Live from the European Compliance & Ethics Institute
by Kortney Nordrum, Esq., CHC, CCEP
Presentation by Katinka Tattersall, Former Head of Ethics and Compliance, Solvay
Author’s Note: Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium; with 119 sites and 26,000 people in 52 countries.
Helplines are not the standard throughout Europe. As part of the ethics program they rolled out, they decided to implement a hotline, even without any requirement to do so under Sarbanes-Oxley.
What to consider when implementing a helpline:
- What type ofhelpline you want
- Internal or external?
- Phone line or web-based?
- The legal framework – different in every country throughout Europe
- Data Privacy
- Anonymous reporting
- Spain & Portugal does not allow anonymous reporting
- France does not allow employers to inform employees of anonymous reporting
- Other companies do not allow employers to encourage anonymous reporting
- Type of reports
- Some countries limit what types of issues may be reported – most allow financial reporting through hotlines
- People who can report
- The Netherlands only allow top management to use helplines – lower-level employees have other resources to report
- Formalities
- Some countries require notification of helplines
- Others require authorization before implementation of helplines (e.g. France)
- Anonymous reporting
- Data Privacy
- Your internal organization
- Works councils
- Prepare your managers
- Change attitudes – all managers must be willing to listen
- Train everyone who has a direct report
- Let everyone know that their manager has been trained on reporting
- To whom do the reports go?
- Who is in charge of the investigation?
- Is there an investigation protocol? Do you need one?
- Do you need confidentiality agreements?
- Are there issues with protecting the investigation under legal privilege?
- Is there a framework to communicate internally on reports?
- How to communicate
- What you have to say
- We encourage, but you are not required to use the helpline
- It is important but you can’t sue it for everything
- Most European countries require that you inform that helplines are an alternative source and that there are other sources as well
- Your particular rules about anonymous reporting
- Policy of zero tolerance for retaliation
- What you have to say
Companies can always communicate better. Let people see what happens after they call. Let them get a sense of corporate justice–show that reports were filed and that action was taken.