1. UCCS
2017 Short Survey™ Report of Findings
June 14, 2017

2. UCCS 2017 Employee ECI Short Survey™
introduction
This report summarizes the responses of organization employees in an April-May 2017 ethics survey designed by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI). The ECI Short Survey™ on ethics and compliance includes 10 questions, measuring ethics program awareness and implementation; ethical leadership and culture; and desired ethics outcomes. The survey was created to provide a quick, but insightful, assessment of elements of your company’s ethical culture.
The intent is to satisfy several objectives:
To implement a concise assessment of ethics and compliance in the organization,
To provide key comparisons¹ to U.S. Averages using data from the ECI’s 2013 National Business Ethics Survey® (NBES),
To identify existing strengths and potential vulnerabilities, and
To provide a baseline for comparison against future surveys and assessment efforts.
Information collected in this survey can help guide strategic allocation of resources and indicate areas where additional inquiry might be made.
summary of methodology
The survey was a census survey of all 1,804 UCCS employees (faculty and staff only). Employees were invited to take the survey online. Of those who responded, there were 372 useable responses, yielding a response rate of 20.6 percent. Therefore, the UCCS data have a confidence interval of +/- 4.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.² In other words, we are 95 percent certain that ‘X’ percent of employees report a certain way, plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
¹ When comparing organization results, there are two types of differences. In the first case, differences noted in the text are statistically significant differences. In the second case, differences labeled in the text as trend differences are those that are not statistically different, that is, a score will be numerically greater or less than the score it is compared to, but it does not test as statistically different from the other score.
² The confidence interval has been generated using Custom Insight's survey calculator:

3. The ECI Analysis Framework
The ECI Short Survey™ measures pivotal elements of ECI’s model of analysis (shown below). Metrics for ethics and compliance program effectiveness are presented first, followed by data that provide insight into the strength of the organization’s ethical culture, and concluding with results that provide indications of the level of ethics risk within the organization. Analysis is conducted comparing overall organization results against NBES® averages. This model utilizes concepts expressed in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) (amended 2014). The FSGO provide significant incentives for organizations to design, implement, and enforce an effective ethics and compliance program. The FSGO also emphasize the importance of using due diligence to “promote an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance with the law.”³ The specific metrics are described more thoroughly on the next page.
Causal:
Correlational:
³ United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines Manual, USSG §8B2.1(a)(2) (2014)

4. elements of a well-implemented ethics and compliance program
A well-implemented ethics and compliance program is comprised of resources that inform employees and prepare them for ethics-related issues they encounter in their workplace. Effective resources are practical, valuable, and useful. When implemented well, a program contributes to a stronger ethics culture and to improved ethics outcomes such as reduced pressure to compromise standards. The ECI Short Survey™ provides information about two measures of program effectiveness. It assesses whether:
Employees can raise concerns to management; and
Employees are evaluated on their ethical conduct.
elements of a strong ethical culture
The strength of an organization’s ethics culture is measured through multiple indicators of the behavior of employees at various levels throughout an organization. These behaviors exhibit the enterprise-wide approach to ethics culture by the organization and demonstrate and promote a commitment to ethics on a daily basis. A strong ethics culture involves commitment, modeling, and right conduct by: leaders, supervisors, and all employees. Key behaviors measured in this ECI Short Survey™ include:
Two components of ethical leadership
Communicating the importance of ethics; and
Setting a good example of ethical behavior.
Two components of supervisor reinforcement of ethical behavior
Supporting employees’ adherence to ethics standards; and
Being held accountable for actions that violate organizational standards and values, and/or the law.
expected (target) results of a well-implemented ethics and compliance program and strong ethical culture
Effective programs and strong ethical cultures improve ethics outcomes – measurable, manageable actions undertaken by employees. The ECI Short Survey™ measures four, key, desired outcomes, namely:
Decreased pressure to violate ethics standards;
Reduced observation of misconduct in general;
Increased reporting of observed misconduct; and
Lowered rates of retaliation for reporting misconduct.

