We’re moving into a new era of corporate ethics underpinned by voluntary disclosure against the backdrop of an evolving regulatory landscape.

As a result, Ethics managers have an increasingly vital role to play today within their businesses.

But with growing demands from regulation and the many examples of scandals surrounding misconduct that we see emerging, Ethics officers need to up their game.

How can they achieve this in 2024? Let’s take a look at some key steps.

1. Review your organisation’s approach

First things first. It’s time to take stock. Do you feel that your organisation’s approach, processes and infrastructure supporting your ethics and compliance is match-fit and equipped for 2024 onwards and the decade to come? Have you got the right tools and technology in place or are you lagging behind? The following points may help you determine the answers and give you food for thought. 

2. Infrastructure fit for purpose

Even if your organisation has the best ethics officer, you can’t build a system purely on their shoulders. You need to think of developing a top class ethics program, underpinned by leading technology and the right infrastructure. Think of it in a similar way to building a super fast train. You can build the fastest, most impressive train imaginable, but if you’re running on the old tracks it won’t fit or work. That is what the traditional hotline is – an old rusty track that we need to replace with updated, modern materials.

3. Capitalising on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Those new tracks described above mean a digital platform – a modern hotline powered by AI. Finding an effective AI platform can cut through the outsourced call centre as a solution for employee reporting.  This, in turn, helps Ethics and Compliance Directors to enhance their own value to their organisations by reducing costs and increasing efficacy. AI can provide a company with its own internal hotline without needing to employ a single person. The tech can operate it for you.

4. Enhancing efficiency

There’s always room for improvement when it comes to making your department (and the processes that flow from it) more efficient. Technology is the key here. Here are some questions to help determine whether more efficiency is possible in your program:  Are your current methods for reporting up quick and agile? Are you able to instantly, automatically triage all case management for allocation and assignment? Do your HR applications and software speak to each other seamlessly and integrate well?

5. Build a Speak Up culture

Arguably at the heart and centre of it all is the need to build and advance a speak up culture within your organisation. Not simply to issue instructions, build policies and enforce them, but to encourage, cultivate and stimulate an ethos throughout the business where employees are empowered to expose where wrongdoing is happening – be it bribery, conflict of interest, fraud or something else. Having a system that puts employees first is essential for this so the culture spreads throughout, reaching every individual.

6. Catch up with regulatory trends

We promised five steps, but here’s a bonus sixth – and it’s one that really can’t be ignored. There is an increasing and evolving list of regulations across North America and Europe covering workplace misconduct, such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, EU Whistleblower Directive and Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We’ve also seen the UK’s financial services regulator, the FCA, begin an investigation into the non-financial misconduct of banks and insurance firms.

Staying on top of this increasingly regulatory scrutiny is critical for Ethics and Compliance Officers.

How can Vault Platform help?

Our solutions can help your organisation with all of the steps outlined above. There are many ways we can support your business and as you build your Speak Up culture, including our AI-powered hotline – Vault Talk – or our new Advanced Routing feature, which supercharges efficiency in case management. 

We believe companies can be protected from major risks – perhaps the next big crisis, scandal or lawsuit – if their people are protected too. Our platform delivers the true opportunity to Speak Up.

Book a call with one of our specialists to find out more.

The post 5 steps Ethics professionals should take this year appeared first on Vault.

Can misconduct investigations be effectively conducted solely through video interviews? Are there unique risks that need to be addressed when a company has a large remote workforce or supply chain? These questions drive to the core of ethics and compliance and represent some of the challenges faced when a company decides to either move to, or expand an already existing remote working environment (RWE) program.

The Ethics & Compliance Considerations in the Remote Work Environment Working Group used the five principles outlined in the Blue Ribbon Panel Report as a framework to explore the impact of remote working on an E&C program.

• Both benefits and challenges are identified for each of the five principles
• Along with best practices being employed by a variety of companies
• A tool kit of real-world examples of those practices in action is also provided

Download the ECI paper and learn from your peers.

