Thought there were some interesting stats in this news release.
Especially thought that when 4 out of 10 organizations say they provide ethics training to management - and then it turns out that training is less than 1 hour per year for a third of them - sounds like an ethics joke.
KPMG ethics survey: Do ethical issues really matter to Canadian organizations?
TORONTO, Feb. 17 /CNW/ - Canadian organizations say they recognize the need to promote ethical workplace practices, but few are committing the resources to do so, despite increased public demand for such practices in both the private and public sectors, according to the findings of KPMG's ETHICS SURVEY 2000 released today.
The KPMG Ethics Survey - released annually by the professional services firm -- assesses the extent of ethics initiatives within Canadian organizations. This year it focused on the time and resources allocated to their efforts and on certain specific initiatives such as confidential
reporting mechanisms, ethics training provisions, pre-employment screening, performance evaluation criteria related to ethics, and international practices, including monitoring international supplier labour practices.
Among its key findings:
- Close to two thirds of respondents say they are implementing initiatives to promote positive organizational values and ethical practice, but the amount of time and effort they allocate is often inadequate.
- Nearly 4 out of 10 (39 per cent) of respondents say they provide ethics training, but almost one third of these provide less than one hour of training per year to managers.
- Only about 10 per cent of Canadian organizations provide more than eight hours of ethics training per year.
- Nearly 6 out of 10 (58 per cent) of respondent organizations do not have designated senior managers responsible for ethical issues. Of those that do, most of these managers spend less than 10 per cent of their time yearly on ethical issues.
"Organizations are just not meeting the public's high expectations in making ethical practices a strategic priority," says Diane Girard, Senior Manager, Ethics & Integrity Services at KPMG. "For example, considering the
number of ethical issues resulting from managerial decisions, it seems surprising that many organizations would offer so little training in helping managers develop awareness and ethical decision-making abilities."
On the international level, the survey found that many private Canadian organizations operating overseas still lack a formal policy regarding child labour and have not started monitoring their own practices or those of their suppliers. Again, this is despite the fact that child labour has gained a lot of attention from media and interest groups in the last few years.
"Issues related to labour and business practices abroad are becoming a bigger concern among most Canadians. It is clear that companies with operations or suppliers overseas need to develop specific initiatives such as vendor codes of conduct and monitoring of their suppliers' practices relating to labour standards, safety and environmental controls, bribery and corruption, " says Ms. Girard.
Other findings of the KPMG Ethics Survey 2000 include:
- The issues considered to be of growing concern in the next few years are security of information, employee and client privacy, environmental issues, governance and conflicts of interests.
- For 88.5 per cent of respondents who regularly conduct organizational risk assessments, ethical risks are included to some extent in those assessments.
- Only 14.3 per cent of respondents have performed an evaluation of their ethics-related performance -- a surprisingly low rate if organizations wish to effectively manage their ethical risks and want to know if their initiatives are successful in enhancing ethics in the workplace.
"Responses to the survey indicate that though a growing number of organizations in both the private and the public sectors have been implementing initiatives to promote ethical practice in the last few years, ethics is not a priority," concludes Girard. "Now that the Y2K is a thing of
the past, maybe organizations will start devoting more efforts to other strategic issues, such as ethics."
Printed copies of the Ethics Survey Report 2000 are available from KPMG offices. The survey can also be accessed on the company website at www.kpmg.ca/ethics.
KPMG LLP is the Canadian member firm of KPMG International.
In Canada KPMG partners and professionals provide a wide range of accounting, tax and consulting services. As a provider of information-based services, KPMG delivers understandable business advice - helping clients analyze their business with true clarity, raise their level of performance, achieve growth and enhance shareholder value. KPMG International's member firms have more than 100,000 professionals, including 6,800 partners, in 160 countries. KPMG's Canadian Web site is kpmg.ca |
