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Integrate ethics

Being ethical means treating people fairly and living up to public service ethical standards and corporate values. To integrate ethics in your work: 

  • Connect with the community so you can understand and meet their expectations 
  • Make your product consistent, trustworthy and easy to understand 
  • Protect and respect people’s personal information 
  • Minimize your service’s environmental impact 
  • Model fairness and integrity in the way you run your team 

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Create ethical products and services

For the government, being ethical means acting in a way that meets people’s expectations of fairness. Following ethical standards ensures our services create trust, benefit the public and meet people’s needs. To work in a more ethical way: 

  • Engage with the public to understand their expectations and how your service will affect them 
  • Build services that are fair by design, meaning they are transparent, accountable and free from bias or discrimination 
  • Regularly check your service to ensure it meets ethical standards and supports desired outcomes 
  • Collect and use people’s personal information in a way that respects their privacy and gives them control 
  • Be mindful of the social, cultural and environmental impact of your decisions, even when they are not immediate or obvious 
  • Encourage members of your team to speak up when something isn’t right, regardless of their role 

Consider the community and the environment

Because the government is so large, our services can have social and cultural impacts that are not immediately clear. They can also affect the environment by creating pollution and waste. To help prevent your service from causing harm to the community and the environment: 

  • Minimize social and cultural harm by making it inclusive, accessible and culturally-safe  
  • Understand the community’s expectations of fairness and by engaging with users throughout the service lifecycle  
  • Measure its energy consumption, pollution, waste and use of non-renewable resources 
  • Find ways to reduce its environmental footprint and help the government reach its emissions targets 

Alignment guide

The alignment guide is intended to be used with the supporting context of the related practice and resources. This guide provides examples of what the implementation of this practice may look like and defines a range of competence within the practice area.

1

Initial

Initial teams lack the awareness and skills they need to limit their product’s negative impacts on the community.  

Examples include:

  • Designing their product without engaging with the community and considering how it will affect them
  • Making technical decisions that needlessly expand their product’s consumption and carbon footprint

2

Developing

Developing teams are building their ability to deliver products that meet public expectations for government digital services.  

Examples include:

  • Developing their team’s awareness of what the public expects from government digital services and how they can meet those expectations
  • Training their team to understand and minimize the environmental impact of their product

3

Delivering

Delivering teams follow proactive, reliable processes that ensure their product is environmentally and socially responsible. 

Examples include:

  • Applying Gender Based Analysis+ and other tested methods to understand how their product will affect users
  • Making business and technology choices that minimize waste and unnecessary consumption

4

Optimizing

Optimizing teams assess their product throughout its lifecycle to maximize its value to the community and minimize its negative impact. 

Examples include:

  • Collecting meaningful data to measure their product against public expectations of ethics and fairness

5

Innovating

Innovating teams generate new insights and practices that promote ethics and social responsibility across government’s digital community.  

Examples include:

  • Relying on strong connections to the community to align strategic decision-making with public expectations for digital services
  • Coordinating with other teams to share knowledge about environmentally friendly design and minimize the environmental impact of digital services across government

Resources

  • Climate action and accountability

    Learn how B.C. is taking action to meet our climate goals, prepare for the impacts of climate change and transition to a net zero future.
    https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=9DF88AF901A14DE59BF3CF4B8A6B17EB

  • BC Public Service corporate values

    Learn the principles that shape the BC Public Service.
    https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=DE3539453BD84B2A9FB1A48D5550DB5F

  • Standards of Conduct for BC Public Service employees

    Learn the Standards of Conduct and how they govern the work of BC Public Service employees.
    https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=0F130A55BFDD4DA1B0ED7FA0AC8D3041

  • Fairness Guides

    Explore design practices that improve fairness and service quality.
    https://bcombudsperson.ca/fairness-education-resources/guides-for-organizations/

  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Resources

    Learn how to create a respectful, inclusive and diverse workplace.
    https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=EC3DF4603BC14E929B95FB0D94AB1DE1

  • Moral-IT Card Deck

    A resonsible research and innovation tool enabling structured reflection on ethical, technical and social implications of technologies.
    https://lachlansresearch.com/the-moral-it-legal-it-decks/

  • The Digital Ethics Compass

    Learn how to ask the right ethical questions and avoid common design mistakes in delivering digital services.
    https://ddc.dk/tools/toolkit-the-digital-ethics-compass/#