Welcome to the Character Education Network

Character Education and the Business Community

When you hire employees, don’t you want both high grades in school and high responsibility? Your personnel director will tell you that the key predictors of an employee’s job success and retention are character traits, not necessarily levels of knowledge. If you can find potential employees who are honest, dependable, cooperative and responsible, you can teach them the job!

Where do young people learn these traits of good character? Primarily in the home, but not always. Many school districts now are adopting character education into their curriculum, focusing on traits everyone likes to find in people around them — truthfulness, respect, self-discipline, persistence, personal responsibility, following through on tasks, and getting along with others. Are these the traits you like to find in your employees? Would you like to have more applicants with these traits? Support character education in your schools!

HOW CHARACTER APPLIES IN THE WORKPLACE:
Honesty	Employee can be trusted
Reliability	Attendance and work quality can be counted on
Respect	Cooperation and good communication benefit all
Self-discipline	Distractions are at a minimum
Persistence	Job completion is assured
Resourcefulness	Problem-solving at primary levels
Caring	Support for co-workers, strength of team
Patience	Work is done thoroughly
Loyalty	Employees feel emotionally connected
Integrity	Moral behavior applies in all areas
Creativity	Innovation is born often
Goal-setting	Greater achievement is sought
Citizenship	Community-oriented thinking

Imagine what employees of good character can do for your business environment! Imagine having a company where employees trust, respect and care about each other — where ethical behavior is encouraged and hundreds of daily decisions are made based on what is right and fair. You’d have to turn away people who want to work for you!

You can create a pool of employees with these traits by investing in character education in schools! Contact your school superintendent or principal. You can help bring character to your community.

Good character is good for business! Reputation is everything in business, and the financial benefit of being known as an ethical, responsible, caring company is incalculable. Investing in character education in school pays BIG rewards for your company!

Be one of the leaders in your business community who supports character education in schools!

Ginny Turner, Character Development Group
Excerpted from the Character Education Informational Handbook & Guide, Public Schools of North Carolina, Department of Education, 2002. Used by permission.