News
What's ethical? It's not always obvious
St. Paul, MN, July 19, 2006 – Every day, millions of American workers make choices about how to behave on the job. While most professionals would claim to know the difference between right and wrong, doing the right thing isn’t as easy as we’d like to think.
"Not all situations are clear cut," said Bob Olafson, SVP, Minnesota Life Insurance Company. Olafson, along with Minnesota Life second VP, Human Resources, Kathy Pinkett, will present a seminar on ethics July 22 at the Florida Public Personnel Association’s annual meeting in Tampa. "Our goal is to give our audience of human resources professionals some insight on how to establish an organizational culture that promotes, recognizes, and rewards ethical behavior among employees."
The issue of ethics in the work place received substantial visibility as corporate scandals and the ensuing criminal trials of CEOs and other senior executives dominated the business news. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer developed a national reputation for his investigations of financial services companies. One of his cases cited the widespread practice of undisclosed compensation, where employee benefits brokers would collect fees from their clients and additional fees from benefits providers. In the suit, Spitzer named Minnesota Life as a group life insurer that refused to pay the broker undisclosed compensation.
"Doing the right thing isn’t always easy," said Pinkett. "Companies and employees can suffer when their competitors or peers get away with bad behavior. By consistently communicating to its work force that good ethics are good business, any organization can establish a culture that fosters ethical behavior."
Nine states have selected Minnesota Life to provide group life insurance to their employees; they are Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. As a service to those clients, Minnesota Life created a bi-monthly e-mail newsletter, AWARE.gov, whose target audience is public sector benefits professionals. Topics include benefit products, emerging trends, legislation, administration, productivity, technology, and life balance, all with a focus on the public sector. Free subscriptions are available.
With more than $420 billion of group life insurance in force, Minnesota Life is one of the fastest-growing group life insurers in the US, rising from sixteenth largest in 1997 to sixth in 2004. Respondents to customer surveys are 100 percent satisfied with the service they receive from Minnesota Life, a subsidiary of Securian Financial Group, Inc. For more information about web-based services offered by Minnesota Life Group Insurance, visit www.lifebenefits.com.
A02144-0706
Contact:
Maggie Jensen
Media Relations Consultant
Minnesota Life Insurance Company
Phone: (651) 665-7558
Pager: (612) 650-0433
400 Robert Street North
St. Paul, MN 55101-2098
margaret.jensen@securian.com
