You are the Head of Procurement at a health insurance company and Ingrid – a high performing employee who has been in her role for two months and reports to you - has come to you to make you aware of some action she took recently to secure a contract. Ingrid is a great cultural fit and gets on well with stakeholders across the organisation.
Ingrid has come to you to acknowledge she has breached compliance, but only realised this morning upon completing her compliance training as part of her induction that is required in the first 90 days of starting a new role.
Ingrid advises she forged a client’s signature on a contract based on their verbal permission because it was on deadline and they were unable to sign in person or fax a copy through in time.
When you ask Ingrid why she did it, she says it was common practise in her former organisation and she didn't think twice about it until today. Ingrid points out that at the time her reasoning was based on getting the contract signed in time to deliver the best results, and it was in the client’s interests so she believed it was a value-driven decision.
This behaviour goes against the organisation’s value of transparency and is considered a compliance breach.
What would you do?
We challenge you to create a healthy discussion with your colleagues and post a comment below. You could even encourage them to consider taking The Banking and Financial Services Oath!
Please share your ethical dilemmas with us - we can post them anonymously. You can email your dilemmas to dilemma@bfso.org
Photo by Leon Seibert on Unsplash