The 2012 FCPA Guidance has about as clear, concise and short a statement about hotlines than any other tenet of an Effective Compliance Program. It states, “An effective compliance program should include a mechanism for an organization’s employees and others to report suspected or actual misconduct or violations of the company’s policies on a confidential basis and without fear of retaliation.” More than simply hotlines, companies must make real efforts to listen to employees. The Justice Department’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs states “How has the company collected, analyzed, and used information from its reporting mechanisms?” Managers must trained on how to handle employee concerns; they must be incentivized to take on this compliance responsibility and you must devote communications resources to reinforcing the company’s culture and values to create an environment and expectation that managers will raise employee concerns.
