Topic Guide: Whistleblowing

Raising staff awareness to the existence of internal reporting mechanisms and policies is key to ensuring they are followed. The Whistling while they work survey results indicated that “reporters were significantly more likely to be aware of their organisation’s procedures than non-reporters”, a “clear warning” that the organisations surveyed were not doing enough to proactively promote their reporting procedures.[1]

Recommendations to proactively communicate internal reporting procedures to staff include promotion via intranet, promotional leaflets or posters, as well as regular staff training and a session on reporting procedures as part of new staff induction. Where it is possible to do so without breaching confidentiality, communication to staff on instances, outcomes and lessons learned from internal reports is also recommended.[2] Roberts, Brown and Olsen also urge that staff are made aware not only of their right but their responsibility to report wrongdoing too.[3]