What is a whistleblowing policy?
Whistleblower: A whistleblower is an individual that raises concerns of wrongdoing regarding a business or entity and qualifies for whistleblower legal protections.
Whistleblowers have protected rights: Whistleblowers have an important role to play in the ongoing development and governance of modern businesses. If appropriate processes are implemented, a whistleblower can be an important component of ensuring a company meets its legal and ethical standards. As a result, whistleblowers have a number of protected rights. These rights are protected as long as their reporting is considered legitimate in line with UK employment law.
Importance of a whistleblowing policy: While the goal is to ensure that your business meets every available legal, ethical, and social standard, there may come a time when your organisation needs to deal with a whistleblowing report. Given the potential reputational and legal fallout, a whistleblower report can often go hand in hand with panic. Never fear, as our whistleblowing policy is to hand.
Content: A whistleblowing policy outlines how your organisation intends to respond to reports that constitute to whistleblowing. This includes information on who staff can report their concerns to, alongside explaining what types of reports are likely to constitute whistleblowing. A whistleblowing policy will confirm the instances whereby a whistleblower is protected under UK law, and instances whereby the whistleblower may fail to secure legal protections.
Benefits of having a whistleblowing policy
Not only will a policy help your business to outline its approach to whistleblower reports from a legal standpoint, but it can also have a number of other benefits. These include:
- The business can resolve an issue quicker, as a result of encouraging a culture where employees report concerns of wrongdoing.
- The business can provide support to those who need it.
- A whistleblower policy recognises that workers are valuable eyes and ears for the business.
- A whistleblower policy can ensure an employee has the option to make an anonymous disclosure or a confidential disclosure, where an employee has concerns regarding being treated differently by colleagues as a result of making a whistleblower report.
- A whistleblower policy can act as a deterrent to behaviour which falls below certain standards, by formalising the employer’s position on wrongdoing, and its support for staff raising issues.
- The existence of a well-drafted whistleblower policy can give a positive impression to a prospective investor who performs due diligence on your business.
Why Docue?
With Docue, you can create a top-quality whistleblowing policy in minutes. The service includes model clauses designed by lawyers to help you draft the policy yourself and tailor it to your needs.
