Ethics Training for Employees?

When ethics thraing became all the rage in businesses in the 1980 and 1990's, many wondered why.  Many are still wondering why.  Many government contracts require certain "compliance" training be taught to for companies to get and keep thosee contracts.  Do this requirements really make people more honorable and willing to do what is right or instead make them want to find "work-arounds" rather than have honest values and good morals.  Ethics training in  many corporations is a safety net, just-in-case they get a legal suit filed against them.  It is not just ethics, the same legal safety net idea of training applies to sexual harrassment and diversity-type training as well.  Why do people question these types of training?  

• Why Most Ethics Training Sucks
• 4 Hard Truths About Ethics and Compliance Training
• Ethics Trainings Are Even Dumber Than You Think
• Ethics Training Is Missing the Mark

Perhaps the reason people do not see ethics training as relevant is that they believe the basic principles should have been established elsewhere.  Morality and doing right is supposed to be developed in church.  Good character, valuing others, respectful manners, and not stealing is supposed to be imbued by parents through motivation and discipline.  Good conduct is supposed to be taught in schools.  Ethics and honesty is supposed to be reienforced in college.  So are ethics still passed up from youth to adulthood or is this an old-fashioned idea? 

In the workforce, ethics is a leadership issue more than an employee issue.  Leaders must be a character example of what they want the corporate ethos to be.  If the manager pads his expense statements, how can he expect his employees to be honest?  If a supervisor takes home office supplies for her children to use as their school supplies, how can she trust her employees not to steal from the company?  Instead of (or at least along with) off-the-shelf ethics training, leaders need to be examples of the values they want in their employees.  Perhaps leaders also need to get involved with their communities to help make sure the old ways of training up a child or teen in the way they should act and think are still taught. 

Understanding the Customer Experience

Customer eXperience (CX) is more than customer service centers or doing a customer satisfaction survey. Having the best price or product is great, but lots of other companies can claim the same.  It is a strategy to become more successful by making business about every interaction the customer has with your product, service, brand, and company.  The goal is to make every interaction pleasant for the customer so they feel good and return to buy more.  

• "61% of consumers say their priorities keep changing as a result of everything going on in the world. As a result, the way they interact with brands is evolving, and so too is the idea of customer experience.." from Accenture Insights and Research 

The customer experience starts with marketing materials that attract their attention.  Marketing can be digital or print.  The old marketing rule of seeing your brand at least three times before they buy my still ring true, but the methods for getting that attention have changed.  Businesses can not rely on only one marketing effort that has worked I the past, they must use multiple channels to not only communicate with current customers but to reach potential new customers.

• On the Adobe for Business blog post explaining customer experience management, they explain "For today’s customers, their experience matters as much as your offerings. In fact, 86% of consumers say they’re willing to pay more to receive a superior customer experience. And 64% are more likely to recommend your brand if they have a great experience, leading to increased referral business and higher return on investment." 

The customer experience means more than getting them into a physical store, to attend a sales meeting, or buy from a website.  It consistently delivering a brand experience that makes customers want to come back.  Loyal customers continue to drive business revenue only as long as they feel they are getting more than just a regular product or one-time service for their money.  Remember they can always go elsewhere for a similar product or service if they are not getting a satisfactory experience with a company and brand,

• "80% of customers value their experience with a company as much as its products or services." is just one of the many statistics presented in the Customer Onboarding blog by OnRamp.

Communication is important to any customer who has a problem anywhere during the sales cycle or after delivery.  If the customer reports a problem, they must be kept in the loop on how it is being solved.  The quickest way to loose a customer is for them to have a bad experience and believe no one is listening to their complaints.  When considering word-of-mouth, a really great or a slightly bad experience is often communicated faster than a good one - especially with social media making it easier to complain.  Communication with the customer is also important when considering improving a process that involves them or developing a new product that replaces a popular version.  So consider asking for feedback from those that order often to make sure the proposed updtes still offers them the value they expect.

• According to Hubspot blog, a provider or customer satisfacton surveys and map templates to plan the customer journey "Excellent customer experience leads to loyal customers, who are likely to sing your praises via word-of-mouth marketing, which 92% of people trust more than advertising." 

If the goal of great customer experiences is met. It may lead to customers giving great reviews and encouraging others to buy from the company as well. Word-of-mouth marketing then expands from social networking through company resources to trusted individuals sharing their experience with others who might be interested in what you offer.  Sales go up, profits go up, and companies stay successful.  Customers should always be treated like they are kings and queens, because without them there are no sales nor profits. 

What is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) doing?

There has been a lot of conflicting information on the purpose and processes of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) created by the President of the United States.  The new department aids in auditing for Cabinet members and consulting with their departments under Acting Administrator Amy Gleason (and team of business and engineering experts) as well reporting data findings to a Congressional Commitee.  In the below news video, you will see interviews with the 2025 volunteer leadership and team members at DOGE regarding why they are there and some of what they have found.  

