This mythical resource is a Wiki.  Most of us use wikis on a daily basis.  If you want to know the name of the David Hasselhoff song that topped the charts in Germany, or if you need to find words spelled with a "Q" which aren’t followed by a "U", Wikipedia is the go-to source.

Something so great in our personal lives easily transfers to greatness for our business life. To begin understanding how you can utilize a wiki for your business we’ll refer to the definition by the inventor of the first wiki, Ward Cunningham: 

“A wiki is the simplest online database that could possibly work.”

What’s better than simple when dealing with the management of business documentation? 

What’s better than a database for searching and documenting critical information? 

Let’s address the use cases, benefits, and trials of utilizing a Wiki for your business.

Documentation that can be hosted on a wiki includes:

• Training Manuals
• Rule Addendums
• Meeting Notes
• Employee Handbooks
• Newsletters
• Troubleshooting Guides
• Bug Tracking
• Progress Records
• Project Management
• Procedural Instructions
• Error Logs

Benefits of Utilizing a Wiki for Your Business

Adopting the use of a wiki for business documentation changes a company. Documentation that is up to date and transmits business practices consistently propels a business forward.  It does this by keeping everyone on the same page.  

One Source To Guide Them: Staff will only need to go to one source to access all of the resources necessary for their job function.   Wikis allow businesses to easily segment information and link to critical supporting information.

Ease of Use: If you know how to browse the internet, you know how to move through a wiki.  Employees will understand how to navigate your wiki with little to no training.

Eliminate Printing Costs: Businesses will see a significant savings in the cost of printing training manuals and associate handbooks for new employees. 

Immediately Available And Accessible: The most up to date and accurate versions of rules, policies, procedures, and guidelines are available to every employee, all the time.  

Minimize Mistakes: Staff no longer have to rely on memory for seldom used procedures.  No more wasting time finding up to date copies of rules or reading through outdated guidebooks for how to perform a task.    

No More Memos: When a change to a process is mandated, every employee automatically has access to the new method, without needing to print updates for everyone.

Items to Consider Before Adopting a Wiki

Although there are many benefits to utilizing a wiki for your business documentation you need to consider the following before starting:  

Labor: Dedicated effort will be required to get processes uploaded to the wiki.

Transition Time: A company's body of documentation won't just appear into a wiki overnight.

Adoption: Not everyone will be ready to accept the new method; employees who do not see the advantages will need to be convinced.

Administration- Someone will have to monitor and manage the wiki. Content won't update itself!

Infrastructure: Wikis require a database to work off of and a network to be browsed through.

One Source to Bring Them All and in the Documentation, Bind Them

Wikis are a brilliant choice for a documentation solution, regardless of company size. Clearly communicating to employees how to do what needs to be done is vitally important. Good documentation is the most effective method for doing this and a wiki is an excellent choice.

Using a wiki for your business fosters consistency of product, unity of vision and saves money.  That’s more than just good business practice, it’s just good sense.

Here are some links to help you get started:

Latest version of the MediaWiki software
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download

Installation Guide
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_guide

MediaWiki Handbook
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents

As much as you may be in touch with your business, there is no way you are going to be able to notice every problem that your employees see. You cannot be everywhere at once, and on occasion employees are going to see and/or experience issues that you may not have noticed. That’s why it’s so important to give your employees an outlet to help them share their concerns.

An Available Manager Isn’t Enough

Many companies simply ask employees to share their problems with their supervisor, who will then make a decision about what needs to be changed. But this option doesn’t usually work, because:

• Employees do not want to complain publicly about the business for fear of being fired.
• Employees may have a problem with the manager they are supposed to report to.
• Employees may be worried about repercussions or embarrassed of the issue.

When you ask an employee to report a problem, and you do not give them a 100% anonymous outlet, you’re very unlikely to get honest answers. You’re also more likely to become defensive, blaming the employee for their beliefs rather than looking at the problem and seeing if it deserves a solution. That’s why your business should consider an employee hotline.

Benefits of an Employee Hotline

By setting up an anonymous employee hotline, you give every employee the opportunity to talk about the problems they see in the office. A dedicated employee hotline allows you to spot troublemakers, stop theft, prevent discrimination, improve productivity and more.

