Solutions to Report & Resolve Compliance Issues | NAVEX Global

Cultivating a Positive Perception of the Whistleblowing Process

A whistleblowing programme is at the very core of protecting business ethics. A strong whistleblowing policy ensures your company’s integrity and Code of Conduct are maintained, empowers your employees to protect and uphold those standards when they witness something that isn’t ethical.

Unfortunately, your employees may subscribe to the stigma that is still associated with whistleblowing in the workplace. They may be worried about being labelled a turncoat or dealing with the very real consequences of retaliation.

Fighting these misconceptions begins with you, the employer. You’re responsible for disseminating the right information and setting the appropriate tone with your whistleblowing policy. That’s why we prefer the terms speak-up hotline or ethics hotline, versus reporting line or hotline. Framing it this way creates the proper impression in your employees’ minds. They will no longer see coming forward as “snitching” or being a traitor. They will see it as doing their part to protect their organisation’s ethical code, and failing to do so would be a grave disservice to their fellow employees or maybe even put people in danger.

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What is a Hotline?

A hotline, also known as a helpline, is a confidential reporting system for employees to identify wrongdoing in the workplace. Ethics helplines allows employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to quickly and confidentially report ethics and compliance issues or other types of wrongdoing anonymously. Leaders can correct the issue before it becomes a serious problem or before the whistleblower turns to outside sources.

Your whistleblowing procedure outlines the steps an employee should follow to report wrongdoing by a fellow employee, made in the public interest. Whistleblowing is shining a light on something that is unethical, or even dangerous.

Whistleblowing is not an outlet for personal vendettas, nor is it a chessboard for office politics. This is not a contentious place for one employee to attack or lambast another. It’s a safe, often anonymous, place for your employees to bring matters forward for the good of the entire company. Whistleblowing needs to be framed as virtuous, rather than vindictive. And necessary, rather than nasty.

Why is whistleblowing important?

We strongly encourage all organisations to move beyond a “tick the box” approach to their whistleblowing programme. Whistleblowers provide many benefits to a company, including:

Making leadership aware of misconduct before it becomes a public scandal
Making senior managers aware of issues they would otherwise not know about
The opportunity to build a stronger, more resilient company
Providing a temperature reading on how employees really feel about certain aspects of the organisation

Whistleblowers also protect the company from the consequences of:

Criminal offences and fraud
Intentionally covering up wrongdoing in the workplace
Unseen health or safety issues
A damaged reputation from highly publicised legal battles

Your employees need to know that their candour by reporting is appreciated and their safety is a priority.

How does whistleblowing relate to the law?

Part of the stigma attached to whistleblowing may be because it hasn’t always been a protected action in the UK and across Europe. In 1998, the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) was created to protect whistleblowers. Prior to that, there was no legal guarantee that an employee could step forward without being fired, punished, or ostracised by their employers. But this Act changed that by stating:

“A worker has the right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, by his employer done on the ground that the worker has made a protected disclosure.”

Following PIDA, the UK Bribery Act was introduced in 2010 and remains one of the strictest and comprehensive laws on international bribery. The UK Bribery Act holds both individuals and companies liable for bribery offenses, including accepting bribes. This also effectively expands whistleblowing on bribery, as both active and passive bribery is included.

More recent legislation in the financial industry has further strengthened whistleblowing accountability with the Senior Manager’s Regime. This new legislation states that senior management cannot ignore whistleblowers or claim to have not known about ethical breaches, holding senior management accountable. Legislation is likely to continue to expand in the future, making it critically important that organisations are up to date on whistleblowing laws.

Craft your organisation's Code of Conduct

This is the master policy about ethical behaviour and is the starting point for employees to know what is acceptable. In your Code of Conduct, you should clearly state your hotline and reporting process for employees and ideally include a message of support from senior leadership.

Implement a holistic “speak-up” programme

This programme includes a hotline, a web intake site for employees to report online, and a process for managers to log conversations with employees known as “open door reports”.

Raise awareness among your employees and vendors

Clearly state your key ethics and compliance programme components including the phone number for the hotline (in multiple localities) and the URL for the web intake site. Be very clear with employees what happens when they report.

Capture & investigate all reports across your organisation

It is crucial to let employees know they've been heard when they report and that all reports are taken seriously, followed up on consistently and within best practice case closure ranges.

Track your whistleblowing data & make appropriate changes

Make sure to benchmark your hotline statistics against similar organisations in your industry and geography or use NAVEX Global benchmark reports.

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