Do you have to implement the complaints channel or the ethical channel of your organization and you don’t know what strategy to follow? Are you looking for the best complaints channel to implement in your organization? Do you need help to set up a suitable complaints channel for your organization?
In this post we will try to answer these and other questions about the implementation of a complaints channel in your company, which, as you surely know, will soon be mandatory for all companies that bill more than 10MM euros or have 50 or more employees. according to the European directive 2019/1937 that will soon be transposed in Spain.
What is the best strategy to implement a whistleblower / ethical channel?
There is no single answer, it depends on many factors. Not all solutions are optimal for any scenario. Some will go out of budget, others will be too complex or simple and depending on the organization we will have to place more emphasis on one or other aspects. There are different criteria for making decisions.
Surely the first is the size of the company and linked to this the volumes of information managed and the team that will provide support. It is not the same to implement a channel for a bank, than for a small SME with 300 employees. Both in the volume of complaints, as in the complexity of implementation / size of the organization, the variability is very wide. The basis of the need is the same, but the complexity of management and configuration is very different. There are solutions designed for large companies, and other less configurable ones designed for SMEs. The objective is to meet the requirement in the most efficient way (costs, security, simplicity, …) for the organization. Solutions designed for large organizations hardly fit for SMEs and vice versa.
What must be clear is that there are different legal aspects of confidentiality, anonymity and compliance with the LOPD. In this sense, you have to be careful implementing quick solutions such as an email or your own form on the web. Apparently we are creating a complaints channel, but not complying with the regulations that force us to implement it. So, pay attention to this point, you have to look for a solution that complies with the regulations, especially confidentiality, anonymity and compliance with the LOPD.
What is the best ethics / whistleblowing channel?
There is also no closed answer to this question. Each software, each solution has its strengths and weaknesses. For us, the optimal solution is one that has been designed to strictly comply with the regulations, but at the same time is designed in a user code. The goal is to make life easier for both internal and external users.
In recent times, some reporting channels have appeared that are implemented with an app. We considered it when designing ithikios, and initially discarded it. The apps require a download and installation on a mobile device. This point invalidates the possible anonymous report, or at least must generate an act of faith on the part of the complainant. If we implement a channel so that anyone related to the company can easily make a report with peace of mind. Surely the app is not the option that generates the maximum trust.
The apps that have been on the market the longest may appear to generate more trust. But surely they are designed with old architectures and with little user orientation. Since we have to implement the channel, make it friendly and efficient to use.
What should have a good ethics / whistleblowing channel?
Of course, any solution in this category should have the minimum functionality required by the regulations, basically:
- Security and LOPD compliance.
- Two-way anonymous communication channel with the complainant.
- Internal workflow to assist in the management of the complaint.
- Evidence management.
- Access control and users by profiles.
To the basic elements, we should add the differentials. For us they are:
- Facilitate self-service to reduce costs. Self-service of the complainant and the channel managers.
- Manager of tasks, alarms and other types of help to easily guarantee compliance with the required deadlines.
- Simple to create and configure the channel.
- Management accelerators
- User-centered design.
At ithikios we have developed a reporting channel, very easy to implement, simple to configure and flexible. Our focus is SMEs, and our solution is designed with them in mind. We will not say that it is the best complaints channel, but it is a modern complaints channel designed so that users do not have to worry about technology. If you want to see a demo of ithikios, you can request it from here . If you prefer you can try it for free from here .
