Q: What is the Whistleblowing Scanner?
The Whistleblowing Scanner is essentially an online assessment which helps your organisation see whether your whistleblowing arrangements are fit for purpose. It is aimed at organisations with 50 – 250 employees operating across all industries in the UK, EU and internationally. It is a fast and easy way for your organisation to assess whether you are effectively encouraging your staff to speak up about any wrongdoing they might have witnessed, and are protecting them when they do.
Q: And why has Protect developed it? And how will it benefit small and medium sized organisations?
As SMEs face a number of pressures, the risk of wrongdoing may increase as staff may look for shortcuts to aid profitability. By having a good whistleblowing culture in place, you are sending a strong message to your workforce, your partners and your clients that you want to hear about wrongdoing so you can address it. This makes it much more likely that your employees will come forward sooner if they witness any issues, which will help protect your organisation’s reputation, workers, and society at large.
The Whistleblowing Scanner will help your organisation establish a strong speak up culture. It acts as a gap analysis that helps to map out how to set up an effective whistleblowing culture, whether you have 50 or 200+ staff. If your organisation does business in the EU, it also provides a vital check that you to align with the EU Whistleblowing Directive requirements.
Q: What’s the difference between the Whistleblowing Scanner and the Whistleblowing Benchmark?
The short answer is it’s more accessible for smaller organisations, including those that may be just starting to create a whistleblowing framework.
In 2018 we developed our Whistleblowing Benchmark, a diagnostic tool that helps medium and large organisations test their whistleblowing arrangements. So far, the Benchmark has been completed by almost 150 organisations from various sectors.
However, we want every organisation, large and small, to be able to test and improve their whistleblowing culture. While our Whistleblowing Benchmark is the most comprehensive tool out there, we recognise that not every organisation has the resources and time to put into a long form survey. Any organisation with an employee count between 50 and 250 will benefit from using the Whistleblowing Scanner, especially those seeking to better understand their existing whistleblowing
arrangements and how to improve them.
Q: How long does it take to complete the Scanner assessment?
Completing the Whistleblowing Scanner questionnaire is very straightforward and should take less than one hour, if you have your relevant documents ready to look at (eg Whistleblowing policy). Your report, including a score along with some initial recommendations – reaches you instantly.
