PILLAR EIGHT

Perception of Peers and Environment

PILLAR EIGHT

Perceptions of Peers and Environment

What it is we aim to measure:

Employee perceptions of their peers and the environment in which they’re doing their day-to-day work.

Topics covered in the assessment:

The belief that one’s immediate coworkers are acting with integrity
Whether employees feel their actions contribute to an ethical work environment
Faith that change will occur as a result of the company measuring its ethical and speak up culture

Why it matters:

The environment in which we work – much like the manager we work for (see Pillar 6) – inﬂuences our behavior on a daily basis. Accepted behavior being modeled by co-workers, and not commented on by management, will undermine a formal values system quickly. When coworkers act with integrity, employees are more likely to trust each other, their leadership, and the organization as a whole. Furthermore, employees who feel personally responsible for an ethical environment are more likely to report unethical conduct or intervene when they see misconduct. Ultimately, these evaluations ensure that ethical behavior is not just a policy or aspiration but a lived reality, aligning employee actions with organizational values to build a thriving workplace.

What the data says:

This pillar tends to be an area of strong performance for most companies, with less favorable responses tending to coalesce in “neutral” or “neither agree nor disagree” concentrations as opposed to actively negative perceptions. Given the local nature of this Pillar – discussing perceptions of one’s peers who are in close proximity to them – we advise our clients to dig into results at the team level.

85%

believe their co-workers act ethically at all times.

91%

of survey participants feel personally responsible for making sure the company behaves ethically.

PILLAR EIGHT

Perceptions of Peers and Environment

As noted, the bulk of non-favorable responses in this category tend to be neutral. What we generally ﬁnd when we dig into that data is most employees say they don’t know enough of how their co-workers are acting to respond afﬁrmatively. This is a trend we have seen exacerbated by hybrid and work from home policies, with an increasing share of employees intentionally distanced from co-workers.

How Ethisphere clients have used the data/insights:

Organizations typically use the data from this pillar to identify those locations where that challenge of distance seems largest, and then review with local leaders the extent to which they are engaging in storytelling when sharing goals with employees. Do they explicitly talk about ethical decisions they have made or how they might handle a given situation? Do they challenge behavior appropriately? Do employees see that behavior that is not in line with the stated values of the organization is addressed?

New for 2025, Ethisphere introduced a question measuring how confident employees feel that action would result from this effort to measure ethical culture. Why the new addition? A common counterargument to evaluating ethical culture through surveys is the issue of survey fatigue—resistance to participating in numerous and often overlapping company survey efforts. However, research and our experience show that employee resistance

to surveys is less about fatigue and more about a lack of faith that their participation will lead to meaningful action.

We see it time and time again: when organizations invest in transparently communicating the outcomes of surveys—both successes and areas for improvement—and the corresponding actions taken, employees are much more likely to engage in future surveys.

To address this, we include in our measurement framework an assessment of employees’ perception that action will result from their survey participation. Measuring this "faith in action" sentiment enables Ethics & Compliance teams to refine their approach to survey-related communications, building trust and encouraging greater participation over time.

PILLAR EIGHT

Perceptions of Peers and Environment

Top Tips for Your Program:

Look at the results for this question across available employee demographic segments to see where perceptions may be higher or lower across the organization. Low perceptions may show organizations where pockets of misconduct are more likely to occur and/or where people are less likely to feel supported in reporting misconduct.

Are employees aware of the impact of misconduct on the organization? Rip recent headlines about fines, penalties, and consequences from other companies inside or outside your domain to illustrate what can go wrong when misconduct occurs.