“One best practice outcome from deployment of technologies is the more frequent notice and therefore earlier detection of brewing concerns. This technology can be leveraged to obtain general employee cultural feedback, which can overlap or be a leading indicator of compliance and ethics concerns.

Partnerships between Vault Platform and Airbnb represent key current innovations in the use of these technologies aimed to reduce anxiety and increase the likelihood that an employee will Speak Up if an issue exists.”

The post Ethics & Compliance Considerations in Remote Work: Whitepaper appeared first on Vault.

The Directive obliges companies (with more than 50 employees)  to introduce whistleblower schemes, which must be available to all employees in the company. With the new Whistleblower Directive, it is also possible that the scheme also influences external partners, such as clients or consultants.

The scheme can be established in various ways, including via an online platform, such as Vault Platform, which is expected to be the most common way of implementing the requirement for a whistleblower scheme.

The Directive sets up requirements for the whistleblower scheme to be put in place. Some of these are mandatory and must – as a minimum – be implemented in the specific jurisdiction and thus in the system used.

This white paper has been prepared by Vault Platform and the law firm Bird & Bird.

The aim is to outline how Vault Platform enables public and private companies to meet these key regulatory requirements in the Whistleblower Directive.

Produced in partnership with Bird & Bird

The post Whitepaper: Compliance with the EU Whistleblower Directive appeared first on Vault.

by Richard Miskella, Joint Managing Partner, Lewis Silkin

In January 2020, right at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published guidance for employers on preventing and dealing with sexual harassment and harassment at work. 

Employment tribunals can consider the EHRC’s guidance itself in harassment claims but, more importantly, it is expected to form the basis of a new statutory Code of Practice which will have greater legal force. A draft Code is now expected in 2021.

What are reasonable steps to prevent harassment?

The guidance makes many recommendations, but we consider the most significant ones are the following:

• Effective policies and procedures. The guidance sets out best practice for what anti-harassment policies should contain. This includes clear examples of harassment and commitments to deal with it, including harassment which takes place outside of the workplace (for example, on social media) or which is committed by clients or other external third parties. Policies should not overemphasise the possibility of malicious complaints. The guidance stresses that policies need to be made freely available to workers, not just those who can access internal IT systems. (One suggestion is that employers could publish their policies on an easily accessible part of their external-facing website.) Policies should also be reviewed annually, taking account of feedback and lessons learned. 
• Central records. The guidance recommends that employers create a centralised record of all harassment complaints in a level of detail that allows trends to be analysed. This could involve capturing dates, business area, roles of complainant and harasser, the type of harassment complained of and the outcome and reason for it. 
• Risk assessments. These are an important new feature of the guidance. It recommends that employers carry out an assessment of the harassment risks in their organisation, potentially by using risk-management frameworks traditionally used in the workplace health and safety context. Assessments should identify the risks and the measures in place to minimise them. Risk factors may include, for example: power imbalances; job insecurity; lone working; the presence of alcohol; customer-facing duties; events that raise tensions locally or nationally; lack of diversity in the workforce; and workers being placed on secondment. The guidance places special emphasis on power imbalances and the need to address them. Workplace risk assessments have taken on a whole new significance during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it will be interesting to see if this approach to harassment now becomes more commonplace. 
• Proactive detection. In the context of research showing how harassment remains prevalent and often goes unreported, the guidance puts the onus on employers to find out what is happening. It suggests a range of methods for doing this, including carrying out regular staff feedback surveys and giving workers ample opportunities to raise issues. The issue of detection has become harder in companies where employees are working remotely. 
• Training. Employers should train all workers in the different types of harassment and victimisation and ensure the training is refreshed at regular intervals. 
• Guardians/champions. The guidance says that employers should make sure there are nominated, trained workers who can support a complainant through the process of making a complaint. These could be members of the HR team or may be nominated guardians or champions within the workforce (for an example, see the Old Vic’s Guardian’s programme). 
• Reporting systems. The guidance says that employers should consider introducing a reporting system that allows individuals to make complaints on either a named or anonymous basis, and which makes clear what the employer may do with the information provided. Many employers historically offered access to third-party hotlines, but those sorts of solutions often prove ineffective because they fail to allow for two-way communication. 
• Responding effectively. A good anti-harassment procedure should tell workers how to make a complaint and define multiple channels for reporting, ensuring that workers are not required to report an incident to the perpetrator or someone they may not feel will be objective. Employers should offer a range of approaches to dealing with harassment, signpost sources of support and advice, and be clear that victimisation or retaliation against complainants will not be tolerated. 
• Reporting outcomes. To be effective in encouraging those with complaints to come forward, the outcome of a formal complaint of harassment should be as transparent as possible. Wherever appropriate and possible, complainants should be told what action has been taken in response to their complaint.

