Speak Up & Whistleblower Hotline Programs

A Speak Up Hotline is an independent and externally managed hotline program that provides multiple channels for people to speak up safely to report any issue, wrongdoing or illegal conduct that may be occurring in their organisation.

An independent and externally managed hotline provides organisations, and its employees, with a range of safe and secure reporting options which are managed by a team of trained experts.

Importantly, selecting a partner like Core Integrity provides your organisation with dedicated capacity to ensure reports can be actioned in a timely manner, it provides access to experienced capability to ensure your people have a positive reporting experience and ultimately it delivers a consistent approach which builds trust in your program over time.

Core Integrity are experts in the design, implementation and management of ethics, integrity and whistleblower hotline programs. Our clients rely on us to provide them tailored advice to set up a hotline program that not only helps them comply with their legislative and regulatory obligations, but also helps them create and maintain a safe speak up culture.

We partner with our clients over the long-term and continue to provide subject matter advice to ensure their hotline programs evolve with their changing needs. 

Our main role is to provide a dedicated Triage and Assessment service where our experienced Speak Up Agents respond to all reports in the first instance. Our team build rapport, display empathy and take the time required to elicit the required information from your people in a trauma informed manner.

Our approach is centred around supporting you and your organisation to create a safe speak up culture. We do not place any limits on the number of reports that we take, and we are happy to take out of scope reports as we understand these can be important “listening” points for you and your organisation.

 We are highly experienced at providing advice and support to help the effective management of protected disclosures and our clients often call upon us to assist in responding to sensitive and complex protected disclosure reports.

We provide our clients with multiple reporting channels so their people can choose the method of reporting that suits them best given their particular situation. These reporting options include telephone, email and traditional mail as well as secure online reporting options via a customised URL and QR code.

All reports received by the Core Integrity team are entered into our secure online reporting platform and triage and assessed accordingly before being referred to the appropriate person or department within the client organisation.

All reports are treated in the strictest of confidence, and we also accept anonymous reports. Our secure online reporting platform enables secure, two-way communications with both confidential and anonymous reporters. All communications are stored securely in the online platform and the identity of the reporter is protected at all times.

Core Integrity’s Speak Up Integrity Hotline programs are powered by our secure online platform – ClearView Connects.

The ClearView Connects platform enables the safe and secure reporting of issues and enables safe, secure two-way communications with both confidential and anonymous reporters.

All reports are allocated a unique report ID and reporters are able to access their report at any time by using their unique report ID and password. The platform sends email notifications to reporters any time there is activity or a status change on their report.

Anonymous reporters are able to enter their email address to receive notifications and this information is kept safe and secure. At no time will Core Integrity or the reporter’s organisation gain access to their email address, thereby enabling truly anonymous and secure reporting.

The ClearView Connects platform provides all of our clients with a single source of truth where all reports are managed securely. Even offline reports received by the organisation can be transcribed and entered into the platform to provide a single source of truth of your incident and complaint data.

Yes. We tailor all of our Speak Up Integrity Hotline programs to suit our clients and their specific needs.

Every client has the option of having their own program name (e.g., Speak Up Hotline), customised email address and a dedicated and unique URL and QR code for secure online reporting.

You can choose to have multiple reporting forms to encourage reporting from different groups, for example an internal reporting form for employees and an external reporting form for customers.

Each reporting form and the associated questions can be customised depending on your specific requirements to ensure you capture as much useful data as possible..

The platform also acts as a central case management repository and provides detailed reporting and visual dashboards for effective oversight of your program to mana

Our standard implementation takes around 4 weeks, client dependent. We can set up a hotline program much sooner if required, but on average it takes approximately 4 weeks.

The long-term success of your Speak Up program centres around doing the right thing consistently when responding to reported issues, however another crucial factor is how you promote your program internally across your organisation on a consistent basis, so it is ‘top of mind’ to all of your people.  

Most of our clients do a really good job of promoting their program at launch, however the key to long-term success is to ensure that your Speak Up program becomes a normal part of your business and features regularly across multiple internal communication and awareness channels throughout the year.

Some key initiatives include:

• Tone from the Top: It’s vital that your executive team and board set the right tone and support the program through their written and verbal communications but most importantly, their actions.
• Intranet and Internet: Make sure your program is listed on your intranet and external website. Important program messaging along with listing the available reporting channels is important.
• Email Communications: Regular email communications across the business and throughout the year is a good way to continue to reinforce the organisations commitment to creating a safe speak up culture. Support this by aligning key messages for other notable dates throughout your communications calendar (e.g., R U OK day etc).
• Printed Collateral: Printed collateral such as posters, brochures, business cards and mouse pads can really support keeping your Speak Up program ‘top of mind’. We find that our most successful clients print posters and place these across prominent areas of their business.
• Speak Up Training: Core Integrity delivers tailored speak up training at various levels across your organisation including Executive and Board, senior managers and all staff. Consideration should be given to building capability through training and supporting this with a Speak Up module for your LMS program.

We do more than simply provide you a Speak Up program. We are there with you through every report. Our experienced team are available to provide advice and support as you manage reports and can be engaged to conduct investigations as and when required.

We conduct quarterly Client Business Reviews (CBRs) where we will provide you with detailed reporting and insights on the performance of your program and ensure your program is performing at the optimum level.

Yes. In addition to providing our leading Speak Up Integrity Hotline programs, Core Integrity also offer other services across the integrity lifecycle.

Our service lines include:

• Workplace Investigation Services: We conduct a broad range of workplace investigations to assist our clients to respond to integrity issues. Our investigative support includes, but is not limited to fraud, theft, misappropriation, bribery and corruption, conflicts of interest, bullying and harassment and breach of policies.
• Integrity Advisory Services: We provide proactive integrity services aimed at helping our clients prevent and minimise integrity risks from disrupting their business. These include conduct fraud and integrity risk assessments, cultural reviews, policy review and development as well as a broad range of tailored training programs.
• Physical Security Services: We provide physical security advice and support services to help our clients protect their people, assets and operations. Key services include security risk assessments, security reviews, executive and staff protection as well as providing security-as-a-service to oversee and help manage third-party security providers.
• Corethix: We have developed a cloud-based risk and compliance platform that is accessible anywhere, anytime and on any device. Corethix helps create a culture of compliance and engages your people no matter their role and location.

If you are interested in learning more about our range of services, please get in touch with us via contactus@coreintegrity.com.au