I have already explained that Ethics-Compliance has arrived in earnest. Brazilian companies can no longer fail to take corporate ethics seriously. For the Brazilian company that provides or provides services - or that hires international companies, adopting ethics and compliance programs becomes essential and necessary for its continuity.

But there is still a lack of clarity about what corporate ethics means.

To begin, let's explore a basic concept in the context of a real case.

A few years ago, I attended training at a client, a multinational that owns sugar-ethanol mills. The training was for agricultural managers and supervisors on labor law compliance. The company was being bombarded with labor lawsuits from field workers, alleging violations such as falsification of time cards to avoid overtime pay. There was even a complaint of slave labor involving outsourced cane workers. The managers had to leave the sugarcane field to attend the training given by a snobby lawyer, dressed in a suit and tie, who showed all his qualifications, diplomas and specializations and used technical-legal language, as if it were important for the subject in question. The audience watched in silence, showing respect for the lawyer who came from São Paulo and who, through his extensive curriculum, “knew a lot”.

In fact, he really knew a lot, as he showed in a powerful and clear PowerPoint presentation. And he was still a sincere person. However, he was unable to cross the distance between the stage and the audience. It failed to convey the simple argument that counterfeiting time cards and not paying for hours worked was wrong. Not only against the law, but ethically and morally wrong. The workers deserved to be paid for the hours worked. Simple as that.

After three and a half hours of “class”, it was the HR manager's turn to make a short speech to close the training. I suggested that she comment on ethics. I just used the word “ethics”. I didn't go into any details. Thus, she told managers that it was important to be ethical at work, that they needed to treat employees as they would like to be treated. For her, the concept of corporate ethics boiled down to a single sentence: “Do with your neighbor as you would like him or her to do to you.”

I expected a more elaborate speech. On the one hand, I couldn't disagree. On the other hand, the concept of moral behavior is summarized in this quasi-biblical phrase. However, corporate ethics, and therefore Ethics-Compliance, is a thousand times more complex. Even so, she was convincing. She passed the message. In fact, he spent much more in just 15 minutes than the lawyer, speaking for a long three-and-a-half hours.

Why did she get this? Because she's obviously an intrinsically correct and ethical person. A transparent person. She transmitted empathy, sincerity, and honesty. So much so that he soon gained the trust of everyone within the company. Any employee or executive who had any problems could talk to her, as she would never betray her trust. I'm going further. He was the most ethical person in the company.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the company was a subsidiary of an international ethical group, a true multinational of good, here in Brazil some senior positions were held by people who were very different from this: unethical, dishonest, who always wanted to take advantages, even going against the interests of the group, because they were friends with a Executive high-ranking corporate of the international group that protected them. A new one had recently been named Country Manager — CEO of Brazil. He was a correct man, but he must live with and work with “untouchable” directors in key positions, whose actions “undermined the group's results” - not to mention incompetent and corrupt. Thus, a group of agricultural managers was hired to reverse the losses. On the one hand, these managers worked day and night and were able to turn the sugarcane plantations around. But on the other hand, they ended up bypassing labor laws.

At the end of the first year, the consequences of this new agricultural management already appeared in the increasing number of labor processes and contingencies and the size of the labor contingency. And what was the reaction of the local board? All farm managers received their bonuses. However, the same was denied to the HR manager and her team.

Where did I get in? I was hired to investigate the causes of the growing labor contingency, in particular with regard to the manipulation of time cards, and to identify those responsible. In fact, they informally informed me who would be “responsible”. In other words, they expected me to point out the HR manager as the culprit. And yet, she was the only fully ethical and transparent professional who had earned the trust of everyone in the company.

The fact is that it had already been decided that the HR manager, as well as her boss, who was the director responsible for this sector of the company across the country — another woman! they would be the “scapegoats”. And my role, at that time, spoken only of OffAnd, of course, everything was supposed to be blamed on them.

But on the contrary, I investigated the entire case and clearly demonstrated that those responsible for the situation were the managers of the agricultural area. I pointed out that if the HR manager — the company's dearest and most respected professional — were fired, they would send the wrong message to the employees, that ethical and honest behavior ends up being punished, and that, on the other hand, dishonesty gets the reward.

The Brazil-based company never recovered. Two years later, the “untouchables”, responsible for mismanagement in the agricultural area, were dismissed by a new CEO, with a generous, competent and ethical profile, who managed to reverse the damage caused by his friends high-ranking corporate executive after a long period of four years. However, this respected professional ended up being a victim of hidden corporate interests and was also dismissed from the company.

Result: the HR manager and director left there with an intact reputation and soon found good jobs. The CEO, in turn, now has a position of high trust in an international fund, where he oversees several sugar mills in the country. It should be noted that the founder of this multinational company sent him a message thanking him for his loyalty and contribution and apologizing for the unfair treatment he had suffered.

Moral of the story: corporate ethics is an aggregating concept that creates and solidifies bonds between people and contributes to a robust corporate culture. A lack of corporate ethics, on the contrary, has a disaggregating effect, causing moral entropy and disagreement and, eventually, destruction and harm. The role of Ethics-Compliance is to reinforce a solid, strong and sustainable corporate culture. The saying “Treat the other as you would like to be treated” is one of the starting points. It can even be said that it is a common denominator in several aspects of Ethics-Compliance. If people don't act accordingly, there's no chance. However, it's just the beginning.

Plan and implement ethics in your company with a professional who has been working in this area since 1998, when it was still referred to only as “crisis prevention”. Talk to us.

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