Hotlines should:

• Be Anonymous – Do not ask for employee information. They can share names, but they shouldn’t be expected to share any information that identifies them unless they want to.
• Be Recorded – Every complaint should be considered important. Theft and violence are the biggest issues, but even problems with a manager or difficulties with a coworker may be causing a loss of productivity and an increase in turnover.
• Be Investigated – Put someone impartial or removed from the situation in charge of investigation. Remember that those in positions of power may also be defensive, so consider having a dedicated staff member that is not a part of these teams investigate to ensure accuracy and reduce bias.

Once you’ve investigated, have a plan in place. Remember that there may be a problem even if the complaint itself was unfounded. For example, perhaps a coworker complains that another coworker is not working hard, and you find that they are working hard and the complaint is false. This may still indicate you need to make changes. For example, you can create public performance metrics that prove productivity to all employees, so that each employee knows how much they’re contributing.

Businesses that listen to employees, treat every employee with respect, and respond to any complaints are the ones that have higher satisfaction and less turnover (not to mention fewer lawsuits). Consider creating an employee complaint line so that you’re able to encourage more reporting and improve your workplace. 

How Effective is Voicemail?

Certainly voicemail is better than nothing. You do not want a phone to ring indefinitely, as it leads to frustrated customers and potentially a loss of information for your business. But companies that rely on voicemail to answer calls when they’re not around – both during off hours and especially during normal work hours – are putting themselves at risk for lost business and poor customer satisfaction.

Allowing calls to go to voicemail causes a variety of problems, including:

Shopping Around

Depending on your industry, the phone call you receive could be a potential new customer that’s shopping around for your services. Imagine that a potential customer is calling you and two competitors. You don’t pick up, but your competitors do. By the time you respond to the phone call, chances are the potential customer has already made a decision to use a different company.

Customer Service/Support Failures

With customer support, failure to answer a phone call can be very damaging for customer satisfaction. Usually if a customer calls you they need answers now. If you’re not there for the customer it will cause negative thoughts, and the longer you take to call them back the more those negative thoughts could turn into long term issues.

Branding Issues

Marketing is only one way to build your brand. How you interact with every person that comes into contact with your company is another. Those that find themselves on an answering machine, especially if the answering machine is difficult to use or irritating, are immediately going to see your brand as unresponsive and unavailable. That can have a lasting effect on your branding efforts with the consumer.

The Long Term Implications of Voicemail

Voicemail is certainly better than nothing. But “better than nothing” is not good enough. Your company has an obligation to be available to all customers and potential customers that may call your business. Although hiring enough people to answer phones all day may not be feasible, there are answering service companies you can hire 24 hours a day, and companies that regularly receive phone calls may want to consider them.

Then the phone rings.

You wake up and find it was all a dream. It doesn’t matter if you go back to sleep – you’ll never get back into that dream again. You won’t have that focus or flow. Your concentration has been interrupted and you now have new thoughts on your mind.

Calls Are Routine Workplace Distractions

Something just like this happens to your employees every day, except they’re not asleep – they’re in the middle of some project, and suddenly the phone rings; a customer needs help, and they have to stop what they were doing to assist them.

Phone calls hurt employee productivity every day:

1. They prevent your employees from working on the jobs you hired them for.
2. They prevent your employees from getting into a flow/groove in their work.
3. They can occasionally be stressful, which then reduces employee satisfaction and energy.

You know from experience how time consuming, stressful, and disruptive that phone calls can be. Ideally there needs to be a group of individuals whose only job it is to answer phones, that way they are there to ensure that no calls disrupt your work time or keep you and your employees from the other work they were paid to do.

Some companies hire their own call center staff, but not all companies can afford to hire someone to do nothing but answer phones, nor do they have a need for that type of expense. That is why it makes sense to consider outsourcing your call center work to a company that can handle it for you. That way you do not have to monitor the phones or be interrupted every time you try to sit down to work.

Solution: Hire a Call Center 

Your customers are, of course, the most important part of your business. But your employees are what keep your operation moving, and when they are constantly interrupted by phone calls, it is unlikely that they will be as productive as you need them to be. 

Luckily, hiring a call center to take your calls is a lot easier than you think. Our call center services are a great way to keep customers happy, and your employee’s focused.

Experience isn’t enough. You need to make sure you’re asking the right questions, because customer service is subjective. You want the right personalities for your business, and the people that are going to make you a success. The following are some great questions for finding customer service experts.

Examples of Customer Service Interview Questions to Ask

"How’s the weather?"

Why is this type of question useful? Because it will tell you if the candidate is engaging or a complainer. You want people that are positive, and those that are happy to talk to you about any topic. Asking about the weather, or a recent movie, or a local event will let you know if the person is positive and upbeat – exactly the type of person you want in customer service.

