It's a good idea for your organisation to have a policy that covers whistleblowing.
A policy can help show:
- staff the most effective way to raise their concerns when making a disclosure
- how managers should respond
As an employer you should support everyone to follow the whistleblowing policy. You should:
- share the policy across the whole organisation
- regularly review it
- use it as the basis for any whistleblowing training for managers
- show it to and discuss it with staff regularly
- include it in any employee induction process
If your organisation has any recognised trade unions you should work with them when developing and reviewing any policy. You should also check if your organisation has a joint agreement with the trade unions that requires you to do this.
It's also important to make sure your organisation has a culture where people:
- trust their management
- feel safe and encouraged to speak to them about serious concerns
What a whistleblowing policy should include
A whistleblowing policy should cover:
- what whistleblowing is and how it differs from a grievance
- how it can affect employees and managers
- who the point of contact is in the organisation for whistleblowing queries
- how an employee should raise a whistleblowing disclosure
- a statement making clear the organisation wants to encourage all staff to make disclosures to them when they have concerns
- how the organisation will not tolerate whistleblowers experiencing detriment because they raised a concern
- how the organisation will investigate and respond to disclosures
- what whistleblowing support is available to staff
- how the organisation is open and trained to deal with whistleblowing
If you need support creating a whistleblowing policy, it's a good idea to get legal advice.
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