Introduction and background of the company
Valentino Company is a chain of restaurants specializing in the Mexican cuisine for people with hectic lifestyles. It provides a restaurant ambience and food, as well as meeting facilities in a setting that looks like a fast food business. The company began in 2009 with one restaurant, which has expanded into four restaurants. Valentino continues to enjoy a reputation for honesty and trustworthiness.
Part of that reputation comes from the maintenance of the highest behavior and operations standards by Valentino’s staffs in their dealings with all stakeholders, including customers. This paper brings out the main parts of the Valentino company code of ethics that continues to guide the company into prosperity and better brand value.
In regard to the code of ethics, Valentino understands that mistakes done by any of its staffs affect all other staffs that rely on the organization. Therefore, no one has powers to act outside the jurisdiction of the code of ethics within Valentino Company. Valentino recognizes that its biggest asset is the reputation of the business, more so its honesty and integrity standards for individual employees.
The code of ethics guides employees at all levels on how they must behave consistently. It relates to actions, working relationships, and attitudes of all employees. However, employees are still to take action at will whenever the code permits or when they are not working under its influence.
Guiding principles
The code of ethics needs the highest standards of honesty and business or personal ethics. Employees have to disclose fully, fairly, and in a timely way any information that goes into reports, company documents, and mandatory regulatory fillings to state agencies.
The code covers all communication that Valentino Company makes. The code borrows heavily from existing best practices of business ethics and existing laws and regulations for the restaurant chain business. The overriding principle is that every member of Valentino Company has to have the uppermost ethical standards because he or she is a representation of the company at all times.
Purpose of the code
The essence of the code is to establish accountability, comply with laws and regulations, provide a mechanism for preventing, and resolving illegal behavior and provide methods for communicating violations of ethical conduct.
Core values
The interest of customers will always come first because serving clients well leads to the success of the company. On the other hand, Valentino’s main assets are our people who are dedicated to adhere to the code of ethics.
The overlying goal of the business and the code is to improve the business and improve returns to shareholders. The code is one way that enables Valentino Company to provide opportunities for letting its members move ahead and impact the stakeholder community positively.
Training and education
Training of Valentino employees on matters of ethics shall happen annually at an employee job skills improvement workshop. In addition to that, recruitment training for new employees will also cover every aspect of the code of ethics.
Meanwhile, the company will place signage and distribute company documents, including brochures and ethic policy documents, to all employees to educate them on their rights, their duties, and the desired ethical code of conduct. The code of ethics will also be available on request from the human resource department to any employee.
There will be circulars and other official communications on any changes made to the code by the board of directors or senior management. Non-core training will rely on various communication channels already in place at the company premises, such as email, newsletters, and poster.
Definitions
The following are definitions of some terms used in the code. The board or company board refers to any organization member exercising the mandate of the board of directors for the parent company or any of its business units. The code refers to this document, which is the code of ethics. The executive refers to the employees who hold leadership positions in Valentino Company.
They include the Chief Executive Officer, the Vice Presidents, Human Resources Managers, and senior compliance officer. Managers refer to employees occupying a management position at any level in the company. The company or Valentino refers to Valentino Company and compliance officer is the person in charge of coordinating resources and implementation tasks of the code.
What employees it covers
All company employees, including the executive and the board of directors are covered by the code of ethics. Daily practices of the code will mostly affect managers and junior employees.
Implementation and communication
Employees should comply with laws of the state and that of the national government as they apply to the business. In addition, Valentino can come up with additional regulations to prevent or resolve conflicts or comply with external laws. Employees are also required to obey the internal laws.
Valentino is an equal opportunity employer. Therefore, all hiring, training, promotion and other human resources functions will happen without discrimination. Relevant officials of the company should not rely on religion, sex, color, national origin, age, disability, citizenship, marital status, and any other factor that does not relate to a person’s ability to perform a duty when making human resources decisions.
The code prohibits any form of harassment of any individual on the basis of any classification of harassment, including the classes of discrimination mentioned above. Those being harassed must report the issue and wait for a response within five working days.
Afterwards, they should contact the human resources department of the parent company. At the same time, employees should not report their colleagues in bad faith. When they do so, they will be violating the code and will be subject to disciplinary action.
All managers are accountable for the effective administration of the certain elements of the policy, like sexual harassment. When making a complaint about harassment, employees should speak to immediate managers unless they feel uncomfortable with that arrangement.
They should also inform the human resources department and make the report in a timely manner. Afterwards, the relevant manager or the executives at the human resource department will conduct investigations in relation to the circumstances of the incident and take a corrective action. Additional harassment or retaliation should also be reported for further action by those in charge.
All employees must exercise caution and retrain to collectively provide a safe workplace. They should identify potential dangerous situations and avoid them to prevent workplace injury due to violence or accidents.
Employees should not use aggressive language and verbal or physical abuse to instill pain, fear, and hostility in others. Those being threatened or witnessing a threat must approach any manager and report the matter immediately. When managers are involved in violation, the report should be made to the compliance officer and the human resources department.
How it will be enforced and reported
The company compliance officer is in charge of the actual implementation of the code and any queries that members of the organization might have in relation to the code.
Employees have to disclose any unreported relationships, activities, and transactions that seem to violate the code of ethics, as well as those requiring disclosure. Anyone with a question about the code should contact the company compliance officer, unless the code specifies another contact person for a particular matter.