How technology can turn compliance and culture into a strategic asset

by Neta Meidav, co-founder and CEO, Vault Platform

Public revelations of workplace harassment are not unusual and it’s widely accepted that the reality is significantly worse than what is publicised. Almost half of all people who experience harassment at work don’t report it, citing a lack of appropriate, effective, and secure reporting procedures as a key barrier.  

Vault Platform can ensure you meet the Code by:

• Enabling employees to securely report incidents of harassment in-name or anonymously through a highly accessible mobile app
• Creating a safe and confidential space for people within your entire business ecosystem to voice concerns internally instead of going to external channels like the press, social media, or regulators
• Introducing an enterprise-grade Resolution Hub for efficient case management, with innovative time-stamping, security, and two-way communication with anonymous reporters previously unavailable in legacy solutions
• Establishing a central case management system to keep records, investigate cases, and get a company-wide bird’s eye view on the reporting and resolution of harassment

This is a summary of the full paper jointly produced by Lewis Silkin and Vault Platform. To get a line-by-line review of the guidance and what to expect from the forthcoming Code, download the full paper using the form below.

The post EHRC guidance on harassment at work and how digital reporting tools help appeared first on Vault.

If you look at public sentiment, government and regulator action, and employee activism, it’s clear that doing the bare minimum required to comply with the law is no longer enough as companies are pushed by their employees, governments, and customers to step up and adopt a multi-stakeholder approach that serves social purposes as well as investor demands.

A rising trend of the last few years has seen employees become increasingly vocal about injustices perpetrated by their workplace or employer. Those that have not been able to find a voice through existing channels have grown in confidence and simply created their own. A phenomenon that has significant implications and consequences for business.

Download the magazine now

The post Navigating Compliance and Culture Issues in a Post-Covid World appeared first on Vault.

Research from US academics at different universities published in July looked at historical data and found evidence that biases tend to re-emerge strongly during economic crises. The upshot is that business hunkers down with its flawed beliefs, despite evidence that diversity and inclusion have positive impacts.

It’s a learning often advocated by changemakers, that in order to act most appropriately, companies need to listen to those most affected for solutions and not propose solutions based on their own, likely very different, experiences. By focusing on actively broadcasting their intentions through the press and social media, businesses run the risk of talking over the voices they need to be listening to most. That businesses are taking action is undeniable, but it only matters if the action is effective.

Download the magazine now

The post Tackling Inequality and Discrimination appeared first on Vault.

Every employer with more than 50 employees in the European Union will soon need to comply with the European Union’s Directive for the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law, otherwise known as the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. 

 The Directive was approved in October 2019 to grant greater protection for those who seek to expose corporate wrongdoing. EU member states were given two years to implement it into national law and adoption by enterprises will take a staggered approach. Organisations with more than 250 employees must comply with this legislation from December 2021, and those with between 50 and 249 employees by the end of 2023.

We have a preparation checklist ready to download here:

Download

Or register to download our full report on the impact of whistleblower protections and what this means for your internal reporting program:

What’s new?

