Is the Human Resources department an ethical minefield?

That could become an important after the Department of Justice laid charges against Stephanie Jensen, the former vice president of HR at Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

Jensen and her former boss, ex-Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes are facing criminal and civil fraud charges over the backdating of options.

As part of the scheme, Jensen allegedly created, or instructed others to create paperwork that made it look kosher and showing that the options had been granted on the earlier date.

Given that HR is basically about people, ethical dilemmas are more likely to show up there. If a check on a job applicant for example reveals that they have a criminal conviction from years ago, and they now seem to be clean, do you hire them? If a manager instructs you, as an HR officer, to falsify certain minor documents, what do you do?

A survey shows that 65 per cent of HR personnel face ethical dilemmas every day and one in five say they have to deal with ethical issues once a day, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune.

And because HR people are the ones who have to deal with real-life human issues, the heat's on them to be candid and fair when handling HR issues. According to the Sand Diego Union-Tribune report, some companies try to deal with the problem by setting up third-party reporting options allowing people to report misdemeanors and problems anonymously.

Another reason why HR is so vulnerable to ethical issues is that HR officers tend to be highly political and a handmaiden of management. HR professionals have become management agents; while, on the other side, there has been an explosion in chief executive pay, longer working hours and increased job insecurity.

I elaborate on the problem in this piece here.

Jensen and Reyes still have to face trial and it's up to a jury to decide whether they are guilty or not. But as the vice-president of HR at Brocade, Jensen would have been in Reyes' leadership team.

The only way to make ethics safer for HR is for companies to be quite clear about what is acceptable and unacceptable, and to make sure everyone in the organisation understands the difference.