Buone feste da WhistleB: le novità più importanti del 2020 dal mondo delle segnalazioni

How does one summarise a year like 2020? Given the tough times, we would like to focus on the positive from a whistleblowing perspective, but first we’d like to say thank you! To our customers for continuing to trust our whistleblowing solution, to our employees for your outstanding commitment to always providing the best product and service excellence, and to our suppliers and partners for helping us and our team to deliver.

There have indeed been some positive developments in the world of whistleblowing 2020. We have highlighted a handful of them here, in the hope that they may be valuable for you as you plan your whistleblowing solutions ahead of 2021.

• Companies are strengthening their sustainability profile through whistleblowing – you can too: Whistleblowing solutions are increasingly seen as a valuable tool to underpin sustainable operations and thus sustainable profit. They give employees a voice and a safe way to raise concerns about misconduct. This brings matters that are unacceptable to the company and detrimental to society to your attention far quicker. Good for people, good for society, good for sustainable business. So, make sure you include your WhistleB whistleblowing solution in your external and internal communication to demonstrate to shareholders, employees, customers and others that you too are serious about ethical business practices.
• Investors are taking an interest in whistleblowing:  Perhaps the above point is one of the reasons for the growing interest in whistleblowing solutions amongst the investor community. We are being contacted more often by investment companies looking to implement a solution across their entire portfolio of companies. This is a particularly pleasing development as these companies are true drivers of market change, and we believe that their growing awareness indicates a desire for greater transparency and commitment to ethical business.
• WhistleB is compliant with the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive: The new directive will enter into force in December 2021, and we are happy to reassure customers that WhistleB already ticks the box on the required quality and functionality. The solution complies with forthcoming obligations such as ensuring whistleblower confidentiality, providing acknowledgement to a whistleblower report within seven days, and informing them of follow-up within three months. Further, our whistleblowing solution is GDPR compliant as required by the EU directive. Customers’ data is stored in an encrypted format within the EU, and can only be accessed by individuals defined by customers. During 2021, all EU countries will publish their local versions of the directive, and WhistleB will of course monitor these national laws very closely.  Our guidelines and the application will be updated accordingly.
• Could you be managing whistleblowing cases or communication better? Find out with WhistleB’s handbook on whistleblowing that we launched in the middle of the year. The ABC guide for establishing a whistleblowing solution that increases customer and employee satisfaction gives business leaders and boards practical guidance for setting up and running a whistleblowing solution correctly and effectively. It includes chapters on data security, resources, how to get the cases in, legal aspects, culture and more.
• A year of new owners and new colleagues for the WhistleB team: At the end of last year, WhistleB joined NAVEX Global, the leading brand for risk and compliance software and services. Throughout 2020 we have continued to operate as the same dedicated and experienced team, and we have been enhanced with the strength of many new colleagues. We have been able to focus on being there for our customers and we believe the combination of NAVEX and WhistleB has given us the most secure, value-for-money, digital whistleblowing system on the market.

2021 will continue to be turbulent. Remote working will test organisational culture and add to uncertainty, so giving employees a safe place to raise concerns, even if they are remote, will remain as important as ever. Whatever your situation, we wish you a healthy and happy holiday season and look forward to working with you in 2021.

Gunilla Hadders and Karin Henriksson