Wrongdoing and corruption come with high social costs. And no country is immune. Antonino Vaccaro, Gianmichelle Potito and Enrique Aznar offer five keys to putting effective whistleblowing policies into place.

1. ETHICS
KEY FEATURES FOR
WHISTLEBLOWING
SYSTEMS

2. It’s estimated the cost of corruption
in the European Union comes to about
euros per year.
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3. 2 out of every 3
Employees have observed
misconduct at work within the
past year, according to the
2013 KPMG Integrity Survey.
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4. And any whistleblowing policy
should have the following
components in place:
These data points make it clear:
Companies should strive
to create a culture promoting
transparency and dialogue.
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5. Originally, whistleblowing
policies focused on financial
and accounting issues.
Nowadays they include fraud,
sexual harassment, bullying,
and dangers to health, safety
and the environment.
DEFINED SCOPE
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6. Dedicated telephone tip lines, mailing
addresses, emails and online
software can be enabled. Although
calls are still the most popular way to
report wrongdoing, combining email
and software puts the internet ahead
as whistleblowers' channel of choice.
REPORTING CHANNELS
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7. These are two critical features that go
hand in hand, and yet only 14% of all
matters currently reported have
anonymous sources. Using an
external provider can help protect a
whistleblower's identity and keep the
process confidential.
ANONYMITY & CONFIDENTIALITY
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8. Employees should be aware of the
moral reasons for reporting (e.g.,
ensuring public safety and
corporate sustainability), and
training programs can help.
MORAL INCENTIVES
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9. Consider monetary rewards.
For example, the U.S.
Securities and Exchange
Commission pays
whistleblowers 10-30% of the
sanction’s value for fines over
$1 million.
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
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10. Employees must be made aware of the
company's whistleblowing policy.
The board and top executives
must set the right tone.
The system must be evaluated regularly to
adapt to organizational changes and to make
sure the reporting channels actually work.
And on top of all this ...
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11. More information is available in the
technical note “Whistleblowing Systems
and Policies,” by Antonino Vaccaro,
Gianmichele Potito and Enrique Aznar.
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