"Describe a time that you spoke to an angry customer. What happened?"

Behavioral interview questions tell you a lot about an applicant and how they view customer service. This type of question will see what they think about angry customers. Do they talk down to them as though they’re bad people, or do they sound hopeful and interested in helping the customer feel better?

"Is the customer always right?"

We all know the motto of the customer being always right. We also know that’s not usually true. Customers make mistakes like everyone else. Like the previous question, you want to find out how the candidate views customers and whether or not they believe that helping the customer is their job. Their answer to this question will tell you a lot about how they think about customers and customer service.

"What do you know about our company/product/service?"

Great customer service also involves a lot of learning, and the best customer service specialists show a willingness to learn on their own. Applicants should always research the company, but this is especially true in customer service where the employee’s ability to have answers to customer questions plays a significant role in their contribution.

“A customer calls angrily and says that our product was delivered to them broken. Pretend I am the customer. What do you say to me?”

Finally, you may also want to consider presenting them with scenarios. With these types of questions, you’re not necessarily looking for the right answer. You’re looking to see how well the applicant thinks on their feet, or whether they seem to struggle. This is one of the best ways to judge experience as well, since the less experienced individuals will often stumble over their words as they try to “talk to the customer.”

Great Questions Get Great Employees

The better your interview questions, the more likely you will be able to successfully identify quality customer service staff. It’s not always about where someone has worked in the past or what their position was, because customer service is very subjective. Focus your questions on finding experts that have the qualities you’re looking for in customer service staff, and you’ll be able to find those diamonds that will contribute to your company for years to come.

When it comes to after-hours phone calls, there are two basic options:

1. Let the call go to voicemail and check it in the morning.
2. Find a way to pick up the call even though you’re after hours.

The first option is by far the most common, however not answering a call after hours could mean you lose out on valuable business. The second option ensures you do not lose out on business, but it also means answering calls when you are not working.

Cons

There are pros and cons to each approach. Like any good business owner, you need to weigh them all and develop the plan that works best for you and your business.

• Intruding on Personal Time – If you’re like most small business owners, answering the phone after hours means that you’re answering forwarded calls to your personal cell phone when you’re trying to enjoy your personal time. Most business owners work enough. Answering calls during these hours is stressful.

• Not Always Important – Many phone calls you receive are going to be unimportant – things that someone can get answered via the internet, or that can be left on the answering machine (like hours). Hiring employees for this purpose may not be financially viable, and answering the phone yourself may be a waste of your time.

• Reach Once, Reach Twice – Once a customer has reached you once during off hours, they’re likely to continue to expect your response during that time. Customers expect you to be around at the same time all the time, and if they reach you at 9pm, they’ll call you again at 9pm.

Can you afford to hire someone in your office to answer phones during off hours? Are you even getting enough phone calls to justify the hire? Are those calls important, and are you unlikely to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Answering post-office hour phone calls can be tough and isn’t always the logical choice for your company.

Pros

Of course, NOT answering calls creates a different set of problems.

• Emergency Services – If you work in the service industry, someone may need you in the event of an emergency. While most calls may not be urgent, if someone is in need of a last minute plumber or electrician (for example), being available means that you could have more business and a new customer.

• Help Desk Support – Customers that have questions or problems often need help right away. If you’re not available, it can cause stress to the customer that may hurt their loyalty. If you are available, you can improve long term satisfaction with the consumer.

• Branding/Competition – Even if 99% of your after-hours phone calls are not important, the companies that are there to answer the call when needed are more likely to get ahead of their competition. Being available has its strengths, and those companies that want to set themselves apart benefit from that availability.

• Affordable Staffing Options Exist – If taking your own calls doesn’t sound appealing and you aren’t in the position to hire employees, answering services like CMS can answer your phone after hours. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of after-hours availability without the downsides.

Overall Thoughts

Every company is different. There are some companies that simply never receive any calls, or companies that are unlikely to receive phone calls that will make or break their business. A coffee shop, for example, may never need to answer an after hours phone call. But other companies can strongly benefit from having this availability, and given the low cost of outsourced call center services, it’s in the company’s best interests to consider it.

 

While there are many ways to do this, each with their strengths and weaknesses, one effective way is a confidential employee reporting system or complaint hotline.

How Does it Work?

To illustrate how a confidential employee reporting system works, let's look at a hypothetical situation.

