LRN - Risk management Survey - Ethics Resource Center

detailed resultsNearly all companies use a combination of anonymous reportingand other methods to detect violations.Companies recognize that different reporting channels are valuable for different employeegroups and circumstances. In fact, 99 percent of respondents offered multiple waysfor employees to report potential ethics and compliance violations in the company’s homemarket. The median number of channels offered for reporting was five.Given the majority of participants are headquartered in the U.S., the most frequentpractice in the headquarters region is an anonymous/confidential phone line, as requiredby Sarbanes-Oxley.Meanwhile, a lower percentage of multinational companies indicate using each reportingchannel, although they too offer multiple systems with a median of four channels inplace. Because international jurisdictions can present challenges to ethics and complianceefforts, multinational companies must often create separate reporting systems with localtechnologies and personnel who speak the local languages in order to conform to locallaws. Even when such systems are in place, local cultural differences may discourage theuse of the system.13. To whom are employees expected to report an ethics or complianceviolation first?First means of reportingSupervisorNo set policyOtherAnonymous/phone lineEthics/compliance officeHRLegal deptInternal ombudsmanDon’t know6%6%4%3%0%6%24%22%37%The largest group of respondents (37 percent) said that employees reporting potential ethicsor compliance violations are expected to turn first to supervisors. Almost a quarter (24 percent)reported no set policy with regard to whom an employee should see first, while the third leadinganswer (22 percent) was “other.” Because respondents sometimes chose more than onemeans of reporting, the low percentages in the remaining categories – 6 percent for anonymousphone lines, 6 percent for compliance and ethics office, 4 percent for human resources, 3 percentfor the legal department, and 6 percent for “don’t know” – add up to more than 100 percent.LRN | ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES REPORT | 20