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Beyond the relatively infrequent situations where criminal liability arises in the face of employment law violations, HR professionals have a broad role to play concerning ethics in their organizations.

"In many organizations, the human resources function is poised to play a critical role in the oversight and/or administration of various activities relating to ethics," the 2003 SHRM Business Ethics Survey reported.  "These activities may include: developing ethics communications; providing training on ethics standards; handling ethics inquiries and reports; and becoming involved in cases where investigations and disciplinary actions must be undertaken."

An important way for HR professionals to help address concerns relating to pressure and misconduct in the workplace is to make sure that their organizations have adequate mechanisms for HR professionals to get ethics advice and to report ethical concerns.  It is critical that HR professionals are not only aware of these resources but are also comfortable using them.  For example, the findings indicate that the top reasons for not reporting misconduct are belief that no action would be taken, fear of retaliation from supervisors and/or management, and concern that one's confidentiality would not be maintained.  Identifying and addressing the specific employee fears around reporting in one's own organization can be an invaluable first step in this area.

Finally, the data suggests that HR professionals should also pay close attention to the satisfaction of employees who report misconduct.  Currently, only three out of five respondents said that they were satisfied with the response to misconduct that they reported.  More can be done to understand the reasons for dissatisfaction in reporting as an initial step in addressing this issue through more in-depth analysis of the existing data.