Every organisation, large or small, faces the risk of something going badly wrong and harming others and the organisation itself.
Getting whistleblowing right saves time, money and resources. Larger, multi-national organisations tend to recognise the benefits of well promoted whistleblowing arrangements, but their effectiveness has, until now, been harder to prove.
Someone blows the whistle when they tell their employer, a regulator, customers, the police or the media about wrongdoing, risk or malpractice that they are aware of through their work.
It can inform those who need to know about health and safety risks, potential environmental problems, fraud, corruption, deficiencies in the care of vulnerable people, cover ups and many other problems. Often, the information provided can ensure that the issue is addressed before real damage is done.
Whistleblowing is different from making a complaint because the person is raising an issue that affects more than one person and is not the result of a personal grievance. A whistleblower typically raises a concern about a danger of illegality that affects others. This individual is often not directly affected by the danger and therefore has no personal interest in the outcome of an investigation.
Whistleblowers are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). PIDA enables workers to raise concerns about wrongdoing responsibly. PIDA protects them if they raise a concern about wrongdoing internally, and in most cases with a regulator. It also protects workers who make wider disclosures where there is a valid reason to go wider and the particular disclosure is reasonable. Information on PIDA, including a copy of the Act can be found here.
Public Concern at Work, (PCaW) – a whistleblowing charity - has, with a working group party made up of Financial Services professionals, developed a Whistleblowing Benchmark Tool which is now being rolled out to other sectors. The Benchmark is unique due to its depth and scope - there is much more to it than 'just numbers.' Focusing on numbers alone will not give the full picture of how whistleblowing is working in your organisation, you need to look at all aspects.
The Benchmark has three core elements:
The Tool provides a benchmark and provides practical steps to help companies who are designing a whistleblowing policy and accompanying procedures but can equally be used to evaluate more established arrangements. It provides practical advice – telling you what you should be doing and when.
Lyme Bay, Matrix Churchill, Barings, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Enron, Mid Staffs, and more recent incidents of abuse in care, have reinforced the essential message that misconduct would not be deterred and accountability could not work in practice while people remained resolutely silent in the workplace. Prevention is better than cure and companies must focus on practical and effective ways to enable genuine concerns can be raised and addressed.
Click here for further information on whistleblowing or the Benchmarking Tool
Guest blog contribution by Andrew Pepper-Parsons, Head of Policy at Protect (formally known as Public Concern at Work)