An ethics hotline offers the clearest possible glimpse into the health of your company culture. It helps bring employee concerns to the surface and detect gaps that linger in communication and training. An anonymous compliance hotline also creates a safe zone for employees to report misconduct they witness or experience without having to fear retaliation.
While a compliance hotline in itself is a massive gold mine to help create a better workplace culture, it only fulfills half the purpose. The other half, however, is associated with how these reports are resolved. This is where the role of the compliance officer comes in. By deploying valuable strategies, compliance officers bring about quick and efficient resolutions of these issues, all the while ensuring they don’t occur in the future.
To ensure the efficiency of your company’s compliance hotline and the quality (and speed) with which these cases are resolved thereafter, compliance officers must stay up to date with all the best practices that govern the ensuing investigation.
Here’s a comprehensive checklist that compliance officers can follow after receiving a compliance hotline report.
Craft A Game Plan
Each time a report journeys through a hotline, it’s critical to first sketch a result-oriented plan for investigation. Here are some things to keep in mind when planning your investigation:- Create specific strategies to shorten the case closure time of reports.
- Document all the reports in a centralized management system to get a complete picture of the issues and trends.
- Begin the investigation right after receiving the report. Timely action can ensure the issue doesn’t reach court.
- List out a step-by-step process to ensure the investigation goes smoothly and quickly.
- Consider every detail supplied by both parties involved in the case.