How can whistleblowing be positive

On a larger scale, fraud costs taxpayers an inordinate amount of money every year. By promoting a whistleblowing culture we can crack down on fraud and prevent this unnecessary loss of capital. Sadly, despite efforts to combat mistreatment of whistleblowers, risk still exists. The potential mistreatment largely surrounds team attitudes. Whilst whistleblowers are considered by some to be courageous, others see them as "snitches". This can result in whistleblowers being victimised by their teammates and suffering unfair treatment.

A large proportion of whistleblowers leave their job in the year following their complaint, be this voluntarily or forced. In order to mitigate this risk, the UK government passed the Public Interest Disclosure Act , preventing detrimental treatment of whistleblowers by their employers.

Though a large proportion of healthcare workers were scared to speak out, the bravery of a few sought to address a multitude of local failings. It is estimated that poor care tragically led to the deaths of between and patients across 50 consecutive months, spanning from to Therefore, a delay in whistleblowing of a single year could have risked hundreds of lives.

This highlights the importance of prompt reporting and individual responsibility. When debating whether to whistleblow, it is important to consider the bigger picture. Whilst it can be a daunting process to enter into, the greater good of the general public must receive priority. Furthermore, you can speak with a whistleblower attorney completely confidentially to determine whether there is enough substance for your claim to go forward. Whistleblowing claims can take several years on average from the time that a whistleblower begins working with an attorney to the time that a financial reward is made.

But, given the amount of the potential rewards and the positive effect on society of taking a stand, the delay may well be worth it. How Can We Help? Pros and Cons of Whistleblowing.

The Pros of Whistleblowing Helping Your Neighbors by Fighting Corruption Corruption and government waste are one of the biggest economic drains on society. If you fail to recognise, address and ultimately put an end to such violations, you risk the dire alternative of legal prosecution, major fines and a public scandal — not to mention a substantial hit on your otherwise clean and tidy reputation.

Business is money, at the end of the day. Wrongdoings like fraud cost an inordinate amount of money every year so by promoting a whistleblowing culture in your organisation, you can strive to crack down on the risk of fraud and prevent such an unnecessary and bewildering loss of capital.

Unfortunately, despite efforts to combat the mistreatment of whistleblowers and protect their rights to remain protected under the law, risk of persecution still exists. Regrettably, that does mean that whistleblowers often become victimised by their teammates and sometimes even members of management , resulting in their unfair treatment. A large proportion of whistleblowers leave their job in the year following their complaint. In order to reduce the risks associated with blowing the whistle, the UK Government passed the Public Interest Disclosure Act which amends the Employment Rights Act , preventing detrimental treatment of whistleblowers by their employers — and while this is a great step in the right direction, the implementation of this legislation by no means relinquishes employers of any further preventative actions.

There are a number of steps that employers can take to minimise the risk of unfair treatment towards whistleblowers, including:. Establishing a whistleblowing policy — You should start by creating and advertising a whistleblowing policy. Raising awareness — Additionally, raising awareness of whistleblowing is fundamental to adopting an open culture. Thorough and regular whistleblower training can help arm you with the skills necessary to combat fraud and misconduct in your place of work altogether.

Mondaq uses cookies on this website. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies as set out in our Privacy Policy. Whistleblowing is becoming more accepted as a way for organisations to access internal information that can help leaders to minimise risks. Are you weighing up the possibility of implementing a whistleblowing system in your organisation?

In this post we will share feedback from our work with customers to highlight the whistleblowing benefits that your organisation and its stakeholders may expect.

We aim to describe the benefits from the perspective of different stakeholder groups. Please note that all the quotations used in this article are from actual customers who have implemented our whistleblowing system. Whistleblowing is seen as a very effective tool to combat fraud. While the rise of whistleblowing started with the global financial crisis, and the resulting drive for a crackdown on corporate corruption, today the benefits of having a whistleblowing system in place stretch far wider than uncovering financial irregularities.

This indicates that whistleblowing has moved from being an early warning hotline to an important part of the organisational ethics toolkit. Whistleblowing is unique in that it gives everybody in the organisation, and often also external stakeholders, the opportunity to report a concern if they see something they suspect is against the organisation's ethical principles.

These concerns may relate to environmental crimes, major deficiencies in workplace security or serious forms of discrimination or harassment — all matters that are considered potential whistleblowing cases. As an investor, we want to ensure that the employees working in our portfolio companies can raise a red flag, in a secure manner, if there is any suspicion of a serious irregularity.

Whistleblowing systems are not only valuable for an organisation's leaders. They are beneficial to a wide range of stakeholders, and can be made available as a channel for reporting suspected misconduct both internally and externally. Whistleblowing reinforces our compliance policies. As the head of the compliance department, I'm on the team that deals with the whistleblowing reports when we receive them.

Through the online whistleblowing system, it is easy to stay in touch with the whistleblower, even if they choose to remain completely anonymous, so we can get that critical information we might need for an investigation. Our whistleblowing system gives us However for me, one benefit that is equally important is that the system makes handling each case so much more efficient. It has a built in process that me and my colleagues all follow, so I know that cases are handled sensitively, consistently and correctly.

The system is also compliant with all applicable laws, for example those related to data protection and privacy. That gives me confidence that we handle things in a compliant manner. I can also assign different managers to respond to different kinds of whistleblowing reports from different groups. Sometimes reports come in through the whistleblowing system, about something that is wrong in the organisation in the eyes of the whistleblower.

But it may not really be a whistleblowing case. However, it is clearly something that is important to the sender of the report, something they are very unhappy about, or uncertain about, like an ethical dilemma, and they do not know where to turn.

One benefit is " The fact that we receive a report opens up an opportunity for dialogue with the person reporting — even if they remain anonymous. It helps us build trust with employees and even improve some of the HR related matters in the organisation.

In Human Resources we take these kinds of reports seriously, we might otherwise never get to know about these issues, so it is important that we are represented on the whistleblowing team.