The State of Ethics & Compliance In the Workplace: U.S. Trends
ECI recently released a Global Business Ethics Survey® (GBES®) report on U.S. trends. The report is focused on data that ECI collected in 2013, 2017, 2020, and 2023 from employees working in the U.S. in publicly and privately held, for-profit companies. ECI studied ethical culture, ethics and compliance (E&C) programs, and the key ethics outcomes of pressure, observed misconduct, reporting of misconduct, and retaliation to analyze trends over time. ECI also explored recent trends, including those linked with the shift in work locations (i.e., remote, on-site, on the road).
What’s the big picture in U.S. workplaces?
- Strong ethical culture is declining. A strong ethical culture supported by a high-quality ethics and compliance program has a positive impact in the workplace. However, on ECI’s 2023 GBES survey of 2,845 U.S.-based employees who work in publicly traded or privately owned, for-profit businesses, the percentage of employees working in an organization in the United States with a strong-leaning ethical culture has declined.
- Reporting rates are down. Along with the overall rate, reporting of every one of the 21 specific forms of misconduct asked about in the survey declined between pre-pandemic levels in 2017 and levels in 2023.
3. Where an employee works matters. ECl’s United States GBES report reveals that employees who work “on the road” are least likely to perceive a strong ethical culture in their workplace or experience favorable ethics outcomes compared with remote or on-site employees.
What can businesses do?
- Focus on ethical culture, which shapes employees’ work experiences.
- Continue to invest in E&C programs, which have a significant impact on reporting.
- Leverage program elements and encourage employee behaviors that are shown to have a greater impact.
- Along with a focus on increasing reporting, integrate strategies to prevent and address retaliation, which is likely to rise alongside reporting.
- Explore and address the unique needs of on-the-road employees who might have less access to the positive impact of an organization’s culture and, as a result, have emerged as an area of heightened risk.
To access this report which is available to the public, click here. For all things GBES, click here.
About the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI)
ECI empowers organizations to build and sustain the programs that are proven to increase integrity in organizations. We help leaders create strong ethical workplace cultures and successful businesses that do the right thing.
For more information about ECI and becoming a member, visit www.ethics.org.
*Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of their legal structure.
- This report discusses data collected from employees working in the United States at publicly and privately held, for-profit companies during 2013, 2017, 2020, and 2023. Unless noted, data are from 2023. See Methodology section in the full report for more information.
