As career transition and organizational consultants we will act with integrity by honouring the values of trust, honesty, collaboration, capacity building and respect in relationship with self, client, colleague, profession and society.
Candidate and Client Relationships
• We will act in the interests of our clients and candidates. We will honour the trust they have bestowed upon us.
• We will honour all promises and commitments to our candidates and clients included in any written or verbal agreement, unless serious and unexpected circumstances (e.g., illness) intervene. If such circumstances occur, then we will make a full and honest explanation to other parties involved.
• We will avoid dual or multiple relationships and other circumstances that might present a conflict of interest or that might reduce our ability to be objective and unbiased in our practice. We will inform all parties, if a real or potential conflict of interest arises, of the need to resolve the situation and take all reasonable steps to resolve the issue.
• We will discuss candidly and fully with candidates and clients the goals, costs, risks, limitations and anticipated outcomes on any program or other professional relationship under consideration.
• We will ensure that there is a clear understanding of and mutual agreement with our clients on the services to be performed and not shift from that agreement without both a clearly defined professional rationale for making the shift and the informed consent of the clients/participants. We will withdraw from an agreement with a client if circumstances beyond our control prevent proper fulfillment.
• We will put contracts in writing to the extent possible recognizing that the spirit of professional responsibility encompasses more that the letter of the contract, some contracts are necessarily incomplete because complete information is not available at the outset, putting the contract in writing may be neither necessary nor desirable.
• We will safeguard the best interests of our clients by making sure that financial arrangements are fair and in keeping with appropriate statutes, regulations, and professional standards.
• We will fully inform participants in any activity as to its sponsorship, nature, purpose, implications, and any risk associated with it so that they freely choose their participation.
• We will work collaboratively with other internal and external consultants serving the same client or candidate and resolve conflicts in terms of the balanced best interest of the client or candidate.
• We will encourage and enable clients to provide for themselves the services we provide rather than foster continued reliance on us.
• We will cease work with a client or candidate when it is clear that the client is not benefiting or the engagement has been completed.
Confidentiality
• We will respect and protect the confidentiality of our client/candidate relationships. We will only reveal information accepted in confidence to appropriate or agreed-upon recipients or authorities.
• We will only use information obtained during professional work in writings, lectures, or other public forums only with prior consent or when disguised so that it is impossible from our presentation alone to identify the individuals or organizations with whom we have worked.
• We will take adequate provision for maintaining confidentiality in the storage and disposal of records.