Escalation and multiple reporting channels

Under the Directive, a three-tier reporting structure is being introduced. While whistleblowers are encouraged to use internal channels first, there is no obligation to do so, and they will still qualify for protection when reporting internally and externally. While this means that whistleblowers fearing retaliation from internal sources can use an external channel without fear, it raises the risk for companies with ineffective or inefficient internal reporting mechanisms that whistleblowers will immediately opt for more public disclosure. 

Whistleblowers can report their concerns through:

• Internal reporting channels: facilitated by the organisation
• External reporting channels: facilitated by the relevant national authorities or the appropriate EU institutions
• Public reporting channels: such as going directly to the media, or a public forum such as Twitter

Optimising internal reporting

From both a business benefits and organisational culture perspective, having prospective whistleblowers use an internal reporting channel first is by far the most desirable approach. Not only does this minimise the risk of financial and reputational damage of an incident going public, it also strengthens trust between the employee and employer even to the point of encouraging more people to Speak Up before concerns boil over. This also sets an example that misbehaviour will not be tolerated and employees will report it, making potential corruption or ethical breaches less attractive to perpetrators.

Many companies tick a compliance box by buying a hotline but then failing to make it accessible. The ineffectiveness of hotlines is actually highlighted by the hotline providers themselves, with many of the established players reporting a steady decrease in hotline usage, forcing them to rethink their offerings for a world that has moved on. The shift away from telephone hotlines was highlighted as far back as 2012 in the National Business Ethics Survey of Fortune 500 Companies, which revealed hotlines as the least popular channel (used only by 11% or reporters) among the small number of people that do go ahead and report misconduct.

With a multigenerational workforce that largely favours digital communications, the idea of telephoning a call centre somewhere to report misconduct might seem alien. It’s also inconvenient and unengaging, two significant modern trends that legacy reporting solutions have failed to address. Ultimately, hotlines are seen as outdated legacy offerings that really do little to solve a persistent problem and the public financial exposés post 2008, the interpersonal misconduct revelations of 2017, and employee activism of 2020 all support this.

Who needs to comply?

In short, all legal entities with more than 50 employees operating within the EU member states are required to comply with the Directive. This includes European operations of organisations headquartered outside of the EU. The purpose of the Directive is “to enhance the enforcement of EU law and policies in specific areas by laying down common minimum standards providing for a high level of protection of persons reporting on breaches”. At the time of the Directive’s adoption, the EU warned that the majority of EU countries did not have effective laws in place, suggesting a significant liability for organisations across the EU Member States. In fact, the EU identified only 10 Member States with a ‘comprehensive law’ protecting whistleblowers: France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK. The Directive however, goes beyond these ‘comprehensive’ laws and will likely see adoption as countries seek to retain their pioneering position.

What do I need to know?

Legislation and provisions for employers includes reporting for all people having “Worker Status” plus: Self-employed, Trainees, Volunteers, Shareholders & NEDs; Former & Future employees (such as those who have gone through recruitment/pre-contract); and “Natural Persons” eg. Suppliers, Consultants, Freelancers, Contractors & Subcontractors.

Whistleblowers should be able to submit reports and these reports should be received and acted upon by a “most suitable” person, such as Compliance officer; Head of HR; Legal counsel; Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or other executive manager; or an appropriate external ombudsman.

The identity of the whistleblower must be kept confidential whether the report is submitted anonymously or not and all personal data, both that of the whistleblower and any accused persons, must be handled in accordance with the GDPR.

The company is obliged to confirm receipt of the report to the whistleblower within seven days. The whistleblower must be informed of any action taken within three months, as well as the ongoing status of the internal investigation and its outcome.

The internal reporting system must allow for a physical meeting to be requested and must outline external reporting procedures available to the reporter.