To prevent misinformation and disinformation, visit the department website at doge.gov for accurate communications and data.  Find cost savings in USA govenment and desired cuts for regulations adverse to business and economic expansion on the web pages.  Until the rest of the website (home page is live X updates) can become real-time updating, check out DOGE Clock and Savings Per Taxpayer under US National Debt section on usdebtclock.org for minute-by-minute estimated savings.   

Tariffs May Improve Business and Provide Jobs for American-Made

Prosperous America reports on their website how tariffs affect businesses, consumers, and people looking for jobs.  They make it clear that moving manufacturing out of the country only helps the top management in big corporations as they can get cheap labor and products from overseas.  However, this effects productivity while resulting in less jobs for Americans and lower pay for those working in those countries outside the United States of America.  According to the website, tariffs benefit the working class most. With tariffs, management only benefits in making America greater by saving money if they move manufacturing back to the USA and hire locals.  There is also the possible increase in profits if they advertise as "Made in America" to consumers who care about buying local.

Forbes also admits tariffs can encourage corporations to move back to America, which brings new jobs for citizens as well as helping local small businesses get more work.  Yet, they also add a warning that it could mean small businesses have to work harder at finding local sources for quality supplies as they may lose their cheap overseas resources.  However, they do not remind those same small businesses that their growth is more likely - if they make sure their products and services meet the neeeds and expectations of the large corporations who are returning manufacturing to the Undited States and searching for supply chains within the USA.

Although tariffs may actually help American businesses in the long run and offer more jobs to citizens, they may provide some pain to consumers for a short while until the move is complete.  For instance, with tariffs on nearby countries,  proces for food , fashion, and utilities may go up temporarily.   To relieve the food issue for consumers, people in food supplies like grocers and restaurants will have to look toward local farmers for produce and meats.  This in turn works out well for farmers to get more money and save the homes they almost lost due to government restrictions on raising crops and animals. While waiting for food prices to drop, NerdWallet suggests consumers can look for ways to reduce their spending.  Consumers should also research farmer's markets and other healthy alternatives to food grown in Mexico or Canada.

The proposed reduction of government regulations should eventually reduce utility costs too, as restrictions on USA mining and drilling should be lifted.  With those lifts, more well-paying jobs open up for Americans and high costs of bringing gas and other utilities from outside the USA will go down,  This will help the economy grow.  Reductions in government regulations are already helping areas hurt by natural disasters to recover and igniting building projects.  With economic growth, the pain from rising costs should subside on products and service as more people are able to work and begin look forward to a better life. 

Five Forward Thinking Business Trends

 Business leaders are looking to find the newest trends for pushing their organizations into a profitable future and sustainable ptograms.  These trends will be considered when developing corporate visions and roadmaps.  Each blog post or magazine article they read will state the the writer's or edtitor's predected top five or ten trends.  All the materials may list two or three of the same items and then the remaining ones will be different from the last article read.  From reading many December 2024 and January 2025 blogs and articles, below are the most repeated items.

AI, which means Artificial Intelligence, is at the top of almost every list.  However, there seems to be some confusion on how this should be implemented in non-tecnical business. AI typically promises more than it can deliver, as has seen in badly written business articles and college term papers that were so obviously sourced and plagiarized.  However, AI does do research well - it just is not creative as an author.  In other words, do not let the old repuation AI got in past years deter consideration of AI for now and in the future.  AI technology has come a long way in a few short years and now provides tools that can help businesses.  The trick with AI is to find people who really understand it and for management to ask lots of questions to make sure it is a business fit that makes sense before investing in AI implementation.  Although AI can provide for easy research, quick problem solving, and increased productivity; it often uses lots of energy so there is that hidden cost to be aware of.

Customer Experience has resurfaced as another top trend.  Why customer service and satisfaction ever left as a key business component is a curious circumstance of cost cutting.  Why would anyone want to alienate customers just to save money?  There is no profit without customers!  

Technology (which is not only AI-related) still makes the trend list too.  It is called differenet things, but it is still all technology related!  Concerns about cypersecurity is still high.  Then there is the tasks of:updating current information systems, cleaning-up security data and inactive accounts, making websites and on-line stores more user friendly while impriving response time, updating handrware and software, and make sure the IT (information technology) staff consists ot people qualified to get it all done.  

Workforce is another common theme when talking business trends.  Some of the "experts" claim it is retention that should be the main concern of management.  Whereas, others talk about motivation or having the correct personnel with skills needed, which has always been key to an organization's success.  Skill needs may be technical or they could be social.  Technical is necessary for IT and AI, as well as various types of technicians and engineers needed for certain types of companies.  Social and team-building skills are important where collaboration, creativity, and innovation are desired.  Communication skills are extremely key to service companies, sales departments, marketing plans, and where organizations want to make customers a priority commitment. 

