Daniel Purchas
A couple of weeks back I was contacted by someone from a new niche job board called Ethical Jobs who have recently completed a study looking into how motivated people are to work for organisations with a heavy focus on ethics in the way that they operate.
The Ethical Jobs Survey
According to the website an ethical job is a position with an organisation where your position or the organisation is actively contributing to a more equitable, more just or more sustainable world.
The ethical jobs survey found applicants to non-profit organisations are willing to take a significant pay cut. 60 not for profit employers were surveyed and some of the most interesting findings were the following:
- 56 per cent said applicants are willing to work for 10-20 per cent less;
- 19 per cent said applicants are willing to work for 20-30 per cent less;
- 6 per cent said applicants are willing to work for more than 30 per cent less.
Making the world a better place is a strong motivation to join a non profit organisation or an organisation that promotes ethical business practices. Michael Cebon, the found of Ethical jobs.com.au says “Increasingly people are willing to put things they believe in above money, and making the world a better place is as strong a motivation as you’ll find.” 87 per cent of employers surveyed said job seekers were more likely to apply for a position seen to be ethical.
Ethics and graduates
The research conducted by ethical jobs is a good indicator that people do seem to care about how ethical their employer is. It might be beneficial for you to do a bit of research about some of the ethical practices that your organisation has in order to promote these aspects as part of your graduate program marketing as there are potentially a huge range of activities your organisation may participate in that can provide graduates researching your organisation with some unique insights.
This year on the GradConnection website we have had just over 4800 responses from Australia graduates outlining a few organisational values that are important to them with 47% of these graduates saying Environmental sustainability being important as well as 35% saying they value an employer that contributes back to the community.
The Verdict
The Ethical Jobs site is a cool concept which seems to have a lot of potential and it might be a good avenue for graduate job hunters and graduate employers to connect with each other with the added benefit that each party knows at least a little bit about each other due to the nature of the website. You can read about the founders of the site on their about us page here. If any of you out there have had any experiences using the site or have some views on ethical jobs post up a comment.
Interesting Post and a great concept. They should have included options for how much it would cost for someone to act unethically as that also would be quite interesting.
I have completed Ethics and Sustainability and Sustainable Business Management which are 2 units from my Universitys’ (Southern Cross University Gold Coast Campus) new sustainability major.
-Developed by self confessed Greenie Geoff Lambert, a Byron Bay local, who is an inspiration due to his passionate educated stance on the matter.
Once I graduate I intend to do University part time to build on my Undergraduate degree and I will definitely be completing that major!
The things I learnt definitely opened my eyes up to the ethics and need for sustainability in business practices.
Whilst I understand owners will always look at the bottom line I think if the major players follow the lead of McDonalds Sweden and become stewards for our environment rather than plunderers we can all contribute to a cleaner and more productive earth.
When seeking a graduate position I will definitely be asking: What is your Corporate Social Responsibility Program?
Will you?
Hey Ashleigh, you have some interesting points, what does McDonalds Sweden do on the environmental front just out of interest?
One of the Australian employers we have worked with who have a heavy focus on environmental sustainability is Lend Lease, so there are some good examples out there in Australia now too.
I agree that identifying ethical jobs is an important area within the overall job market and one which deserves attention. However, there is also a need to distinguish between ethics based organisations and ethics based employment. Just because an organisation operates within an area, such as welfare, or the environment, does not necessarily mean that it behaves ethically towards its staff. Graduates need to establish what the actual employment conditions are to ensure that they are not exploited.
It is vital that a Graduate understands their own personal values and what they expect of any organisation before committing to any employer. Identifying culture fit is important and one component of that may well be the purpose behind the organisation. Culture fit also means being clear about the nature of the employment relationship and how people are treated. The value proposition enunciated by the organisation to its market should be the same value proposition by which it deals with its staff.