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- Wrongdoing and malpractice in the workplace
- Encouraging employees to raise a concern
- New legislation to protect whistleblowers in Ireland – what it means for employers
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Encouraging Employees to raise a concern
Concerns about workplace wrongdoing or malpractice may be unwelcome news, but Boards and Senior Management can benefit greatly and mitigate the risk of loss if employees are encouraged to raise them.
Encouraging an ethos where concerns are raised directly with line managers is the best possible scenario. Employees will do this, particularly for smaller or operational issues, provided there is an open non-threatening environment. They will discuss their concern with their boss and often resolve it there and then. If they and their concern are taken seriously, if the concern is investigated and, if necessary, addressed - then everyone is happy.
Where, however, a concern is more material, particularly where it implicates a manager, superior or other work colleagues, employees will, more frequently, hesitate before raising it with their boss or escalating it. Concerned employees feel vulnerable raising such issues. They are wary of the consequences of speaking up and concerned about reprisal, not just from bosses, but from colleagues and others. Let's face it, there is a stigma attached to whistleblowing. It takes great courage to talk to a manager or director about a suspicion of wrongdoing or malpractice. The employee may be suspicious but may lack hard evidence or the confidence to bring the matter forward. And often employees are unsure of what to do. So despite moral objections to wrongdoing or malpractice, employees often choose to remain silent about them.
In the absence of a safe alternative, serious wrongdoing may eventually be disclosed anonymously by employees to the press or others. And then employers are left to investigate and deal with such matters under the supervision of enforcement agencies or under the glare of media attention.
Providing a safe alternative facilitates employees to channel genuine concerns to those who can address them. Creating a work environment where such behaviour is encouraged and facilitated creates a positive sense of management support and builds a healthy culture of openness and transparency.
