Protect whistleblowers – or face the consequences
As businesses navigate their way amid the pandemic, lockdowns and uncertainty about the future, the “new normal” creates an ideal opportunity for organizations looking to build trust and transparency with their workforce. Trust in the ‘human factor’ is even more critical during these times, specifically how governance requirements are operationalized through the lens of an increasingly dispersed and remote workforce and stakeholders.
Misconduct is widespread and as such the need to further develop a healthy corporate culture, trust should be built around doing the right thing rather than doing things right. Whistleblowing programs should not only be viewed as a compliance requirement, but also an important process to help foster an environment where employees and stakeholders feel comfortable ‘speaking up’ when they see things they believe go against the values of the company and society. As such the word ‘trust’ takes on an important role as it also establishes a beacon of an organizations willingness to embed integrity and all it does.
People Intouch and EY Advisory Netherlands LLP (“EY”) share common objectives to come alongside organizations to further develop or help create a corporate culture where integrity and transparency are part of the key values in the organization. This raises the question; how embedded is trust within your organization?
Per December 2021 the European Whistleblower Protection Directive will require organizations (governmental and non-governmental) to integrate an efficient whistleblowing or speak-up program.
How will your organization be responding? People Intouch and EY can be of assistance in the following areas:
- Leading edge technological platform around whistle-blower management systems
- Whistleblowing programs – implementation & training
- Misconduct reviews, Investigations & Culture assessments
- Exceptional technical knowledge with leading privacy & information security assurance services
- Technical implementation and internal support
For more information about this, please contact our professionals.
People Intouch – martijnboone@peopleintouch.com
EY – brenton.steenkamp@nl.ey.com
The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.