Ethical Codes of Conduct
1) Business Conduct
- Integrity: We will be people of our word and deed and will do the “right thing”.
- Open Communication: We will accept other opinions with two way listening and foster a safe environment for communication.
- Excellence: We will do our best to seek new ideas and better ways to do things, and most of all we will lead by example.
- Accountability: We will take ownership and accept responsibility for our actions.
- Understand, and behave in accordance with, New Dawn policies, guidelines and procedures.
- Ensure that we do not put our own interests ahead of New Dawn’s when performing our jobs, or use our positions at New Dawn, or information acquired through those positions, for any non-company purpose.
- Conduct all work and business affairs lawfully and with integrity.
- Seek assistance, guidance or interpretation on difficult ethical and legal issues from your supervisor.
- Report incidents of suspected unethical or unlawful conduct to your supervisor.
- Take prompt, appropriate corrective action when an allegation of wrongdoing is substantiated.
- Create a work environment that encourages frank, open and constructive communication on all business matters, including allowing everyone to ask questions, make suggestions and report errors and wrongdoing without fear of reprisal.
2) Service Delivery
- Staff will promote and assist in the recovery or treatment of all persons regardless of their ability to pay, and without regard to ethnic group identification, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender, race, or disabilities.
- Tolerance: We will recognize that cultural and socioeconomic diversity need to be welcomed with open arms in our relations with the persons served, other staff members and the community at large.
- Respect: We will value others for their individual ideas and beliefs.
- Staff will not commit any acts of violence or threats of violence against persons served.
- Persons receiving services will always be treated with respect and dignity regardless of disability or other potential deficit areas.
- Reasonable measures will be taken to protect the health, safety and emotional well being of persons served.
- Persons served will not be exploited for monetary, sexual or personal gain.
- Persons served will not be subjected to embarrassment or disparagement.
- Information about persons served will be kept in confidence and released only within the parameters of New Dawn policies regarding confidentiality and release of information.
- New Dawn staff will not engage in any sexually related behavior with persons served with or without consent, but will maintain a professional approach at all times. Sexually related behavior shall include such behaviors as sexual jokes; sexual remarks; sexual kidding or teasing; sexual innuendo; pressure for dates or sexual favors; inappropriate physical touching, kissing, or grabbing; rape; threats or physical harm; and sexual assault.
3) Professional Responsibility
- New Dawn’s goal as it involves the organization’s codes of conduct is to establish a high standard of performance, professionalism, and ethical conduct.
- New Dawn intends to create an environment that fosters ethical conduct, where no employee will ever feel the need to compromise personal integrity to help achieve the organization’s mission.
- New Dawn’s Code of Conduct sets forth values, ethical principles, and ethical standards by which actions can be judged; however, the organization cannot guarantee ethical behavior, only that every reasonable attempt will be made to resolve ethical issues or dispute if and when they arise.
- New Dawn’s Code of Conduct is applicable to all staff, consultants, and contractual employees, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the population they serve.
- Staff will strictly adhere to established rules of confidentiality regarding all records, materials and knowledge concerning persons served in accordance with all current government and program regulations.
- While working under New Dawn’s Code of Conduct, the staff, consultants and contractual employees must be conscientious, committed, and honest in their work as well as in aspects of their private lives that are related to their respective jobs in the organization.
- New Dawn employees are expected to comply with the ethical codes of conduct outlined by their respective licensing or certifying boards (where applicable), as well as those included in this document.
4) Human Resources
- New Dawn shall maintain the confidentiality of information acquired about its former and current employees, unless disclosure serves professional purposes or is required by law.
- New Dawn shall only offer or assign a position or responsibility on the basis of professional preparation and qualifications appropriate to that position.
- Supervisors responsible for evaluating staff performance will do so in a manner that is responsible, fair, considerate and equitable.
- Performance goals shall be relevant to each staff member’s particular position, determined using input from relevant staff, and communicated to staff within a reasonable time following their hire.
- New Dawn leadership shall strive to make information related to human resources, including but not limited to health insurance and retirement eligibility and benefits, workplace guidelines, codes of ethics, and grievance procedures readily available.
- New Dawn shall conduct human resource related activities with dignity and fairness at all times.
5) Marketing
- Marketing activities will never knowingly mislead or misinform the public or misrepresent New Dawn’s facilities, programs or services.
- Marketing efforts will always respect the dignity and privacy rights of those receiving services.
- Marketing efforts must embrace, communicate and practice the fundamental ethical values that will improve consumer confidence in the integrity of the marketing exchange system. These basic values are intentionally aspirational and include honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, and openness.
- Marketeers must do no harm. This means doing work for which they are appropriately trained or experienced so that they can actively add value to their organizations and customers. It also means adhering to all applicable laws and regulations and embodying high ethical standards in the choices they make.
6) Conflict of Interest
No employee of New Dawn shall create or allow to be created any situation that causes a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest with the employee’s job responsibilities. Employees will not:
- Represent or act as an agent for any private interests, whether for compensation or otherwise, in any transaction in which the New Dawn has a direct and/or substantial interest and which could reasonably be expected to result in a conflict between the employee's private interests and New Dawn responsibilities.
- Exercise any decision-making authority as an Agent of New Dawn with respect to any business or entity in which the employee or a member of the employee's immediate family has any financial interest without the express knowledge and consent of New Dawn leadership.
- Divulge or release, for the purpose of fostering personal financial gain or financial gain for a member of the employee’s immediate family, any confidential information, which is not by law, rule, regulation, or court order available to members of the general public.
- Engage in any business transaction or private arrangement for personal financial gain or financial gain for a member of the employee’s immediate family that accrues from or is based on the employee’s official position or on confidential information gained by reason of the employee’s position.
- Solicit, accept, or agree to accept anything of value under any circumstances that could reasonably be expected to influence the manner in which the employee performs work or makes decisions.
- Grant or make available to any person any consideration, treatment, advantage or favor beyond that which is generally granted or made available to others under similar circumstances.
7) Environmental Ethics
- Program facilities will be renovated, and interior fixtures such as lighting, appliances, water sources such as toilets, showers, faucets and water-heaters, and HVAC systems including the use of energy efficient thermostats will be upgraded and/or replaced in order to reduce the organization’s carbon footprint.
- Rules will be established and implemented with regards to energy usage by the persons served and staff in order to limit unnecessary energy consumption and/or energy waste without sacrificing environmental comfort.
- Staff will at all times make efforts to be mindful of energy as a valuable, limited resource, and will make every effort possible to conserve energy use whenever the opportunity arises. Examples of energy conservation include turning off lights and fans when leaving a room, keeping all doors and windows shut so as to preserve ambient temperatures and maximize the effectiveness of the HVAC systems, recycling, and providing a proper orientation to the persons served with regards to the value New Dawn places on energy conservation and the ways in which they can contribute to our organizations efforts to be environmentally responsible.
- When available, New Dawn will participate in the use of renewable energies to the extent that the costs of doing so will be not be a detriment to the quality of services offered.
- New Dawn will market its successes in reducing its reliance on carbon based energies so as to encourage other treatment providers to be more proactive in their decisions to become more environmentally responsible.
