Best Practice

When implemented correctly and with the principles of Best Practice in mind, external whistleblowing hotlines are one of the most successful tools for encouraging employees to report misconduct.To get round these problems, companies should supplement their internal reporting structures with an external whistleblowing service which guarantees absolute anonymity for the whistleblower. Whistleblowing hotlines need to be:

• Available – whistleblowing hotlines should be available outside normal office hours, allowing employees to make calls and discuss their concerns in complete privacy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Free – there should be no cost barrier to deter would-be whistleblowers; it is important that employees recognise that their organisation supports a free and readily accessible whistleblowing service.
• Friendly – callers should not be interrogated or treated with suspicion but handled in a compassionate and professional manner by well trained staff.  Expolink do not use automated systems; all callers speak to an empathetic advisor – a real person.
• Multi-lingual – fraud or antisocial behaviour doesn’t recognise national boundaries; it’s important that callers are able to whistleblow in their native language.
• Secure – callers need the certainty that their concerns will only be reported to the company’s authorised recipient, that their anonymity will be preserved and that no details of their complaint will be kept once the investigation process is under way.
• External – employees place greater trust in a whistleblowing helpline which is not part of their company or overseen by the individuals that the whistleblower may suspect are committing fraud or other anti-social behaviour.
• Anonymous – whistleblowers need to be given the option to remain anonymous.
• Well communicated – if employees are unaware of the service they can’t use it!  Give the right message to the right employees.

Expolink’s whistleblowing service is fully compliant with international whistleblowing best practice.

Our Process

Our unique whistleblowing service has been refined and enhanced as Government legislation and the needs of the whistleblower have matured. Our whistleblowing hotline protects your interests as the employer at all times, while supporting your employees.

• All whistleblowing calls are handled by highly trained, compliant and experienced call handlers who act with tact and consideration at all times.
• Whistleblowing calls can be made anonymously and confidentially (although we encourage employees to provide contact names so we can feedback the outcome of their report).
• Alternatively employees can make a report via email or our secure web-based reporting system.
• Issues are summarised for every call for optimum accuracy.
• The whistleblower is given a unique call number in case they wish to phone back.
• The demeanour of the whistleblower demeanour is noted.
• A report is prepared and thoroughly checked by management to ensure high levels of accuracy. Reports are submitted to authorised recipients within two hours (a unique PIN is required for verification).
• File deletion is based on the Guttman principle, US DoD standard, ensuring optimum security.
• Monthly management reports show analyses of the nature of the calls, referral sources, follow-up details; both by individual occurrence and by trends over a rolling year, including bench-marking data.

Working in partnership with Expolink’s whistleblowing hotline you will have access to our client care team for prompt query resolution. We pride ourselves on our internal processes, which include:

• Strict recruitment & comprehensive training programmes.
• PCI-DSS Compliance.
• Performance monitoring.
• Escalation of critical internal communications.
• Management reporting.
• Disaster recovery provided by Sungard.
• Professional body membership. (Institute of Business Ethics)

Contact us to find out how Expolink can help you fulfil your corporate governance responsibilities. 

View our brochure here. Read how our whistleblowing hotline helped The Co-operative Group in this case study.

Listen to Expolink CEO David Crook’s radio interview discussing whistleblowing best practice, legislation and more.