Robert Chesnut, Airbnb general counsel (Courtesy photo)

Airbnb Inc. general counsel Robert Chesnut shared his work developing and promoting the San Francisco-based company's ethics culture globally at a Thursday event for in-house counsel.

Chesnut started his hourlong session, part of the two-day Peer 150 General Counsel Institute West at the University of California Berkeley, by directing in-house counsel where to start with ethics: the company's leadership.

“Nothing you can do can overcome a lack of leadership and integrity at the very top,” Chesnut said. 

Airbnb's entire leadership team weighed in on ethical questions as the company developed its code of ethics, posing questions on romantic relationships at work, alcohol in the office and other real-world scenarios. Thinking through the tough questions helped Chesnut's executive team write a code of ethics that was specific, making rules clear and therefore easier to enforce. The code was also designed for Airbnb's culture, he added.

That's key, Chesnut said, because a code of ethics that seems copy-and-pasted, overly general or not drafted by executives can send a “horrible message” about how culture and ethics are valued at the company.

In his experience, a company-unique code of ethics is just the first step to embedding ethics into office culture. Executives should keep the issue top-of-mind by continuing to educate employees. He personally teaches the training class for all new Airbnb hires in San Francisco, one hour every week and has traveled to the company's 28 offices, training “over 5,000″ employees total.

It is crucial for employees see him in person, rather than a midlevel delegate, to know Airbnb is serious about ethics, he said.

“The message I've got is, 'Wow, Rob, I can't believe you do this. That takes an awful lot of time,'” he said. “My response is [it's] not as much time as it takes to deal with all the problems that are going to occur if I don't do this.” 

Those trainings again offer specific examples on hugging, compliments and even barbecues with the boss, because “vagueness in the rules … creates a Petri dish for problems,” Chesnut said. Using examples employees can relate to also helps keep them more engaged, he added, and Airbnb uses post-training metrics to track how much employees soaked in on ethics. 

Education doesn't stop at hiring. Chesnut and his team have found creative ways to keep employees engaged in ethics. His team now produces a monthly video series: semi-humorous, low-budget, with a moral. It's sent out to the entire company via email.

Employees don't have to watch the videos, but he said around 1,500 viewers usually tune in, familiarizing themselves with ethics and legal professionals at Airbnb while learning about specific moral issues they could face at work. He's gotten good feedback, requests from employees who want to star in the videos and seen the level of reporting spike post-publishing.

“The point isn't that you need to go do videos, although that may actually work perfectly well for you,” he said. “The point is you need to do something beyond that first initial orientation week to keep ethics at the top of mind for everyone in your company.” 

Airbnb has an ethics reporting email, as well as a system of ethics advisers. The advisers are employees with separate full-time functions who volunteer to receive extra ethics training and serve as a touchpoint for those on their teams struggling with an ethical dilemma. Chesnut said that allows employees who may be nervous about going to legal to speak with someone they know about their issue.

The ethics advisers can flag when an issue repeatedly arises. Around once a year, they discuss what changes should be made, ethical concerns that currently lack clear answers. Having buy-in from employees outside of legal has helped embed ethics into Airbnb's culture more broadly, Chesnut said.

“The key is, [ethics] can't be owned by one person,” he said. “It's got to have broad ownership across the company.”