Which company already has reporting points for unethical behavior or even criminal offenses? This was examined by a whistleblower report by the University of Applied Sciences in Graubünden, which was published in October. The study in collaboration with the EQS Group – a provider of whistleblowing systems – was carried out for the third time. The authors questioned 1,300 company representatives from Germany, France, Great Britain and Switzerland, both from large companies with more than 250 employees and those with 20 to 249 employees.
A third of the companies surveyed were accordingly affected by grievances in 2020, the German participants a little more than the other three nations. For the German market, the authors also found: Companies that cut staff due to the pandemic and those that sent a medium proportion of employees to the home office had a higher risk of grievances.
Three quarters have a reporting office
The report also shows that unethical behavior is expensive: in two thirds of the cases, the total financial damage for the employer concerned was more than EUR 10,000, and in just under a third it was even more than EUR 100,000.
Around 74 percent of large German companies already use a reporting point. The main reasons: to strengthen one’s own image as an honest and ethical company, avoid financial damage and feel an obligation to the workforce. Contact by e-mail, telephone or on a personal level are the most common channels that companies offer. So far, only around 20 percent have a web-based whistleblower system.