Culture work

Probably the most important tool in the ethics officer’s toolbox is ethics training. This is one way to engage with people in person and to reach their hearts and minds.

We mention two concepts here: training and the facilitation of ethics discussions. This is because every training session should also be about getting people to talk about ethics. Training should not be a one-way conversation.

While not everyone is a born trainer, most people can learn to be better trainers and facilitators. The most important thing is to think about how you yourself respond to various training styles and activities.

If you keep the following three points in mind, your ethics training is likely to be far more successful. 

1. Ethics workshop – not ethics preaching

While we want participants to leave with enhanced ethics awareness, we should be careful not to preach to them. If you start out with the assumption that your audience is a group of bad people who need to have their behaviour corrected, you will not make much progress. People will get defensive and will disengage. Instead, start with the mindset that most people want to do the right thing, and will do so with a little guidance. In other words, we are not trying to ‘convert’ bad people into good people. We are rather collectively thinking how we (as a group of good people) can be more aware of ethical pitfalls, and create a more ethical organisational environment.

2. Ethics workshop – not ethics training

You know how bored you get when someone just talks at you for hours – where the presenter simply reads the text off a slide and people can’t wait for the end of the session. This type of training is not very effective at getting knowledge across, or at engaging people’s moral will (their hearts).

The truth is that adults learn through participation and conversation. They will take in a little bit by listening, but overall, need to be engaged, and need to talk through the issues. Ethics training can be very rewarding to participate in – and to facilitate.

Get participants to talk about their beliefs and challenges. Use activities, case studies and exercises that get them to engage with the policies rather than reading them the policies. The goal is to get participants to do most of the talking. You want to facilitate learning. All the learning that takes place should be in a fun and engaging way.

3. Ethics workshop – not compliance workshop

While we do deal with policies and rules, these are not the major focus. It is more important that participants understand why something is right or wrong than merely getting them to minimally adhere to rules. If we only deal with rules, people tend to look for ways to circumvent the rules (to find loopholes). They also think that if there is no rule against something it must be acceptable. So even when you deal with policies, make it clear that ethics goes beyond the rules and that the rules must always be applied in an ethical way.

Here is a suggested outline for an ethics awareness session:

Introduction to ethics

Instead of jumping into the code of conduct, first reflect (in conversation with the group) on things such as:

• What is ethics?
• What are values?
  • What are your personal values?
  • What is the organisation’s values?
• What are ethical dilemmas?
• Why do good people do bad things?

Code of conduct

An easy way we have found to familiarise people with their relevant code of ethics or code of conduct is to get them to practically engage with it. Try the following exercise:

1. Ask people to discuss with the person sitting next to them what ethical dilemmas or challenges they have observed in the workplace. You can also ask:
   • What ethical dilemmas do you face in your work?
   • What ethical issues are you worried about in this organisation?
2. Now ask people to tell you what they have discussed. Make a note of the topics that emerge on a whiteboard if you have one. Otherwise, just capture it on a notepad.
3. Each person should have a copy of their code of conduct. Ask them to bring theirs along, or print copies that you carry with you for the training. If you don’t have resources to print for every occasion, just print 30 and reuse them again and again. (You need to make sure that you are VERY familiar with the content of the code.)
4. Next, you ask them to go to the code and see where the ethical issues they discussed are covered in the document. In other words, they are matching their real-world ethical challenges with the content of the code. Instead of you reading them the code (which they will not remember), they are now reading it and familiarising themselves with the content.
5. Again, ask them for feedback. Are all of their issues covered in the code? What is covered and what is not? Are there other relevant policies that might give guidance on the topic?
6. If there are any important issues that they missed, you can point those out.

Conflicts of interest

Disclosures of interest is an important part of the work of ethics officers. It is very easy for ethics officers and other public servants to fall into the habit of just going through disclosure processes and losing sight of the big picture. The big picture is that we want to build a culture where people are sensitive to their conflicts of interest, they disclose their conflicts proactively, and the department helps them to manage the conflicts responsibly.

People should not only disclose annually, they must also disclose at any time when they feel they have a conflict of interest. They must therefore completely understand what a conflict of interest is. Use The Ethics Institute’s Conflict of Interest Handbook, and the Guide on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest in the public service (DPSA, 2023) to talk about what conflicts of interest entail. Also make use of case studies to help people to better understand what is a conflict of interest, and what is not.

Reporting misconduct

You want to leave participants with an awareness of their responsibility to report misconduct, how they can report misconduct, and what will happen when they report misconduct.

Please see the following resources that you can use in your training:

• Guide on the reporting of unethical conduct, corruption and non-compliance
• WB material for DPSA

You can also show the following videos from the National School of Government.

How long should a training session be?

Short awareness sessions – 1 hour

Discussion sessions – 2 to 4 hours (or a morning)

What resources will I need?

It is good to have a presentation. For this you will need a laptop and a projector.

Have copies of the relevant code of conduct. As indicated above – if you do not have resources to print for every group, then keep a set of codes with you that you re-use for your sessions.

