The Whistleblower Dilemma!

Let’s give whistleblowers a chance by creating a safe environment for them to be able to help our businesses AND survive afterwards!

It’s a sad fact that many individuals that have listened to the voice of conscience and good governance and “told” have ended up destitute and maligned by society! But business needs to know!

Corruption and fraud are prevalent and without honourable people informing, business is compromised, shareholders and investors can lose money and people their employment. So, shouldn’t you create an opportunity for employees to inform without compromising themselves?

According to Wikipedia: All organizations, whether public, private, or non-profit (including governmental) should, as a best practice, adopt a robust whistleblower system to induce its employees to internally report illegal or excessively risky activity directly to its board of directors or trustees.

Without a tough whistleblower system, directors/trustees of the organization may fail in their oversight responsibilities. A robust whistleblower system encourages internal reporting of misconduct so as to permit it to be corrected. It is particularly important in countries (such as the United States), which provide significant financial rewards to whistleblowers who externally report illegal behaviour to government entities.

There have been numerous examples of boards of directors/trustees who have been uninformed as to problems in the organization, even though lower level employees knew about these problems. These boards were misled because they relied primarily on top management and the auditors for their information.

In the light of this you are urged to put a system in place to support ethical behaviour and reporting – you can’t afford not to!

Share any tips you have for enabling your employees to be able to “speak out” without fear.