Our world is in a time of chaos and transition at the moment and most people want to contribute to making things better in some way. For many of us, the best vehicle for accomplishing this is through our businesses, regardless of the position or industry we’re in. We have both small and large choices to make every day and each one has an ability to impact another human being. In this article I’ll outline how to identify the best opportunities to leverage and how to make the most of those opportunities.
Your time is valuable so I’ll make these points succinct and invite you to delve into any that interest you further. Allow this to open your awareness to possibilities, knowing that not every option will resonate or be possible in your unique business or career.
Defining Choice
Our choices define who we become as well as impacting others in significant ways. As an example, your thoughts are all choices. You can imbue the type of thinking that sees the glass as half full or half empty. That isn’t ingrained into you although it may have become habitual. It is still a choice.
Your emotions are a choice, defined by your thoughts. Emotions control how we operate and interact with others, as well as our enjoyment of the process. And those emotions are a choice.
Circumstances in business may appear to be beyond your control, but there too exist a variety of choices.
If your business is less profitable than desired, you can choose to explore new revenue sources, areas to increase your prices or ways to decrease expenses. You can choose to not find a solution, continue to innovate and try new possible business enhancements or efficiencies, or close your doors. You could also choose to ignore the problem and not do anything differently until your hand is forced. Those are all choices.
Ethics in Business
For our purposes, I will define ethics in business as evaluating and defining business practices – policies and procedures that benefit the most people in the long run. This does not mean charging as little as possible to benefit your customers, and running your business into the red. You and your team’s happiness and ability to enjoy abundance should be included and weigh heavily into your cost benefit analysis.
Also included, however, has to be an analysis of the long term repercussions of all of your business’ policies and practices.
I.e – Do you still provide plastic bags for merchandise because it is cheaper than paper? Yes, those brown paper bags come from trees, which we want to cut back the need for since a significant loss of trees is contributing to our carbon emissions crisis; but plastic does not (ever) break down and is a horrible choice for the planet. An easy alternative could be encouraging customers to bring their own reusable bags along with selling them for easy access, and then offering paper bags as a back-up. You’ll use less paper, which should make the extra cost over the plastic bags close to evening out.
This is just one example, but there are many areas to a business where we must look beyond the obvious of what is directly in front of you. If something seems cheaper to produce, as an example, you may find upon further analysis that although the direct costs are less, the indirect costs are more. Examples of indirect costs would be the utility expenses involved or the “other related” expenses, beyond payroll, that factor into an employee’s time.
And then there are the ethics or the determining of what is in the best interest, in the long term, for the most people. As an example, keeping one underperforming employee on your payroll may not seem like a bad thing to do if you like them and feel responsible for their income. On the other hand, if their under performance impacts labor and subsequent production costs, that may necessitate an increase in your prices which negatively impacts all of your customers. That same underperforming employee may have a negative impact on team morale because others feel they are burdened by carrying more than their share of the weight; and that morale deficit leads to more underperformance of other team members or attrition which has a large cost to business.
Another ethical dilemma that many will overlook is the “fit” for that underperforming employee. Certainly, everyone should be coached or receive additional training when there is a performance issue, prior to a dismissal decision being made. But what about any underlying causes for that poor performance? Most people do not have a poor work ethic or take a position with the intention of showing-up to see how little they can get away with contributing. Most want to do a good job and find fulfillment in knowing they do and that their work is appreciated. Most of the time, if a performance issue can not be turned around it’s because they are miserable in the job or a poor fit for the skill requirements. In this instance it is doing them a disservice, in addition to your team, to allow them to continue in that position.
As you can see there are many factors to analyze and the good intention of allowing someone to stay employed has ramifications that an ethical business owner or manager may want to avoid.
Factors in Determining Ethical Business Practices
Here is a quick synopsis of areas, depending on your industry, that you will want to explore further. I have outlined the benefits that your business may reap from each category.
- Fitness of finances – It is in everyone’s best interest that the integrity of your bookkeeping is intact and you regularly look for slippage, expense leaks or increases in your overhead and direct costs. Any questionable areas can be managed more easily when they are identified quickly.
- Transparency of communications – Even if you operate a business of one, there are people with whom there is a need to communicate. Beyond employees this may include subcontractors, vendors and customers. It is an ethical best practice to be as transparent and communicative as possible, concerning the areas of the business that concern them. As an example, your customers will appreciate knowing that you plan to raise prices at the end of the month and if relevant, what necessitated that increase. No one wants to feel misled or like they are left in the dark, even if it is an unintentional oversight on your part.
- Source of power – Whether you operate an office with computers or a manufacturing business, every business requires a source of power for electric and HVAC. If your business isn’t fueled by solar powered electricity, the most responsible thing for the environment will be to work on a plan to switch over. An even better business practice for your bottom line would be to install solar panels on your building so that you no longer have to pay for your power. Not every business has this as an option. If that’s the case, look for the next best for the environment option, and then advocate for bringing solar power to your business and home areas.
- Waste reduction – Every business has waste and the more you can limit it, the better it will be for the environment. Do you still insist on paper files as back-ups or paper receipts? How can you eliminate most paper from your business flow? Your trash bill may not be high, but there is always an associated cost that can be reduced when waste is reduced.
- Remote work – Allowing employees to work from home whenever possible has a number of benefits even if you don’t see a direct relationship to reducing your overhead. When they are set-up for home based work properly, they will be more efficient without being surrounded by the typical office distractions and chatter. They will also reduce their commuting time and expenses which will improve morale and any many instances they will reduce their carbon footprint as well.
- Prioritizing people – You owe it to yourself to be profitable, but it is better for the longevity of your business and reduction of turnover costs to ensure that your people feel valued through all of your human resource practices. Beyond an open door policy and transparent communications, how does your payscale compare with the cost of living where your team resides? This is not just about being competitive in your industry, but being fair. If profits go up, do your wages or bonus program? Look at your turnover rate and be sure to interview anyone who is leaving to understand how your employment practices are viewed by your most valuable asset.
Operating a business with the highest ethical standards is a choice. Your business must operate at a profit to stay in business but how you navigate to a profit and everything beyond that, is a choice. When you prioritize humans and ethical practices for the environment, your business will be your vehicle for doing good in the world.