5. Findings from the UCCS 2017 ECI Short Survey™
programs
Programs are a foundational dimension. They serve to bolster employee confidence in the organization and their certainty that ethics issues will be resolved fairly.
leadership culture
Leaders’ messaging and modeling are two primary factors that shape employees’ opinions about managers and about the organization.
supervisor culture
Supervisors are most employees’ primary point of interaction with an organization. Their support and perceived accountability encourage an employee’s own ethical conduct.
outcomes
Collectively, these items provide a picture of the level of ethics risk within an organization.
Findings from the UCCS ECI Short Survey™
summary comparison of UCCS’s survey results to the NBES® averages
In aggregate, compared to the U.S. National benchmarks, results for UCCS show a number of areas of opportunity with regards to being at an ethics risk.
UCCS’s employees are less likely to agree they can question management decisions and to say the organization includes ethical conduct in performance evaluations, compared to the NBES.
Employees in UCCS are less likely than employees in the NBES to hold favorable opinions about leadership’s messaging about ethical behavior. A smaller percentage of employees agrees that top management sets a good example of ethical conduct.
Employees are less likely to agree that their supervisors support them in following the code. A smaller percentage believes that their supervisors would be held accountable for misconduct.
Ethics outcomes are mixed. Compared to the NBES, pressure is higher, while observed misconduct, reporting, and retaliation are comparable to the US averages.

6. Half of Employees Feel that They Can Raise Concerns to Management

7. Effectiveness of UCCS’s Ethics and Compliance Program
why is it important to be able to raise concerns to management?
Of all measures of program effectiveness, being able to raise concerns to management is associated with the most favorable ethics outcomes. Employees who agree that they can raise concerns are less likely to feel pressure to compromise standards, are less likely to see misconduct in the organization, and are more likely to report any misconduct they observe.
Being able to speak up is also an indicator of employee engagement, which entails feeling motivated to contribute more than is “required,” and feeling an increased commitment to stay with the organization.
A lower score suggests an organization should enhance communication.
Effectiveness of UCCS’s Ethics and Compliance Program
Half of employees (51 percent) feel they can raise concerns to management without fear of retaliation. Results are below the NBES (68 percent). In UCCS, only about one third (31 percent) agree that the organization evaluates employees on their ethical conduct as part of performance evaluations (NBES, 67 percent). Including ethical conduct as a dimension in employee performance evaluations is one way for an organization to convey its commitment to ethical workplace conduct.

8. UCCS’s Ethical Leadership Culture
importance of ethical leadership
Employees look to leadership to set the tone at the top through both their words and their actions. A clear message that ethical behavior is expected helps to increase reporting of misconduct and contributes substantially to perceptions about a strong ethical culture. Positive impacts are also seen in lower levels of pressure, misconduct, and retaliation.
Employees perceive leadership at different levels of the organization. It is not only important for senior leaders to send the message and model ethical behavior, it is also important for middle managers to promote ethics through their words and actions. Supervisors are critical in that they are the primary location to which employees report misconduct.
The perception that senior leadership in UCCS talks about the importance of ethics (69 percent) is less than the NBES (80 percent). Compared to the NBES (81 percent), a smaller percentage of employees in UCCS (70 percent) agree that top management sets a good example of ethical workplace conduct.

9. UCCS’s Supervisor Reinforcement Culture
importance of supervisor reinforcement of ethics
Supervisors play critical roles in forming the ethical culture in an organization. Relative to top management and coworkers, supervisors are found to be most strongly associated with a reduction in pressure to compromise organization ethics standards. Of various ethical behaviors, support is found to be most critically associated with a reduction in pressure.
Supervisors are also instrumental in providing feedback to employees about acceptable behavior. When supervisors are held accountable, it is one signal to employees that the organization expects adherence to its ethics standards.
Employees in UCCS are less likely as those in the U.S. workforce to agree that their supervisors support them in following the organization’s code of conduct (84 percent UCCS v. 87 percent NBES). In UCCS, 76 percent believe that their supervisors would be held accountable if caught violating the organization code of conduct, less than the 83 percent in the NBES.

10. Impact of UCCS’s Ethics and Compliance Program and Ethical Culture
pressure
The predominant forms of pressure are meeting performance targets, supervisory pressure, and saving one’s job.
misconduct
Misconduct is primarily interpersonal – such as abusive behavior. Analysis of it can reveal whether the organization contains a few bad apples, or is a bad tree.
reporting
Organizations that lack knowledge about the events taking place within are left only with an ability to react to crises and not an ability to avoid them.
retaliation
Retaliation dampens future reporting. Whether perception or reality, an organization must still resolve employees’ reports of retaliation.
The percentage of UCCS employees feeling pressure to compromise standards of ethical conduct (14 percent) is greater than the NBES (nine percent).
The percentage observing misconduct is comparable to that in the NBES (26 percent versus 23 percent).
Compared to the NBES, the reporting rate at UCCS is as favorable, 64 percent versus 63 percent.
Of those who reported misconduct, 29 percent said they experienced retaliation for doing so, compared to 21 percent in the NBES.