Aboard's Whistleblowing feature allows your employees to create anonymous reports based on your selected categories, and then your administrators can handle these reports in an appropriate manner.
Getting started
The first step is for one of your administrators to activate the Whistleblowing feature in your company settings on the admin portal.
Next, select a Supervisor who will be able to view all of the reports submitted by your employees. Then, write a description that will be used for your whistleblowing page.
Whether you can offer your employees a whistleblowing channel, and what type of matters they can blow the whistle on, is often subject to legal requirements. For example, EU-based companies above a particular size need to offer a channel to receive reports on particular matters - but data protection laws may limit their possibility to process reports on other matters. So make sure to familiarise yourself with the legal requirements that apply to your situation, and adapt the description to your employees, and the categories of matters that can be reported, thereafter.
We have provided a template description to your employees for you here, but you can edit it to suit your situation.
You will have the following default categories for matters that can be reported:
Corruption and abuse of power
Financial irregularities
Other misconduct of a public interest
Breach of laws and regulations
Individual's life and health
Other
Finally, you can select different handlers that will be assigned to the report once it has been submitted.
Blowing the whistle
Now that the Whistleblowing feature has been activated, your employees will be able to submit a report to you. This can be done in two ways:
In your Company Settings within the admin portal, there will be a button for "Link to whistleblowing page". This page can be shared on any internal site and allows your employees to submit a report, even when they are not users of your Aboard account.
Within the Employee portal, your users will have access to the Whistleblowing feature in the bottom-left corner.
This will open a new tab in your window, where your users can read the text that you created in your settings, and then submit a case that will include a message, category, and if they choose, a contact email. It is recommended to use the contact email, as then you will receive a confirmation email with your access code, that you will need for following your case. Once completed, you will move to a confirmation page:
Handling the report
When a new report has been submitted, the supervisor and assigned handler for that category will be notified. They will then be able to view the report in the Whistleblowing section in the main menu of the admin portal:
Click on the case that you would like to handle, and then you will be able to do the following:
Message the whistleblower. Note that your message from the admin portal will not be anonymous. The whistleblower will receive an email notification that you have messaged them.
Add an internal note to the case. Note that only those who have access to this case will see your note, not the whistleblower.
Update the category or handler of the case.
Close the report once you have completed the case.
Tracking your case
To view your case as the reporter, you must first go to the Whistleblowing page where you initially submitted your report.
On here, click the "view the case" button at the bottom, then enter your access code. Here, you will be able to anonymously message your case handlers, view any messages that have been sent to you, and close your own case if you wish.
Closing the case
All sorted?
If you are the whistleblower, this can be done on the same page where you can track your case. If you are the case handler, then this can be done in the top-right corner of the case in the admin portal.
The status of the case will then change to "Closed", and the details of the case will be stored on your account for a further 24 months.
You will receive an email notification that your case is closed.