Ethics, Action Discussed at #APMP2019

At BPC, attendees sat in on an awakening, informative summary of the APMP 2018–2019 Ethics Survey, which offered a look at the present—and future—of workplace behavior in the industry

Last year, the APMP 2018–2019 Ethics Survey was sent out to gain actionable feedback from members on how they feel about ethics in the workplace. Through the results, APMP is looking to establish a baseline for future program development and support. Over 1,000 members from all chapters—that includes 40 countries—responded to the anonymous survey.

During Day Two of BPC, APMP held a special session to highlight the Ethics Survey results and to analyze how members responded on topics such as workplace treatment, pay equity, issues related to overwork, and others. The presentation was led by Capitol Assets Inc. Proposal Development Manager Peggy Dufour, CPP APMP.

Dufour started off the session by outlining some of the demographics of the survey respondents, such as gender, age groups, location, and APMP certification level, among other factors. Then, going deeper into survey results, she pointed out that general business-specific ethics challenges were mostly positive, while proposal-specific ethics challenges dipped into negativity a bit. “These are the things we can and should control,” Dufour said.

Where the industry is seeing the biggest challenge is workplace treatment, including inequal gender-based pay and exhaustion and overwork—the latter two were somewhat alarming. However, proposal professionals noted that they’re generally happy. The discrepancy between those seemingly differing mindsets, Dufour said, is an issue.

Many of the more passionate written responses in the survey results were related to generational differences, gender, doing the right thing in terms of pressure by management. Again, some of those results were worrisome. Dufour deduced a clear takeaway from these comments: Managers need different training than employees.

Carolyn Buchner, RFP specialist at ADP Canada, attended the session and wholeheartedly supports a closer look at these issues. “I’ve said it several times. This should be mandatory for everybody,” she said. “Everyone should hear about it, even if only to know, they’re not alone.”

Dufour then shifted the conversation toward finding solutions. “We want you to operationalize ethics in everyday work,” she said. Some suggestions she offered for addressing ethics include:

  • Set the standard at kickoff meetings.
  • Include ethics topics in meetings.
  • Schedule ethics discussions at APMP chapter meetings.
  • Ask your work team about your own corporate code of ethics.
  • Put the APMP Code of Ethics on the wall.
  • Reach out to someone who needs your help.

To close out the compelling session, APMP CEO Rick Harris delivered his take on the issue, including some advice for attendees. “People wanted to share their stories and give us their feedback. What we found is that we have a strong industry. Are there areas that need improvement? You bet,” he said. “What I would tell each of you today: Own it, do it, turn the key, and you can make a difference in your company, no matter how small.”

Harris went on to say APMP would like to see this become a training and certification program in the future, possibly train human resources professionals through best practices. “This does not stop here,” he said. “This does not stop with this survey.”

Frank Rowland, manager at Nine Wright Bid, who also attended the session, was all in on this idea. “The ethics training would definitely be a good addition,” he said. “Hopefully that can help to improve the quality of our work environments.”

Harris finished by offering these supportive, forward-looking words. “This does not stop here. This does not stop with this survey.”

As APMP aims to get more feedback and implement more support for those in perhaps unethical daily environments, the association encourages its members to share their ethics challenges to work toward potential solutions.

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