Another issue to consider is Deglobalization, which only a few of the articles referred to as economic resilience or geopolitical shifts.  This has already begun in the United States of America and in many Eurpean countries.  Due to tarriffs, taxation, politics, and other multi-country business issues; small niche companies and local businesses may soon do better than the bigger global companies when looking at profitability and increased market-sharepercentages. 

NOTE to Readers:  If you feel an important trend was left off this list, please add it as a comment to this post so others can learn about it and do research, if they desire.  Please include in the comments why you believe it is a trend that should be considered,

Great Years Ahead for Business

Will the recently completed 2024 election affect the rise of new business and increased profits for existing companies?  The stock market seems to indicate it will, as everything moved upward after the president was voted in and the value of the U.S. dollar also went up. 

Can having a conservative in the highest office of the United States really make a difference for American business?  A"Yes" answer is more than possible since the new president (for Jan.2025-Jan.2029 ), Donald Trump, is more than a politician who proved his abilitiy to overcome obstacles during a prior (Jan.2017-Jan.2021) term, he has successful businesses himself.  Not only that has he surrounded himself with a team that plans to cut through the red tape of the bloated bureaucracies that are holding entrepreneurs and organizations back.  The new presedential team promises to remove regulations that prevent economic growth and/or facilitate inflation.  For both business and their product/service consumers (U.S.A. citizens), there is also the promise of less taxation, more available energy at lower costs, and reduced interest rates.  If that happens, it should bolster profits for business and savings for Americans, thus helping the economy for almost everyone.

Can they really recover from the years (2021-2024) of cultural decline and economic disaster and do that within a four year term?  Since their party now has a conservative majority, determined to make a difference for America, in both the House and Senate of Congress - the "Yes" is a higher probability if they will cooperate and work together.   It looks like America will be a great place for businesses again and better years are directly ahead for everyone.   

NOTE: Interesting post-election article on government leadership vs corruption and regulation: Trump’s Win Suggests We’re Nineveh, Not Sodom- Now It’s Time to Decontaminate the Place

Leaders Must Understand Conflict Resolution

Managers and team leader who can manage conflict effectively will make a more positive influence on their employees and provide an example for problem solving.  Workplace conflict is a natural occurrence and is going to happen anywhere people intereact and share ideas.  Therefore, having a the sill of conflict resolution is an important business strategy.  Leaders wh have the ability to not only manage conflict, but to teach individuals and teams to do the same will help move projects forward and keep the work environment feeling like a safe place for all.  

Conflict management tips from consultants who have shared their expertise on this blog:

• Anger at Work 
• Listening: The Cure for Ongoing Conflict
• Managing conflicts that are value driven
• Conflict, everybody has it! Can it be productive

Yes conflict can be uncomfortable, but hiding from it instead of confrontig the underlying issues will greatly interfere with current and future work that require interfacing with others.  The natural human instinct during conflict is flight or fight.  Instead of avoiding conflict, it should be seen as an opportunity to look at an issue from all sides to determine the best approach, find common ground, get commitment to the best solution, and develop a process that will best for everyone involved.  Conflict resoultion requires effective training to overcome typical instincts and deal with conflict before it can get out-of-hand.  Skill development required for good conflict management training include: effective listening, interpersonal communication, negotiation, and collaboration.  

For more advie on conflict resolution, check out these longer articles:

• How to Master Conflict Resolution
• 14 Conflict Resolution Strategies for the Workplace

Requiring Skills Over College Degrees for Employee Placement

 Once upon a time, people were hired for jobs based on the skills they had for doing the job and the desire to learn new tasks via on-the-job training.  In the same line, people received career  promotions based on their knowledge of the company values, personal productivity, ability to supervise work tasks, flexibility to step when an employee was out, and accountability to reaching company goals.    

Then came the idea that college degrees were more important than actual ability when hiring new employees or promoting within the company.  After all, they could attend training to learn company values and work processes.  For some jobs the subject of the degree was key, for others the type of degree did not matter so much as as having the diploma.  Training organzations grew to fill the demand for in-house trainng.  At the same time, Human Resource officers were touting "general studies" as a rounded education that would result in a more relevant and modern work force. Followed by training departments being the first department to go if the company had to do lay-offs because products or services were not selling.

As higher education became less educational, the any degree at the Bachelor level and generic MBAs no longer  help companies move forward and meet their goals, the age of "certification" and "specialization" came about.  In other words, companies were returning to requiring skills necessary for immediate success on the job.  Harvard Business Review says "Skills requirements will overtake degree requirements as the'paper ceiling crumbles." in 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2024 and Beyond.  Finally, managers and Human Resources decide it is time to return to hiring for skills over eduction. This is not a move backwards, but a return to common sense for business success.  Forbes agrees "Changes in hiring practices that emphasize selecting candidates with the specific experiences and skills needed for a role, rather than qualities such as educational attainment or age, are a part of the industry's response and will continue to be a strong trend." in their article The 10 Biggest Business Trends For 2024 Everyone Must Be Ready For Now.