The Ethics Resource Center’s (ERC) recent survey revealed that 40% of employees observing misconduct do not step forward to report it out of fear of retaliation, mistrust or feel their reports will be ignored.
Lessons Learned: Organizations must develop secure, anonymous and/or confidential reporting solutions to empower all employees (and third-parties) to report suspicious incidents, violence, fraud, misconduct, ethical violations, etc. And once an incident has been reported, all appropriate personnel (ethics, legal, management, compliance, safety, law enforcement, etc) should be immediately and automatically notified to ensure a timely response and ensure red flags do not fall through the cracks.
Based on other surveys and reports, the percentage of people reporting incidents is even lower and when tips are not reported, it is nearly impossible for organizations to proactively prevent or intervene.