Jane and The Lunch Thief

Jane works for a company called Acme Widgets Inc. Jane likes her job and she is a good employee, so Acme Widgets likes Jane. However she has a specific problem in the work place. Someone keeps stealing her lunch from the employee fridge.

Now she could report this to her supervisor but she's worried her supervisor might be involved. Jane doesn't want her complaint to negatively impact her career. She also doesn't want to get HR involved because she wants to remain anonymous. The last thing Jane wants to be known as is the office tattle tale. So what should she do?

Filing an Anonymous Report

Since Jane's company set up a confidential employee reporting system, Jane can lodge her complaint by calling a 24 hour phone number set up to handle these complaints or go online to a confidential web form.

These services collect specific information like the type of report, the time, the location, and the parties involved.

And since these services are managed by a third party, Jane's anonymity is ensured. All of her information like phone number, IP address and call recordings are not available to the organization that pays for the service.

Notifying the Appropriate Parties

After she has lodged her complaint, the third-party vendor delivers the report information to the appropriate parties which can be HR, a compliance official, legal team or different personnel/departments based on the nature of the complaint.

Follow-up and Issue Resolution

This third party also assigns a unique case ID number to Jane's complaint. This allows Acme Widgets and Jane to monitor the status of the complaint.

All of this makes Jane very happy. Her anonymity is intact and she knows her company takes her complaint seriously.

Acme Widgets is also happy. They are able to get in front of a serious workplace issue and resolve the matter before it gets out of hand. In the end, everybody wins. Everybody except, of course, the lunch thief.

Protection for Employees and Companies

While this slightly silly example is only a hypothetical, it does have real world analogues. Lunch theft might not be a pressing matter for compliance officers and HR departments. Issues like fraud, harassment or gross incompetence are, however, pressing matters.

These are very serious issues for employees and companies. They are issues that companies should encourage employees to report. They are issues employees should feel comfortable reporting.

An anonymous reporting hotline allows employees to feel safe reporting workplace concerns. It also gives companies a clear way to efficiently handle complaints.

After reviewing several policies from a range of organizations, we’ve compiled some of the core elements. Our intention is to give you and your company a jumping off point to start formulating a policy of your own.

So let’s start with the basics—what should you call your whistleblower policy?

(More from CMS: Small Businesses Must Now Consider Whistleblower Compliance Guidelines)

A Whistleblower Policy by Any Other Name

While the answer to this question seems straightforward, in reality, it is much more complex. And perhaps the most important question to answer. As Donn Meindertsma outlines in his article Why Your “Whistleblower Policy” Should Not Be Called That, “Whistleblower Policy” might not be the best name.

As Meindertsma points out, the term “whistleblower” comes with baggage. The word itself can be construed in a number of different ways, not all of them positive. The word also contains a polarising element. In the past, whistleblowers have been praised as heroes and condemned as villains.

Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning and, more recently, Edward Snowden are all famous examples of whistleblowers. They are also examples of how the term can for some people denote paragons of civil service and to others represent the worst kind of traitor.

Because of this, it might be wise to call your policy something different. A couple ideas Meindertsma puts forward include a Speak-Up Policy, Employee Concern Policy or Issue Resolution Policy. That being said, a whistleblower policy by any other name should contain certain basic elements.

(More from CMS: What is a Whistleblower?)

Core Sections of a Whistleblower Policy

In your whistleblower policy you need to define three basic elements: Why, what, and where. More specifically, why do you have a whistleblower policy, what merits reporting, and where/how the reports should be made.

Why

Before encouraging employees to speak up against ethics violations your company needs a strong ethics policy or code of conduct. The “why” is an integral part of your whistleblower policy. Without a why there is no reason for your employees to speak up at all. The Universal Service Administrative Company’s whistleblower policy does a good job of explaining why the policy exists and what its goals are. 

Here is an excerpt:

Assuring effective stewardship of the federal universal service programs by guarding against misuse or waste is a priority shared by USAC, the FCC, and Congress, as well as program applicants, service providers, and the general public. To that end, this page allows applicants, service providers, contributors, and others to alert USAC to instances when universal service support is possibly being misapplied or program rule violations might exist.

(More from CMS: Ethics Policies vs. Whistleblower Policies)

What

If you want to encourage your employees to speak up, then you need to tell them what to speak up against. Most policies use blanket terms like fraud, waste and illegal activity. These are fine to use but, depending on your industry, you may want to be more specific. Publicly traded company Parker Drilling clearly defines what kind of complaints and issues should be reported in their policy.

