An ethical audit is important to establish the company’s current weaknesses and strengths concerning how it conducts itself in an ethical manner. An ethics audit will involve evaluating the company’s standard of ethic, it ethic climate, and how well the company’s employees follow ethical standards. One of the first things to evaluate in an ethics audit is if a company has a written code of ethics and how comprehensive it is. Moreover, the written code of ethics should apply to everyone in the company from the top down with a clear zero tolerance policy in place for ethics violations. Included in a comprehensive ethics code should be a method for evaluating and updating the code as on a consistent basis to include immediate updates when an issue is brought under attention due to an issue that has arisen. The review process might involve a committee that reviews the code of conduct along with corrective actions concerning any reported ethical violations. An audit may also look at how employees can report ethical violations such as a confidential phone line, or other confidential means an employee could use to voice concerns to bring them to the attention of the appropriate people within the company. An ethics audit might also review the company's ongoing efforts to encourage and maintain its stated ethics to all employees. Such effort might include posters in break rooms, ethics discussion in weekly team huddles, and various other regularly occurring engaging activities. An ethics audit will determine what a company is doing right, and identify areas that need improvement. Often an audit will provide suggestions for how these improvements could be made. Additionally the company can benefit from an ethics audit by being able to show stakeholders that they are committed enough