Companies that obstruct or attempt to obstruct the reporting of concerns will face penalties. Retaliatory measures against whistleblowers will also be punished, including a failure to keep the identity of the whistleblower confidential.

What breaches fall under the remit of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive?

• Public Procurement Rules
• Financial Services Rules
• Product Safety Rules
• Transport Safety Rules
• Environmental Protection Rules
• Nuclear Safety Rules
• Food Safety Rules
• Animal Health & Welfare Rules
• Public Health Rules
• Consumer Protection Rules
• GDPR/Data Privacy Rules
• Breaches affecting the financial interest of the Union
• Breaches relating to the internal market

It should be noted that this list is effectively extended under provisions for protection against retaliation.

What could be considered retaliation under the legislation?

• Suspension, lay-off, dismissal etc.
• Demotion or withholding of promotion
• Transfer of duties
• Negative performance assessment
• Disciplinary measures, reprimands, financial penalty
• Coercion
• Intimidation
• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Failure to convert temporary/fixed term employment or to renew

Although not mandatory, forward-thinking employers are ensuring their whistleblowing solution is also able to capture incidents of retaliation. This makes reporting, attribution, and resolution much easier, as well as reducing the number of separate tools performing similar tasks.

The post EU Whistleblower Directive appeared first on Vault.

The current challenge – COVID-19 – means many enterprises are dealing with an unexpected shift to remote working. This means a parallel shift in workplace culture that happened overnight. While it’s true that in times of uncertainty, trust between employer and employee is tested more than ever, the current crisis offers up some unique opportunities that organizations should grasp:

• To reboot your ‘open-door policy’ and make it a more meaningful experience
• To build trust with your employees with leadership that persists in your absence
• To get your employees more connected to each other even in isolation

The webinar has been serialized into single-page snapshots of insight from Professor Frei. Enter your email below to get the series:

The post Finding opportunity in crisis, with Professor Frances Frei appeared first on Vault.

Tasked not only with rapidly implementing a company-wide working-from-home strategy to keep businesses that are still operational up and running, many HR functions are also operationally responsible for mass layoffs and furloughing of employees. This is all while building a crisis information and communication plan out, as well as keeping on top of the numbers of those directly affected by COVID-19 and what the appropriate company response might be.

Now, as large swathes of the global workforce move to a working-from-home model, employers are faced with a new challenge – that the vector for workplace discrimination will shift in parallel with the main mode of communication.

Download the magazine now

The post The Risks of Isolation appeared first on Vault.

Some of this is race-related and employers have been advised to take care not to discriminate against employees based on their national origin. Some of it is also directed at those affected by the virus.

Accordingly, employers should establish consistently applied and clearly communicated practices with regard to self-quarantining of employees and should take steps to deal with incidents of discrimination that arise.

Vault Platform has introduced a COVID-19 employee reporting feature as a free update – read the announcement

Register for our forthcoming webinar with Professor Frances Frei of Harvard Business School- Limited places!

Webinar: Inoculate your business against discrimination during a pandemic

This 15-minute webinar discusses the concerns around capturing data on affected employees, and rising discrimination both offline and online.

Watch on-demand now

Handling rising discrimination during COVID-19

How your workplace can protect employees from discrimination associated with COVID-19:

• Remind employees of your organization’s discrimination & harassment policies
• Engage relevant employee resource groups to spread information
• If your workplace has a “guardian” or “champion” models to support speaking up, they should be attuned to COVID-19 related discrimination

Full blog

Download our infosheet on Coronavirus-related workplace discrimination

How Vault Platform can help capture and resolve discrimination

Find out how Vault Platform is helping employers protect their staff from racial discrimination and other harassment related to COVID-19.

Full blog

Download our infosheet here

Remote working and digital discrimination considerations

As many office workers shift from face-to-face interaction to a predominantly online existence the potential for workplace bullying and discrimination is shifting in parallel.

Full blog

Download our infosheet to learn more:

The post Coronavirus Resource Hub appeared first on Vault.