Communicating Your Whistleblowing Hotline Service

• Two in five U.S. and U.K. organisations with written anti-bribery and corruption policies don’t communicate them to the optimum extent
• 64% of private sector employees said they would report wrongdoing to outside bodies if internal reporting was ignored

By deciding to use a whistleblowing service at your organisation you have already identified yourselves as responsible employers who want to protect your colleagues and your business.  You have made the decision to promote a culture of free speech, compliance and intolerance of corrupt and immoral activity amongst your co-workers and business subsidiaries, which is to be commended and should be promoted.

Since you joined partnership with Expolink can you be unequivocally certain that your whistleblowing service is being thoroughly and holistically communicated throughout your organisation? If the information and service procedures are buried under laborious and text-heavy HR and policy documentation, chances are your employees aren’t going to find it when they really need to access the service.
We know that you are busy people, so we have compiled a check list to help you ensure you are optimising your whistleblowing hotline service and that information is percolated throughout your organisation.

• Is there comprehensive information about the service at induction stage? This should include full details about how to access the service and what it covers, stating clearly that the hotline is manned 24/7, 364 days of the year and is independent, free and confidential
• Facilitate online training with function to indicate that employees have fully understood the process at the end. Staff must understand that whistleblowing is a last resort and a safety net should they suspect wrongdoing in the workplace
• Are middle and senior management fully trained and communicating the service to the desired extent?
• Assign a representative from each department to promote the service as part of a wider ‘ethics committee’
• Are there posters and literature in communal areas, on notice boards etc.?
• Place pop-ups in reception areas and high foot-fall areas
• Is the service promoted on the intranet? It should never be buried under HR or policy. Policy is only relevant when there is a problem! Be proactive, not reactive
• Have you asked your web team to monitor the activity (impressions) on your designated web pages?
• Can you display stickers in your fleet vehicles and on company telephones?
• Include a link on internal newsletters and if your business uses group text messaging, include a prompt with a link to your intranet/web pages here

If you are unsure of awareness amongst your staff a simple survey can assure you. Are they aware that the service is confidential, 24 hour and there to protect them and not just your business? Expolink’s Whistleblowing Hotline must be communicated as a truly positive service for your colleagues. The information you provide should be concise and succinct in its first instance with plenty of opportunity for colleagues to find out more about the service.
They should understand that the hotline is there to protect them and that they can use the service to help maintain a culture of ethics and accountability in their workplace.

As your trusted partner we are more than happy to help if you have any further questions or would like to discuss re-marketing the service for the benefit of your employees and your business – so please feel free to contact us.  After all if they don’t know about the service they won’t make contact and you could lose vital information.