Short answer
A whistleblower hotline gives employees, contractors and vendors a way to report fraud, harassment, safety problems or other misconduct, often anonymously. A third-party hotline is answered by an outside company, which documents each report and delivers it to the people the employer designates. Southern Voices provides compliance and whistleblower hotlines with live agents answering your calls 24/7/365, in English and Spanish.
The majority of misconduct in the workplace is noticed by someone inside the organization first, before anyone else finds out. What happens next depends on whether or not that person reports the misconduct.
A whistleblower hotline provides employees with a secure way to report instances of misconduct in the workplace. This employer’s guide explains what a whistleblower hotline is, how it works, whether one is necessary for your business, how to set one up, and what to ask a hotline provider prior to signing with them.
How Does a Whistleblower Hotline Work?
Someone calls a designated phone line, a trained live agent takes the report, and the report is delivered only to the people you have chosen to receive it. Your employees need to feel comfortable calling this hotline and know that their identity will remain protected, and their report handled with care. It is essential that your employees trust the process in order for it to work as intended.
With a third-party hotline, the agent answers each call with a greeting that is customized for your business and follows your script. The agent will collect information including: what happened, when and where the incident took place, people involved, and whether there is any immediate danger to anyone. If your program allows and the caller wishes to remain anonymous, the intake agent doesn’t ask for a name or contact information. Before ending the call the agent reviews and verifies the information collected and explains next steps to the caller.
The report is then delivered to your designated contact(s), such as your compliance officer, general counsel or a board committee. If an individual is named in the misconduct report and is also on that designated contact list, the report can be routed around them. Your team then investigates the reported information.
What Do Employees Report on a Whistleblower Hotline?
You determine the categories. These are common starting categories.
Fraud and financial misconduct
Theft, false records, kickbacks, billing or accounting concerns
Harassment and discrimination
Reports about coworkers, supervisors, customers or vendors
Safety violations
Unsafe conditions and incidents
Code-of-conduct breaches
Conflicts of interest, gifts and other policy violations
Privacy concerns
Mishandled personal, patient or customer information
Retaliation
Employees who feel they have faced consequences for coming forward and reporting concerns. This category will help you determine whether or not the program is working.
A Hotline Nobody Trusts Is a Hotline Nobody Calls
Employees are more likely to report concerns when they know that their report will be taken seriously, handled in a confidential manner and that they will not face consequences for reporting. Your hotline should be designed to make sure employee’s feel safe reporting any concerns and/or issues.
In-House Line or Third-Party Whistleblower Hotline?
Employers will need to determine whether they will run the hotline in house or use a third party provider. In some cases both may be utilized so that employees have more than one way to report concerns. Here is how the two compare.
| In-house line or voicemail | Third-party live hotline | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | An employee, or a mailbox | A trained agent outside your organization |
| Hours | Typically business hours only | Can be 24/7/365, including holidays |
| Caller’s worry | “Will my manager hear about this?” | Less of a concern; the answering company is independent |
| Consistency | Dependent upon who picks up | Same script and questions on every call |
| Spanish | Only if someone on staff speaks it | Depends on the provider (live at Southern Voices) |
| Who gets the report | Whoever checks the line | Only the contacts you designate, with routing around anyone named |
Do you need a whistleblower hotline? For many organizations it’s expected. US public companies, for example, must have audit-committee procedures for confidential, anonymous employee concerns about accounting and auditing matters under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. What your organization needs depends on the rules that apply to you, so your legal and compliance advisers should decide that.
How Do You Set Up a Whistleblower Hotline?
Setting up the phone line is straightforward, but the most important part is deciding how the reports will be handled once they come in.
- Define your programDetermine what concerns the line covers, who may call (employees, contractors, vendors, customers), and whether anonymous reports are accepted.
- Write the scriptThe greeting, the questions agents ask for each kind of report, and what callers are told regarding next steps.
- Name the recipientsWho receives each type of report, who receives urgent ones right away, and who gets them if a recipient is named in a report.
- Choose how reports arriveUrgent reports by phone, with escalation; the rest by secure text, email or a client portal.
- Publish the number everywhereCode of conduct, handbook, break-room posters, onboarding and vendor materials, in English and Spanish if your workforce needs it.
How Do You Choose a Whistleblower Hotline Provider?
Ask every provider the same questions so that you can compare how they handle the information and whether employees will trust the line.
- Does a live person answer, every hour of every day? Reports don’t wait for business hours.
- Can reports be taken anonymously? And can you decide how that works for your program?
- Who sees each report? Only your designated contacts, with a way around anyone named.
- Are calls recorded? Know the answer before a caller asks. Southern Voices does not record calls.
- Is Spanish handled live? A translation line or “press 2” menu is a reason not to finish a report.
- How are urgent reports escalated? Safety threats can’t sit in an inbox.
- Can the same line handle HR and call-off calls? One number is easier for employees to remember.
How Much Does a Whistleblower Hotline Cost?
It depends on how many calls the line receives and the time each report involves. Whistleblower lines are usually low volume, so a usage-based plan tends to fit better than paying for staff to wait by a phone.
With Southern Voices you only pay for the time you use. Plans start at $33, and larger organizations may qualify for volume discounts. See pricing for what goes into a quote.
Plans start at
$33
Your plan is built around your call volume, and larger organizations get volume discounts.
Frequently asked questions
What is a whistleblower hotline?
A phone line employees and others can use to report fraud, harassment, safety violations and other misconduct, often anonymously. With a third-party hotline, an outside company answers, documents the report and delivers it to the people the employer designates. See our compliance and whistleblower hotline.
What is the purpose of a whistleblower hotline?
To give people a safe way to raise concerns inside the organization, so problems can be investigated and fixed early. It also shows employees that speaking up is expected and protected.
Are whistleblower hotlines required?
It depends on your organization and the rules that apply to it. US public companies, for example, must have audit-committee procedures for confidential, anonymous employee concerns about accounting matters. Your legal and compliance advisers should decide what your program needs.
Is a whistleblower hotline the same as an ethics hotline?
Mostly. Many organizations use one line for both, and some add HR questions too. Southern Voices can run them on one number alongside an HR and ethics hotline and a call-off line.
Can callers stay anonymous?
If your program allows it. The hotline can be set up to take reports without asking for the caller’s name or contact details, and agents follow the wording you approve.
How do we get started?
Decide your categories, recipients and anonymity rules, then get a quote. We write the script with you, train agents on your account and give you the number to publish. Bilingual workforce? Read why “press 2 for español” is not true bilingual support.
