A sound ethics reporting system makes good business sense

• Boost employee morale
• Protect your organization’s reputation
• Deliver a high ROI
• Satisfy specific regulations

Employee Morale
Employee morale is the highest in entities which encourage use of the confidential communication program. Encouraging use doesn’t necessarily translate into greater numbers of submissions. Boosting employees’ courage to come forward in open and identified forum to voice their concerns reinforces the feeling that management is sincere in wanting to know the real scoop.

Entities desirous of success care about employee morale. When employees feel good about their employer, when they admire, respect and trust their leaders, it translates into good things all around: customers are treated well, patrons are more loyal, students feel well-served, and citizens are happy with their government.

Reputation
However you define it, reputation embodies the perception of employees, consumers, vendors, investors, and partners, and it has significant value to your entity. You know yourself, whether you're evaluating a portfolio investment, which new electronic gadget to buy, products at the grocery store, a college for your son or daughter, partners to provide business solutions, or a charity to give your money to, reputation holds major sway in your decision.

Among the elements which contribute to making up this all-important image is an entity's culture, or "the way we do things around here." A healthy culture must involve a commitment to ethical behavior, which in turn stems from a set of values which set forth the attitudes and conduct employees are expected to adopt in their jobs.

We all strive for a perfect culture, but as we know, human beings aren't perfect, and our reputation management must take this into account. In addition to all the many employee communication strategies employed, a sound reputation management process must include an excellent confidential communication vehicle. That's because as a leader, you need to know what's really going on, and there's just no way of learning the critical information you need through face-to-face and standard normal channels of communication.

You want to learn about wrongdoing as soon as possible, because the passing of time seldom makes a problem get easier to deal with. Some of the most important information you'd like to know of rests with your senior employees. It is critical that your processes make it easy for senior people to trust the independent mechanism you use to uncover misdeeds. When it comes to protecting your reputation, the last thing you want is a false sense of comfort that you have a “hotline” in place to ferret out bad news.

Return on Investment
The Return on Investment of a high-quality ethics reporting and helpline service is extremely high. When the process and discipline of your confidential communication program has been worked out to assure that all levels of employees will be heard from, and that appropriate action will be taken as a result of what you hear, you have a powerful way to get out in front of small problems before they spin out of control. Preventing such crippling reputation damage results in the very highest ROI to your entity over time.

To get the highest return on your confidential communication investment, make sure you have the expertise and the systems that will enable you to:

• Deter fraudulent behavior.
• Detect fraudulent behavior.
• Protect even high-level submitters and encourage early reporting.
• Assure that a full report is immediately accessible by the right people.
• Keep all ethics reports in one place on independent servers.

Regulations
Some enterprises are subject to specific regulations regarding a whistleblower hotline. Others employ an employee feedback process because it is an essential business practice.
Whether you're public, private, for-profit or not-for-profit, it's smart to have effective communication in your entity. From the proverbial "open-door" to the confidential submission, a healthy flow of information up and down the organization allows you to operate better.

Following are just a few of the regulations and guidelines for whistleblower hotlines:

• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
• New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Rules
• Federal Sentencing Guidelines
• FDIC Guidelines
• "Whistleblower Act"
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Canada Rule 198

"Admonish thy friends in secret, praise them openly."
Publilius Syrus
100 B.C.