Communication Tools
Whistleblowers: Consider an Early Warning System
Whistleblowers challenge a company at every level. To external audiences, whistleblowers spell wrongdoing even where there is no wrongdoing – depriving employers of due process in the Court of Public Opinion.
Internally, whistleblowers can shake confidence and destroy morale. The accuser has emerged from the employees’ own ranks. At worst, their accusations achieve all the more credibility as a result. At best, whistleblowers are a long-term distraction that threatens productivity and jeopardizes the organizational trust that all companies depend upon for survival.
In every whistleblower situation, there are two immediate communications imperatives, and boards must be especially vigilant that the companies they serve are absolutely responsive on both fronts.
First, companies must unequivocally reassure their customers and shareholders, regulators and reporters, and their own internal audiences that no recriminations against the whistleblowers will ever be made.
Second, they must vigorously state that whatever problems the whistleblower’s accusation may reveal will be dealt with responsibly, effectively, and in a timely matter.
Some especially prescient companies achieve giant head starts in dealing with the public ramifications of whistleblowers. They publicly encourage their employees to speak up if they think they see a serious ethical or legal problem in the company’s business practices. By encouraging whistleblowers, they pre-cast future crises with themselves in the role of the whistleblowers’ ally and protector.
In such cases, the questionable actions of a few bad actors don’t sully the company’s good name. In fact, the “early warning system” put in place actually provides a basis from which to begin branding again.
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