Written by: Trina Wallace

In the second article of a two-part feature, Gideon Burrows, founder of ethicalcareers.org, introduces the ethical questions you should ask yourself, and your employer.

As any job seeker researches their potential career path, the kinds of questions they seek to be answered might include potential salary and promotional opportunities, working culture, job location, opportunity to travel and whether, of course, you actually want to do the job.

For the ethical career seeker, there are an extra layer of questions you might wish to consider.

What does the company do?

The most basic question might be: what is the actual function of this organisation? You may feel, for example, that a company that manufacturers and exports arms can't be ethical. Does the childbirth charity you'd like to work for primarily seek to promote or oppose abortion as a corner stone of its work? What the organisation actually DOES might run against your principles.

Where does the money come from?

For a private company, this is likely to be closely related to what the company does. But both businesses and charities can have (sometimes huge) investments in other companies, which earn them a significant income. You may wish to find out if the organisation you'd like to work for invests in any industry, such as tobacco, pornography, arms manufacture, that you oppose.

Environmental footprint

With climate change perhaps the most worrying issue facing the future of the globe, an organisation's environmental impact may be the key issue for you. Does the organisation you're researching have a huge "environmental footprint"? Has it attempted to change its policies, to make it more environmentally efficient? Has the issue even been considered?

Employee policies

Those considering ethical careers often think about a company's environmental or overseas impact, but perhaps just as important is how the organisation treats its own staff. Does it have progressive policies on same sex partnerships, for example? Is it pro- or anti-trade union? Does it allow flexible working, or working from home, for working parents?

Stakeholder engagement and accountability

How can you tell if a company is ethical if it is closed to scrutiny? You may wish to consider how open an organisation is about its finances, or whether it consults its employees, beneficiaries or customers on the company's future direction.

Supply chains

Clothing companies, in particular, are often guilty of hiding unethical practices by employing middle-agents to buy garments manufactured in an unethical way. The sports shoe company doesn't employ sweatshop labour itself, but it might buy sports shoes from companies that does... or from an agent who bought the shoes from a company that does. So, you may wish to find out whether an organisation actively monitors where its goods - from its products to its stationery and toilet rolls - come from, and whether they work to "clean up" their supply chains.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR has become perhaps the biggest growth area of companies in relation to ethical issues, in recent times. Almost every big corporation now has a CSR department, publishes a CSR report and most actually do something about improving their social and environmental record.

But it's not an uncontroversial area. Some accuse CSR of being little more than greenwash - a sop to environmentalists which is aimed only at selling more products without, significantly, changing how a company operates. Others believe CSR is the only thing that will turn companies around; that if the potential to make bigger profits by being green encourages companies to change, then everyone is a winner.

Research

At ethicalcareers.org we think the most ethical thing to do is find out! Read that CSR report. Find out what critics say about the company and its CSR record. Is there any substance to the claims?

Importantly, where is the company's CSR department located? If it is located in the company's marketing department, you can be pretty sure that company's CSR is more spin than substance. But if CSR is located at senior management level, with a director responsible for its implementation, that indicates the issue is being taken seriously.

Vital, too, is whether the company's CSR record externally audited? If a company simply publishes its own report about how great it is at environmental and ethical issues, why should anyone believe it is more than just spin?

If a company has spent money getting an independent, external auditor to come in an evaluate and measure its CSR practices - and the results are published without editing by the company, then what you read is likelier to be a truer record.

But, should I ask at interview?

Not an easy or comfortable question to answer. Should you grill the recruitment team at an organisation about their track record? Aren't they supposed to be asking the questions?

A balance is probably the best approach. Ask nothing, and you can hardly complain that you weren't told about fundamental ethical problems before you joined. Ask too much, and you risk being labelled as a rabble-rouser who won't fit in.

Deal breakers

For some, there will be deal-breakers. If the answer to your question about child labour is favourable, you will work for them, if negative then you won't. You should ask this kind of question to protect yourself and your employer - and if the answer goes the way you hope, you've not lost anything.

Finally, in today's recruitment climate, few organisations want to employ corporate drones who can't think for themselves. Your politely asked questions about ethical issues may well be welcomed as indicating a keen, interested and self-motivated job candidate. So, asking might even give you more chance of getting the job!

Good luck!

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