The Problem – What Problem??
You operate a mid-sized
business. One day you receive an
anonymous le
tter from an employee disclosing that 15 of your 27 cash handling staff
have been taking advantage of a weakness in the sales system by taking cash
from sales for most of the last 10 years totalling well over $1 Mil.
You now have no option but to
call in the police. A very public criminal investigation ensues. The damage to your
business reputation and good will has been immeasurable. You now need to improve
your cash handling system, train your staff and deal with the media fall out so
that you can get on with business.
Don’t think this can’t happen -
it did.
It could be cash, stock, work
hours, sexual harassment or just plain breaches of your code of conduct or
other organisational policies – either way, like it or not these things happen
in a workplace.
Ask
yourself:
If this was me, what could I have done to identify this problem and how could I
have become aware of it sooner?
Discose.com.au can help...
Griffith
University recently published a report on Whistleblowing in which it discovered
that at least 71% of people in a survey had observed at least one example of nominated
wrong doing in their organisation. 28%
of these people did not report the wrong doing due to a perception that the
organisation would do nothing about it.
So
how can you avoid this and encourage your employees, vendors, contractors and
customers to tell you about these things?
Disclose.com.au can help...
A
recent report concerned with best practices in disclosure mechanisms states
that the most effective mechanisms for reporting organisational misconduct
offer a 24 hour 365 day access to potential whistleblowers.
Disclose.com.au offers this...
For the best results, and to simplify
communication, organisations should provide a single mechanism for reporting
all workplace issues. Reports should be disseminated quickly to designated
parties. The mechanism should also be promoted with educational materials
directed to everyone in the organisation, including employees and vendors. This
helps maximize usage and supports an ethical environment.
Disclose.com.au offers this...
Using a centralised reporting
mechanism, information should be disseminated to the most
appropriate parties, which likely
includes Human Resources, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, Legal
and Loss Prevention, among others. Dual
dissemination of complaints related to fraud acts as a system of checks and
balances by ensuring that no single person is in possession of this highly
sensitive information. This protects the integrity of the reporting mechanism.
The program’s case management system should provide a centralised database for
documenting the steps taken by the organisation to investigate allegations
reported via the system.
Disclose.com.au offers this...
Once the data is available, an
effective program should provide management with a means for analysing and
managing the collected information. A robust reporting system offers managers
the opportunity to not only view summary information but also drill down to
investigate specific details based on the user’s unique needs. It should be accessible, easy-to-use and
simple to interpret and analyse.
Disclose.com.au offers this...
Taking an analytical approach to
data allows an organisation to measure trends, compare their results to norms
for similar organisations, and identify areas for improvement. The results of a
feature-rich reporting system should include the timely, consistent and
practical delivery of reports to all stakeholders and provide the ability for
an organisation to make better business decisions.
Disclose.com.au offers this...
So what are you waiting for?
Register your business with us today and
start reaping the rewards from $250 per annum.