Businesses operate primarily to make money. Unfortunately, a profit motive can lead to very ethically questionable business practices. From manipulating and under-compensating employees to skirting environmental regulations, there are numerous ways that profit motives could lead to integrity issues and unethical or illegal business operations.
Not only could the company’s culture acclimate to behaviors others would immediately identify as problematic, but you can create a system where a few people are in a position to do real damage to the business as a whole. Especially when your company has grown significantly in recent years, you may need an external integrity review to identify issues with the company that could lead to criminal charges or ethics complaints.
How an integrity review works
Integrity reviews involve reviewing a company’s operations, staff practices and operating procedures. From looking at the actual impact the company has on the community to the way it delegates authority or makes decisions, there are multiple ways for outside reviewers to analyze a company’s integrity. The goal of such an audit is to spot issues that could lead to misconduct later or that will make hiding misconduct too easy.
Depending on what the review uncovers, there may be numerous suggestions that could help the company become more ethical and transparent and how it operates. Sometimes, you may discover that you need to add some checks and balances to prevent abuses of power. Other times, you may come to recognize that there are certain company practices that could have a negative effect on workers or your community that you will need to adjust accordingly.
Conducting an integrity review can help you identify legal and financial risk factors before they cause issues for your business.