It states:

Employees of the Company have an obligation to report irregularities (whistleblower) of which they become aware and the right to voice complaints about questionable accounting, internal accounting controls and auditing practices, without fear that such report or complaint will impact their employment status, rate of pay or responsibilities within the organization. Reports of "irregularities" may include, but are not limited to, policy violations, theft or misappropriation of Company assets, the misreporting of accounting, financial or operational data, the failure to report health, safety or environmental violations, the violation of antitrust laws, the violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the violation of anti-boycott laws, fraud, harassment, worker intimidation, the payment of bribes, the inappropriate granting or acceptance of gratuities, and other conduct which is illegal, unethical or contrary to the letter or spirit of Company policy. In addition to these irregularities, employees are encouraged to voice "complaints" regarding questionable accounting practices, internal accounting controls and auditing matters.

Where/How

Your whistleblower policy also needs to contain information on where and how employees should lodge their complaints. This can range from informing their immediate supervisor to a third-party whistleblower hotline. The University of Miami’s policy is a good example of how to define where an employee should report their complaint.

Here is an excerpt detailing exactly how an employees should report a violation:

If an employee has knowledge of information that is in violation of any law, rule or regulation as described above, the employee is encouraged to contact his/her immediate supervisor, visit the ’Cane Watch website at www.canewatch.ethicspoint.com or call 877-415-4357, to provide information directly or on an anonymous basis to afford the University a reasonable opportunity to review and correct the activity.

(More from CMS: What is a Whistleblower Compliance Hotline?)

Other Considerations

Beyond the why, what and where of a whistleblower policy there are two other consideration to take into account: Confidentiality and anti-retaliation.

Confidentiality

Most whistleblower policies have an added clause about maintaining the confidentiality or anonymity of the whistleblower.

It is important to note that these clauses also state anonymity will be maintained to whatever extent possible. Meaning sometimes you simply can’t protect the anonymity of a whistleblower. In the event anonymity is no longer practical, you don’t want your organization to be liable.

(More from CMS: Fraud Hotline Services)

Anti-Retaliation

All whistleblower policies contain anti-retaliation clauses. These clauses explicitly state that whistleblowers cannot be retaliated against for their whistleblowing. The also clearly define what retaliation looks like.

Not only is this ethical but it is a federal law contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and many other statutes.

Always Seek Legal Counsel

When thinking about your company's whistleblower policy, these are all good places to start. However, this is by no means an exhaustive list and you should always consult legal counsel before finalizing any whistleblower policy.

Partnering with a telephone answering service is the perfect solution for this situation because it allows you to provide constant availability and professional customer service for a fraction of what it would cost to hire additional employees or pay existing staff.

The Need for 24 Hour Availability

There are countless reasons why your company may need to provide 24 hour call center support. If you provide emergency plumbing services, for example, then a potential customer could call at any time.

The same goes for providers of technology support, medical care, or vehicle repair services. If a client’s server goes offline, a patient gets sick, or a truck carrying an important load breaks down - they need to be available.

In industries like these, it’s almost a necessity to provide 24 hour service, otherwise you run the risk of losing business to a competitor or missing out on opportunities to build new customer relationships.

The Old Way of Running a 24x7 Operation

Companies who provide 24 hour support often have on-call personnel who are responsible for responding to after-hours inquiries.

The on-call may be required to stay onsite and answer the phone, check a voice mailbox every 30 minutes, carry a pager that goes off when new messages arrive, or use a cell phone that has the office number forwarded to it.

The exact configuration varies, but in all of these scenarios the companies are relying solely on their personnel for maintaining 24 hour coverage. Besides paying for the increased staffing, they also run the risk of missing important calls or new business.

The Benefits of Using a Third-Party

Outsourcing your first line of communication is a better way to provide 24 hour support.

Unlike the traditional method of relying solely on your on-call personnel, outsourcing to a call center or answering service provides an intermediary that assumes responsibility for filtering calls and relaying them to the correct member of your team.

For example, say a customer calls for an emergency plumbing repair. Instead of having that customer leave a message for the on-call and hoping it is addressed, that call would go to your answering service who would then follow instructions for reaching your on-call personnel.

This way, they can guarantee that someone in your organization gets the call. They just need instructions to follow.

This approach saves money because answering services like CMS utilize a time-based billing system based on the time spent handling calls. Unlike an employee who is paid whether they’re actively working or not, these companies only charge when they’re being utilized.

