Many codes of conduct meet the legal requirement. They use principles and assume everyone will know what to do. But people rarely see how a principle applies to their own work. This is how you turn your code into simple steps your people can follow, so good decisions are easy to make in their everyday work.
The purpose of a code of conduct is to connect an organisation’s principles to real-life decisions. It’s not just about tick-boxing. A good code can embed a culture underpinned by ethical and compliant behaviour, helping to reduce risk for everyone at work.
Make it relevant
People experience life at work as a series of moments, not as a list of policy decisions. You want to make the code of conduct relate to these real-life moments.
- A colleague copies customer information into a public AI to save time.
- A manager hears a distasteful joke and doesn’t know whether to intervene.
- An employee notices a conflict of interest but worries that raising it will ruin a working relationship.
Employees are far more likely to follow guidance when they can immediately recognise its relevance to their own work. Use examples that relate to their daily life, giving examples across the breadth of the types of roles your employees have.
Turn standards into actions
“Speak up” is not an actionable behaviour. Employees need to know where to go, what options are available, and what will happen next. A more actionable example would be to give them a question to ask themselves as a test of whether or not something feels right.
When you know exactly what you want them to do in response to a principle of the code, break it down into bitesize chunks to make it as easy as possible for anyone to follow. Think about the practical steps that sit between a principle and the behaviour you want to see. If you tell employees to report concerns, you need to explain who they can speak to, whether they can raise something anonymously, what information they should provide, and what they can expect after they have raised it. The same applies for most principles that suggest actions. Having clear instructions is particularly important when someone is under pressure. In the moment, they might be balancing competing priorities, and a code should be easy to access when they’re looking for guidance quickly.
When the Met Office rebuilt its GDPR training, they used this method of simplifying actions, breaking down the process into simple steps that focused on what people really needed to know and do. More content doesn't always mean more comprehension. Malcolm Taylor explains how that focus turned a 90-minute module into a 15-minute one.
Be concrete
Abstract statements – “speak up”, “act with integrity at all times”, “foster an inclusive environment” - are rarely tangibly useful. People need credible examples, warning signs and questions that help them recognise when an issue is arising. Don’t tell them to “do the right thing.” Make it as easy as possible for them to do it.
If you want people to report gifts, give them a rule to follow or a piece of wisdom to guide their judgement. For instance, when instructing them on what gifts they need to report, be clear if they need to report any gift in any form, or only anything above a certain amount.
Or, to help them take accountability for their actions at work, instil the idea that they should use their own judgement and give them the tools to do this. For example, you could say: “If you receive a gift, ask yourself: would I be uncomfortable telling my manager about this?” Give them a way to test what feels right – and give them clear guidance about what to do if it feels wrong.
A useful check is to take each standard or principle of your code and ask yourself if an employee would know what to do next from reading this guidance. If the answer is no, it needs to be clarified. Actionable guidance makes the safest next step easier to take.
Build Habits
The most effective codes become part of everyday decision-making through repeated use, discussion and reinforcement. The goal is not for employees to know the code exists. They need to reach for it when it matters.
Part of the purpose of making a code actionable is to move the document beyond something static and dull. As soon as you give it life, it becomes easier to do, and therefore easy to repeat. By creating consistency, routine actions turn into habits, which makes it more likely that people will make responsible, ethical decisions more of the time.
Use these five steps to identify and embed habits that drive organisational change.
Why does it matter for a code of conduct to be ‘good’?
A code of conduct might technically satisfy a legal requirement without having any influence on what happens in practice. Employees might complete the training but then never think about it again. They don’t apply it in their everyday work. Neither of those circumstances has better equipped individuals to make good decisions.
An actionable code that helps build habits aims for something far more useful: changing what people notice and what they do next. Clear examples and useful prompts can give employees a toolkit for managing difficult situations, helping them get better at recognising warning signs, pausing when something’s not right, asking questions, and knowing when and where to seek support.
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The code of conduct must be useful at the point of making a decision, so risks are prevented before they start to snowball into more serious issues. If you need support moving beyond a tick-box approach, talk to our team at Acteon. We can help you turn a code into a guide for creating a stronger culture in which doing the right thing is easy to put into practice.