Ethical violations should be reported to the compliance office using any available means of contact and could be done anonymously. Employees can rely on their employee handbooks for the right method of reporting violations. When making anonymous reports, all relevant information for facilitating a subsequent investigation must be provided.
The compliance officer and any other staffs working to implement the code of conduct will always work in a confidential way to protect identities of reporters. The company retains the right to discipline in any way that seems appropriate, all those who are confirmed to have violated the code of ethics (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2014).
Employees are free to use the ethics hotline number that is a toll-free line connecting direct to the compliance office. They can make reports anonymously using the telephone call. Another available option is to make a report on the company intranet by logging in with their employee credential and navigating to the ethics violation page.
Mission statement and other pertinent elements
Trust and reliability at Valentino Company comes from the interaction of every element of the business in line with the highest achievable standards of veracity. The mission statement of the business is to bring out the best artistic, humane, and technical abilities of organization members and partners in the quest of fulfilling customer needs.
The code of ethics for Valentino Company raises ethical expectations and legitimizes dialogue concerning ethical issues that already affect or may affect the company. It also acts as a preventive mechanism against misconduct on an individual or corporate level.
The Evaluation of the Code of Ethics
Stakeholders
Stakeholders of the company are all employees, their immediate families who receive company benefits through the employee, the customers who interact with the employees, and all bodies representing special interests of the industry or government.
The code mostly applies to employees and their immediate family members because they are in direct contact with the company resources and are well positioned to uphold the principles of the code. In addition, Valentino Company understands that it cannot operate without its customers and, therefore, values their satisfaction.
Customers can assist the company to identify inappropriate employee conduct. The market, which includes the bodies regulating trade and other rival companies, are also stakeholders because ethical violations by Valentino affect them (Bredeson, 2012).
Strategic ethical formulation
The code of ethics relies on broad categorization of business ethics matters that serve as guidelines for the actual instructions for employees. The categories covered in the code are violations to the code, compliance with existing laws, rules and regulations, conflict of interest, corporate opportunities, fair and ethical competition, and protection of confidential information.
Under each category, there are a set of instructions and explanations that should help employees know what to do and understand the reasons for doing so in relation to company performance and compliance with its organization culture and strategy (Brenkert & Beauchamp, 2010).
The code provides the mechanisms for behaving appropriately by working together with other elements of the organization. It may offer explicit rules of conduct or provide suggestions on what an employee should do and the appropriate tools to use for any situation.
Strategic ethical implementation
Laws on ethical conduct of business mainly touch on antitrust practices and trade regulation (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2014).
They govern business against engaging in any illegal practices, such as price fixings, terms and conditions for trade, customer segmentations, refusals to do business or provision of services, and exchange of non-public information and sales. Laws against false advertising and dealing with illegal products or services aim to safeguard stakeholder interest and provide a level playing field in a given industry.
The essence of being non-discriminatory as a company is to comply with universal ethical principles of behaving with dignity and respect for humanity.
The company and all its employees would wish to deal with others in the same way that they would prefer others to deal with them in a fair manner. Monitoring of compliance and violations helps to ensure that Valentino is free of any artificial barriers to employee’s equal treatment.
Ethical monitoring mechanisms
The existence of a compliance officer within Valentino assists in the monitoring of violations and compliances with the code. The officer also informs other departments in the organization on the right way of dealing with emerging issues or implementation policies such that they do not provide loopholes for violating the code of ethics.
Reports on violations of any part of the code help to map out the areas that need attention in the company’s overall conduct. While individual reports may only touch on an employee’s conduct, they still contribute to the overall understanding of the ethical orientation of Valentino Company.
Employees will also fill checklists periodically to inform management about ethics compliance. Human resource management may also use focus groups and individual interviews to gather information related to ethics compliance.
Ethical performance
Success of the code of ethics would include a reduction in the number of ethical violations and compliance with laws, rules, and regulations of authorities. For the code to work, it needs the cooperation of all levels of leadership in the organization together with the participation of all employees.
The code should work as designed because it encompasses participation from all members of the organization (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). It also provides room for improvement and will, thus, be able to adapt to the changing environment of the firm. Only the code of ethics will be made public, while its implementation details such as reporting and internal communications will remain restricted to qualified company employees.
Summary of the Code of Ethics and Evaluation
The code of ethics covers key ethical issues that face the company, which include harassment, handling of company information, confidentiality, and compliance with laws, rules and regulations. It explicitly puts every member of the organization under it, while it protects employee rights.
The core principle is to have everyone in Valentino Company behave and make decisions in a truthful way without causing harm to other members of the organization. The code clearly states its purpose and addresses the main issues. It also lays out the usable mechanisms for communication of the code to stakeholders, especially employees. It states the role of various leadership levels and departments in the company.
Therefore, it will work well in facilitating decision making. Lastly, it ensures that there is accountability and reporting by placing its implementation under the compliance office and the human resource department.
References
Bredeson, D. (2012). Applied busines ethics: A skills-based approach. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Brenkert, G. G., & Beauchamp, T. L. (Eds.). (2010). The Oxford handbook of business ethics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, T. (2013). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (10th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2014). Understanding business ethics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.