing, market sharing, or bid rigging.”
Confidentiality & privacy
“Employees must safeguard the privacy of the organisation’s customers and their confidential information.”
Bribery & corruption
“Employees must not accept or offer bribes or inducements.”
Handling client money
“Employees must return any money held in any of our customers’ accounts directly to the client as soon as reasonably practicable following a written request to do so.”
Code of Conduct Competence
What is code of conduct competence? It refers to training, education, research, and learning. Staff will often pursue personal development—how they do this comes down to your policies. A code of conduct outlines how staff should conduct themselves while undertaking development and your organisation’s commitment to betterment. You can address competence through:
Laws & regulation
Terms of appointment
Timekeeping
Record keeping
Here are some examples of clauses you could use relating to each of these areas:
Laws & regulation
“Employees shall abide by applicable laws and regulations during training at all times.”
Terms of appointment
“All terms of appointment between an employee and a training provider must be clear, agreed, and recorded in writing before commencement.”
Timekeeping
“Employees are required to comply with the company’s rules relating to notification of absence.”
Record keeping
“Employees should maintain appropriate records of their development throughout their engagement.”
Relationships
This refers to both internal relationships between colleagues, and external relationships with clients and the general public. It is also where you can outline any social initiatives your organisation supports. This can be done through:
Here are some conduct examples of clauses you could use relating to each of these areas:
Copyright
“Employees must not seek to pass off someone else’s work as their own.”
Peers
“Employees must not seek to damage anyone’s reputation or practice.”
Modern Slavery
“Employees shall report abusive labour practices to proper and recognised authorities when they become aware of them in connection with work undertaken or supply chains.”
Equality, diversity and inclusion
“Staff shall not discriminate unlawfully on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, culture or socio-economic background.”
Whistleblowing
“Employees should report dangerous situations and suspected wrongdoing to an appropriate person or organisation as soon as possible.”
Other Rules
Aside from the clauses highlighted above, you may wish to address other areas, such as company property, personal searches, work uniform, smoking breaks, working environment, and so on. It depends entirely on your company’s purpose for creating a code of conduct. Take some time to think about the rules and principles you want to enforce.
While you may wish to have individual policies on each area of concern, it can be helpful to touch upon them in your code of conduct. If you want support constructing policies, speak to our documentation team today on 01455 858 132.
What are my Company Values and Principles?
Before you write a code of conduct, you need to identify your core values. Every business is different, so each employer will have their own set of values. If you aren’t sure what yours are, we have a few tips for how to find out.
Values
Start by asking yourself the question:
“Why did I start the business?”
If you didn’t start the business, then you can ask the question:
“What is my company’s purpose?”
This is a crucial first step to building your code of conduct. Once you’ve nailed down the answer, you can move on to other questions, such as:
What are the goals you and your teams strive to achieve?
How do you like to reward your staff?
Which causes are important to you and your employees?
Does your business have an existing mission statement?
What do you want your company’s reputation to be?
Take some inspiration from the companies that you admire, look at their business practices. Do they have a public code of conduct you could reference? What does good practice mean to them, their employees, and their customers?
Can you condense your core values down to single word examples? For example:
Passionate
Exceptional
Bold
Courageous
Sustainable
Honest
Innovative
These aren’t meant to serve as a code of conduct themselves but inform the rules and values you will prioritise when building your company’s code.
Finally, make sure the core values of your business aren’t rigid as your business develops. As your organisation grows, some values may no longer make sense. Conduct regular reviews of your shared values and codes to ensure they still protect staff and reflect your company’s mission statement.
Practices
If you are building a new business from scratch, it’s a good idea to have business practise planned in advance. If you are looking to refresh existing practices, then you need to identify what those practises are and how they can be improved. Some important details to consider when assessing rules are:
Does the practice help us achieve our company goals?
Does the practice promote communication amongst your team?
Does the practice impede productivity?
Does the practice have the potential to be discriminatory?
Is the practice overly restrictive?
Your practices should achieve several aims. They should protect your employees and company assets. They should create a positive business culture. They should provide guidance on good practice, so employees are set up for success.
How to Write a Code of Conduct
First, some general tips. Your code of conduct reflects your organisation and its daily operations. This means it needs to be written clearly and effectively communicate your company goals. To make sure you achieve this, you should:
Make the content digestible. Remove any unnecessary jargon and provide explanations for any technical wording which can’t be removed.
Make it comprehensive. Your code should cover all possible areas and pre-empt common questions that employees may raise.
