I overheard at a recent compliance meeting about the possibility of using the whistleblower hotline to also solicit comments for improvements to the operations of your company.
Those of you with active hotlines you probably get enough false positives coming through (HR, workplace disputes, …) that you probably don’t want anything else coming in. But employees and other stakeholders may use a hotline to report any issue that makes them uncomfortable. For example, complaints regarding discrimination and sexual harassment are high-liability issues that need to be addressed. Turning away these calls because the hotline is “for Sarbanes-Oxley Complaints Only” may alienate an employee who has made the difficult decision to take action.
But if your hotline is underused, the anonymity feature could be useful as a suggestions box.
If something is bothering them in the workplace, even if it not a high-liability issues, could come through the hotline. To spin it around, profitability and cost reduction suggestions could come through the hotline.
What do you think?
Image is by oyxman and made available through Wikimedia Commons: Tall Red K6 Phone Box.jpg.