Learn More About 24 Hour Answering Services

In conclusion, any company that needs 24 hour availability could benefit from outsourcing to an answering service. It’s a great way to save money without sacrificing the quality of service you provide your customers.

To learn more about 24 hour answering services from CMS, we encourage you to contact our sales team and request a free quote. Our account executives can help you implement a professional customer service solution that integrates perfectly with your existing operation.

Whistleblowers are employees who expose fraud, waste, or other misconduct occurring within their company. Retaliation against whistleblowers is nothing new, but legislative policies to protect whistleblowers from being fired, harassed or otherwise abused in the workplace are comparatively new.

A New Chapter in Whistleblower Regulatory Compliance

The March 2014 ruling opens a new chapter in small business regulatory compliance. The reality of a federal investigation can be disastrous to smaller firms, and still compliance rules are the same here as they are for public companies who have had to comply since 2002.

The decision expanded the “universe of companies” regulated by the SOX whistleblower provision from about 5,000 public companies to potentially six million private companies, including the smallest mom-and-pop, according to Lloyd Chinn of the whistleblowing and retaliation group of law firm Proskauer.

“Employers of every size and type will have to prepare themselves for potential Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower claims, merely because they are a contractor or subcontractor of a publicly traded company,” says Chinn.

The Cost to Small Businesses

Gregory Keating, co-chair of the whistleblowing and retaliation practice law firm Littler Mendelson, says the decision could pose enormous costs and undue burdens on small business owners, “and could lead to an avalanche of litigation that will force small and mid-size companies with limited resources to learn unfamiliar securities laws.”

One thing is certain. Now more than ever affected contractors and subcontractors must be sure to have substantial policies in place for addressing whistleblower complaints.

Dealing with Whistleblower Complaints

Small businesses that now find themselves governed by whistleblower regulations must learn to be reasonable with employees who report suspected wrongdoing for the first time. Instead of firing them or taking other retaliatory action, employers are now required to rally around the whistleblower and offer whatever it takes to help them file their complaint.

Legal experts suggest robust whistleblower policies be enacted. At a minimum, such policies should:

1. Safeguard whistleblower’s anonymity to the extent possible
2. Encourage whistleblowers to exercise discretion without discouraging them from reporting misconduct
3. Address the preservation of evidence relating to putative fraud
4. Establish procedures for the conduct of internal investigations into suspected fraud

Whistleblower Rights and Responsibilities Under Sarbanes-Oxley

The whistleblower portion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act entitles employees who prevail on their claims to a full “make whole” remedy, which includes reinstatement and can include back pay and benefits, “front pay” for lost wages going forward, and compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering. Employees who prevail in such proceedings may also recover their litigation costs, including attorneys’ fees.

When an employer retaliates against a whistleblower, there are three elements necessary for a SOX claim against the employer to succeed:

1. The employee must be engaged in protected activity at the time of the retaliatory action. Protected activity is activity protected under whistleblower laws.
2. The employee is protected if the employer took adverse employment action against the employee, and
3. The adverse employment action against the employee was caused at least in part by the protected activity.

(Source: Katz, Marshall & Banks)

Policies, Objectivity Key in Complex Legal Landscape

For private businesses that find that they are now expected to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley laws, objectivity is the key to success with compliance.

This is not always an easy mindset to embrace, but serious consequences exist if objectivity is found lacking or ignored in compliance reporting, including steep fines, prosecution and even prison time for both business owners and employees.

Since Sarbanes-Oxley is one of many laws that includes anti-retaliation statutes, it’s important to note that an employee can sue over retaliatory events whether or not their claim is investigated. Case law is ever-changing and much of the legal landscape is still up for interpretation.

With so much risk and uncertainty, being proactive and establishing a clear whistleblower policy is the recommended step for employers looking to defend themselves.

Proactively Addressing Whistleblower Reports

To limit the risk of a whistleblower lawsuit, companies should illustrate their commitment to ethical behavior and encourage employees and stakeholders to report questionable activity.

For the small business owner committed to compliance, whistleblower hotlines and anonymous reporting tools are clear reminders to staff that they can report perceived wrongdoing without fear, and that you are willing to help make sure that their voices are heard.

It’s important to make sure that all employees understand the appropriate steps to take when reporting suspected illicit behavior. When they believe you’re taking the ethical route, they will follow.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact legal counsel to obtain advice with respect to legal obligations under Sarbanes-Oxley or other statutes.