policies & procedures
Blowing the Whistle
WHISTLEBLOWING SYSTEMS GUIDE HELPS ORGANIZATIONS
In Canada, whistleblowers often only
come to public attention when the re-porting
is external and a sensational
story hits the news. At this point, the
reputational damage to an organization is
already done and the opportunity to mit-igate
the effects may have disappeared.
External reporting also frequently involves
illegal or unethical activity that may have
been occurring for a long period of time.
The reporting of malfeasance within an
organization may be external because the
organization does not have an effective in-ternal
reporting mechanism.
In February 2016, CSA Group pub-lished
its first guideline for whistleblowing
systems. The guideline is designed to help
organizations set up an internal ethical
reporting program that encourages report-ing
of wrongdoing within the organization
itself. Some readers may be asking – why
would an organization want to encourage
whistleblowing?
“Whistleblowing,” which is the act of
reporting suspected wrongdoing, mis-management
and unethical conduct in
an organization, is one of the most effec-tive
methods for identifying activities that
could potentially cause harm to an orga-nization,
the public interest or the health
and safety of the environment. The in-formation
gained from whistleblowing
activities can be invaluable to organiza-tions
seeking to prevent the damages that
could result from these activities. For these
and other reasons, government bodies,
corporations and non-profit associations
are looking for ways to proactively en-courage
a “speak-up” culture that enables
SET UP ETHICAL INTERNAL REPORTING
By Hilary Davies, MES
EMPLOYEES ARE MORE LIKELY TO PASS
ALONG INFORMATION IF THEY HAVE
CONFIDENCE THAT BY REPORTING
WRONGDOING, THEIR CONCERNS WILL BE
TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND THEIR ACTIONS
WILL MAKE A POSITIVE CHANGE.
Kellis/Shutterstock.com
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2016 ❚ 39