Make it accessible. Provide a copy to all staff on their first day of employment. Keep a digital version in a central folder or on the company intranet.
Endorse the code as the business owner.
With these tips in mind, the first thing you should do is make a list of all of the areas you want to cover. This could include any of the following:
Company standards
Company practice
Attendance & timekeeping
Confidentiality
Work clothing
PPE
Health & safety practices
Company property
Use of company equipment
Personal searches
Personal property
Workspace environment
Changes in personal details
Misconduct
Gross misconduct
There are more, but this covers the most common code of conduct areas.
Once you have your list, decide how you want to separate these out. You could follow a format similar to that already highlighted, through integrity, competence, and relationships. Or you could choose an approach more suited to your workplace.
However you decide to split your sections, you can begin to outline the rules and responsibilities for each. We would recommend using a standardised approach, applying clauses that are applicable to all workplaces first. Once you’ve established this basis, you can move on to clauses specific to your industry and organisation.
For support with this, you can download a free code of conduct pdf below.
Enforcement and Reporting Concerns
Of course, having a code of conduct is just the first step. You need to enforce positive business practices to ensure your company’s expectations are met. Let’s start with enforcement.
Enforcement of company policies
Firstly, your code of conduct should act in tandem with other procedures and policies. For example, your disciplinary process should mention how breaches to your code of conduct will be handled. If your code covers data protection, then it will help to back this up with a data protection policy.
Detail all parties involved and emphasise their role in the process. We’ll go into this in more detail later, but an example of this is who to report concerns to. When should an issue be taken to a line manager, and when should it move higher up the chain of command? A threat to a company’s intellectual property or data is more likely to need input from senior management than a minor conduct issue.
Once you’ve reviewed your documentation and additional resources, making sure effective safeguards are in place, you need to ensure day-to-day enforcement of these rules. It is not enough to rely on self regulation amongst staff during their daily lives. Make sure your managers are aware of your code of conduct and can take appropriate action to deal with issues effectively when they occur. It’s also important that senior management abide by the guiding behaviours in your code. This will set expectations for junior staff to follow their example and act accordingly. It will also help to foster a positive work environment. If senior management fail to do this, others will feel they can act how they want. This could result in serious issues, such as data protection breaches, workplace conflicts, and losing public trust.
Of course, even the best enforcement measures won’t be able to stop every instance of code breaches. This is where effective reporting is important.
How to Report Breaches of Code
To effectively manage this, you can include a process dealing with the reporting of breaches in the code of conduct itself. It may be useful to highlight potential situations where a breach could occur, and how it should be reported. A data protection issue might require a different approach than a whistleblower making claims about product safety, for example.
First, highlight who the employee should go to with their concerns. If you need a testimony in writing, explain which details you need from them and why. Always provide more than one point of contact, in case the concerns relate to the person they need to report to. Once concerns have been raised, it is important that you act on them quickly. You can outline a time frame to deliver results which will prevent the employee chasing for answers. However, if you do give a time frame, you must respect it as staff will expect you to deliver.
When you are dealing with an issue of this nature, compliance is key. Make sure to investigate claims, and allow the employee a chance to speak in their own defence. Failure to do so could result in claims of discrimination, unfair treatment, or even unfair dismissal.
Code of Conduct Template
Misconduct at work is an unfortunate reality when employing people—but managing it doesn’t have to be a drain on time, resources, and productivity.
Establishing a code of conduct for employees can be a challenge. Each workplace is different, and what’s acceptable in one environment may be completely inappropriate in another.
Outline how you expect staff members to act, including the behaviour and standards that are fundamental to their employment. Managing difficult employees and disruptive behaviours is the objective, after all.
However, a company code of conduct for employees shouldn’t just be a set of limitations. Got a company mission or goal? Include it. What’ll make your code great is the inclusion of your company’s vision and culture. Make sure it’s free of jargon, accessible, and visually appealing.
If done correctly, you’ll start to see the effect positive employee behaviour and attitude within an organisation can have.
But remember that a code of conduct is just the beginning. To ensure it has a lasting, positive impact you need to enforce it and review it.
If you’re having trouble drafting yours, download a free code of conduct template by clicking the link below.
Expert support
If you need support with employee productivity or conduct, speak to a Croner expert today on 0844 5618133 and quote code CHC22 along with quote number 911059.
Every FTC business member can also claim a free Croner goodie bag containing a mouse mat, pen, coaster and mug.
