Whistleblowing reporting channel

When you cannot use your own name to report or contact your supervisor about a suspicious situation, an independent reporting channel is needed. The solution is a whistleblower reporting channel. 

Ethical principles and speaking up for any deviations from those principles is a part of responsible business. Every company aims to work in a responsible way towards its employees and stakeholders. Ethical principles outline the common rules according to which everyone should act upon. Ethical principles define also what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the company, ie. our way of working. It demonstrates how we live our values every day. Implementing a whistleblowing channel is a way to monitor how well ethical principles are applied in the company. 

The upcoming and ever tightening regulations place more and more demands on Finnish companies about how reporting channels are taken into use and administered. When the EU’s new so-called Whistleblower Directive enters into force, a reporting channel should be in use at such organisations which have more than 50 employees. The aim of the Directive is the protection of the people reporting which at the moment is legally quite fragmented in Finland. The new EU Whistleblower Directive must be enforced in Finland at the latest in 2021.  

The best alternative to tell about activities that are against the company’s principles is to talk face to face with the closest superior, or with another member of the management. However, it is not always possible to turn to the closest superior. Such a situation could be, for example, when the reporting person feels that the superior is involved in the bad practice. Sometimes an employee or subcontractor can be afraid that reporting the bad practice could lead to problems with the employment or cooperation relationship.

The organisation should think ahead how such situations are handled, and what kind of a reporting channel would best serve the company’s employees and interested parties.

Opportunity to react quickly

When a report or hint is about misconduct, the organisation must possess the capacity and preparedness to handle the hint, together with a procedure for investigating the misconduct. A company can also outsource the handling of reports and investigations to an outside expert, who then reports the incidents to defined persons within the organization and suggests to them, which actions to take in order to perform the investigation for each specific case.

The reporting channel is not only about technology. The bigger and more international the organisation is, the more demanding it is to set up and introduce the reporting channel. The channel must provide in a practical way anonymity and confidentiality for the employees and interested parties who make the reports. A proper corporate culture and sufficient reporting channel training have a crucial significance on how the channel is used, and on the trust for the channel’s neutrality and the correct handling at the workplace of the reports.

Through the reporting channel, the organisation can gain important information about bad practices and a possibility to react quickly to them. A report that came through the reporting channel at an early stage can also help the company to prepare for the eventual publicity following unethical operation.

Please contact us in case you need help in setting up or introducing a reporting channel, in receiving reports or in administering a reporting channel. We can also perform the impact assessment required by the Data Protection Regulation. Our extensive experience makes fast implementation possible, training the employees and supervisors as well as moving towards receiving the whistleblowing reports.