In my last column, I offered some interview questions that an in-house lawyer may ask a prospective employer in order to assess the organization’s ethical culture. While the questions are best asked before you become affiliated with an organization, you may also use them at any time to perform an ethics health check at your current employer. I would like to revisit one of the questions in order to underscore the criticality of this exercise.
One of the proposed questions (“How does this company ensure that its employees act with integrity?”) was designed to elicit information regarding the company’s response to noncompliance. Ideally, the response should provide assurance that the company has developed and deployed consistent and durable processes to resolve noncompliance or integrity violations. These ethical commitments signal that the company doesn’t cut corners.
