3CO03 Core Behaviours for People Professionals covers the key behaviours for people professionals, emphasising ethical practices that create value. It explores how consistent thinking and actions, even in new and challenging situations, should help promote well-being and inclusivity within the organisation.
Table of Contents
Task 1 – Application Questionnaire
AC 1.1 Ethical working is very important to Nuvascare. Tell us what you understand by the terms ‘ethical principles’ and ‘professional values’ and give us an example of how one of your values has informed your behaviour at work. Make sure you give us the full context of your example (what type of work, what value, how it informed your behaviour).
What Are Ethical Principles and How They Inform Workplace Behaviour
Ethical principles represent the fundamental moral standards that guide how individuals and organisations distinguish between right and wrong conduct. Within the workplace, these principles establish the behavioural expectations that create trust, fairness, and accountability across all professional interactions. Ethical principles are not merely aspirational ideals; they function as practical decision-making frameworks that shape how employees treat colleagues, serve customers, and represent their organisation to external stakeholders (CIPD, 2024).
For a care provider such as Nuvascare Ltd, ethical principles hold particular significance given the vulnerability of the individuals receiving care. Core ethical principles applicable to people practice include honesty, which demands truthful communication even when uncomfortable; fairness, which requires impartial and equitable treatment irrespective of personal characteristics; integrity, which involves consistency between stated values and actual behaviour; and respect for dignity, which recognises the inherent worth of every individual encountered in professional settings (ACAS, 2024).
These principles directly inform workplace behaviour by providing reference points for decision-making in ambiguous situations. When an employee encounters a dilemma where competing interests create uncertainty, ethical principles offer structured guidance. For Nuvascare’s care professionals, this might manifest as prioritising client welfare above operational convenience, or as reporting concerns about care quality despite potential personal consequences. The organisation’s stated values of honesty, kindness, and openness align with and reinforce these broader ethical principles, embedding them within Nuvascare’s specific cultural context.
What Are Professional Values and How They Inform Workplace Behaviour
Professional values are the specific standards, commitments, and expectations adopted by individuals within a particular profession that guide their conduct and define competent practice. Whilst ethical principles are universal moral foundations, professional values are contextually specific to the demands and responsibilities of a given professional role (CIPD, 2024). For people professionals, the CIPD’s Profession Map establishes the professional values that underpin effective practice, including evidence-based decision-making, professional courage and integrity, valuing people, and working inclusively.
Evidence-based practice represents a core professional value requiring people professionals to ground their decisions in reliable data and research rather than assumptions, intuition, or organisational tradition. This value informs workplace behaviour by demanding that HR recommendations regarding recruitment approaches, reward structures, or wellbeing interventions are supported by credible evidence demonstrating their likely effectiveness.
Professional courage constitutes another essential value, requiring practitioners to challenge inappropriate behaviour, advocate for ethical treatment, and raise concerns even when doing so may be personally uncomfortable or politically inconvenient. Within Nuvascare, this value would inform behaviour by empowering people practice team members to address instances where care standards or employment practices fall below acceptable levels.
How One of My Values Has Informed My Behaviour at Work
In my previous role within a retail organisation, the professional value of fairness significantly informed my approach during a restructuring exercise that required role reductions. When initial management proposals suggested selecting employees for redundancy based substantially on subjective manager preferences, I recognised that this approach conflicted with the principles of fairness and objectivity that should govern such consequential decisions.
I advocated for the adoption of a structured, criteria-based selection process utilising measurable factors including attendance records, performance ratings, and skills relevance to retained roles. I prepared a written proposal demonstrating how the objective approach would reduce legal risk, enhance procedural fairness, and maintain employee trust during a difficult period. Although this required challenging senior managers who preferred a more discretionary approach, my commitment to fairness as a guiding value compelled me to persist.
The organisation adopted the criteria-based approach, and subsequently received no grievances or legal challenges relating to the selection process. This experience reinforced my understanding that professional values are not abstract concepts but practical tools that, when applied consistently, produce better outcomes for both organisations and the individuals they employ.