How many people should be in a session?

A comfortable group size for training – especially longer sessions where you facilitate conversations – is about 20 to 25 people.

If you are only doing an awareness session of an hour, where it is mostly you presenting and then Q&A, you can include as many people as you want.

To keep the ethics message top of mind between training sessions you will need to communicate regularly. This can be done with posters, or even easier – emailers.

A communication calendar is useful to specify what will be shared and when. Ideally, at least one communiqué should go out each month.

You can align content with relevant dates throughout the year, for example:

Always consult your internal communications division to assist with planning and ensure alignment with their calendar.

The following dates are particularly important in the public service, as they set out disclosure requirements for specific individuals:

Communicate at least a month before each disclosure deadline to prompt submissions. Send weekly follow-up emails, and in the final week, daily reminders to those who have not yet submitted.

Enhancing engagement

• Build two-way communication channels, such as short surveys or anonymous suggestion boxes, to identify where more guidance is needed, and actively collect and act on feedback to measure effectiveness and refine future efforts.
• Share real-life ‘ethics in action’ stories that demonstrate ethical decision-making and provide managers with talking points and resources to discuss ethics in team meetings.
• Use visual reinforcement through screensavers, intranet banners, short video clips, infographics, and appealing visuals – engaging communication is often overlooked but crucial for effectiveness.
• Send concise ‘ethics tips of the month’ – practical reminders linked to real scenarios, keeping content short and to the point as people prefer brief, focused messages.
• Make communication interactive by using quizzes, questionnaires, ‘guess what happens next’ games, self-assessment tools, and other engagement methods to make learning engaging and measure understanding.
• Use customisable templates (e.g., reminder emails, WhatsApp graphics), FAQs, and quick-reference guides for common ethics questions for quick deployment by ethics officers.
• Ensure messages reach all staff: for those without computer access, provide printouts or posters in prominent areas, and use clear, simple, jargon-free language to ensure accessibility for everyone.
• Have a plan for urgent or sensitive updates – be prepared to quickly communicate changes such as hotline numbers or key ethics alerts.

The DPSA has developed communication materials specifically aimed at promoting whistleblowing in the public sector. The material is relevant for the public service and local government.

These resources include:

• Twelve mailers – one can be sent out each month.
• Four posters.
• One guidebook on ‘Reporting and addressing wrongdoing in the Public Sector’.

Practical considerations

Use a communication calendar to plan messages around important ethics dates and organisational milestones. Evaluate the effectiveness of your communications by checking if staff are opening emails, noticing posters, and using the resources provided. Apply these insights to make future communications more effective.

You may also want to communicate with external stakeholders. For example, if staff are frequently asked for bribes, distribute pamphlets or use social media to publicise reporting avenues and clarify rights.

Consider sharing statistics or success stories to demonstrate that reports are acted upon. Community outreach can be achieved through:

• Community newsletters or bulletins, distributed at public spaces such as clinics, libraries, and community centres
• Local community meetings or forums, partnering with ward councillors or community leaders to raise awareness
• Information stands or kiosks at municipal offices, markets, or events
• Posters and flyers in prominent public areas such as government offices, transport hubs, and schools
• Digital channels such as WhatsApp groups popular in many communities for quick, direct communication. Social media campaigns can continue to reinforce these messages and expand your reach.

Ethics advice refers to instances where the ethics officer will provide advice to an employee to help make an ethical decision.

Whilst codes of ethics and ethics policies provide guidance on expected behaviour, they do not provide guidance on every situation that employees may encounter in the workplace. The role of the ethics officer includes being available to provide ethics advice to employees in situations when they are not sure how to act or navigate.

As an ethics officer you may find that employees approach you for advice on navigating ethical dilemmas.

In some organisations, the ethics office may set up an ethics advice desk to provide this advice – this could be an email address, website or a telephone number, or the ethics officer him/herself.

To provide ethics advice an ethics officer should be empathetic, non-judgemental, a good listener, and also be aware of the ethics policies and procedures to provide ethics advice.

Unlike ethics advice, ethics support generally refers to instances where an employee will approach the ethics officer for help with existing policies and procedures. Questions could include:

• Which policy contains…
• Where should I look for…
• How should I report…

The ethics officer’s role is to support the employee by guiding them on where and how to access the available resources. In order to do this the ethics officer will need to be aware of the formal and informal ethics standards in the organisations, such as what policies are available, what do they say and how to access them, etc.

Whilst the ethics officer is not responsible for the rewards and recognition processes, the ethics officer provides input into these processes to ensure that the organisation recognises and encourages ethical behaviour. After all, what gets recognised, gets repeated.

Difference between recognition and reward?

One of the quickest ways to build an ethical culture is by recognising employees who act ethically – and the easiest way to do that is through verbalising praise of employees.

The ethics officer’s role would be to work with other relevant role-players such as HR to ensure that ethical behaviour is recognised through the organisation’s performance management processes and that the good employees are recognised in an appropriate manner. (Of course, at the same time there should also be a focus on discipline management for ‘bad’ employees.)