The firm's 2016 Ethics and Compliance Hotline Benchmark Report collated data from 867,000 reports made by employees across the 4,900 companies who use Navex's hotline product. Navex recommends that organisations take no more than one month to complete investigations into internal allegations raised by employees, but analysis of reporting data from the last 12 months shows that the average time required to close an internal investigation has risen 18 per cent to 46 days. This is despite the reporting rate holding steady.
'If months go by without a case being resolved, then reporters will conclude that their organisation is not listening and not taking action, which could be detrimental to an organisation on a number of levels,' warns the report.
Reports related to human resources, diversity and workplace matters have suffered the biggest jump in open case time, up from 39 days to 47 days in the last year. According to Navex chief compliance officer Carrie Penman, the heel-dragging in this category is of particular concern, as 'those should be types of cases to close a little more quickly.'
According to Ms Penman, the rise in closure times reflects a pinch on the resources available to organisations to see through cases to a speedy conclusion. To make a stronger business case for resources in this area, Ms Pennman suggests that organisations need to implement thorough documentation systems for all reports received to form a 'holistic picture' of the problem.
The consequences of slow action are also making themselves apparent. As it did last year, Navex's report found that the rate of substantiating whistleblower retaliations is on the up, with 41 per cent of all external reports being substantiated. 'Our hope is that because more of these cases are being substantiated, employees will raise these issues internally. We encourage companies to talk about that,' said Ms Penman. Source: The Wall Street Journal
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