More importantly, have your staff been trained on the policy?
The criminal and civil penalties for non-compliance with the new Whistleblowing laws are serious: fines of up to $1million for individuals, and $525 million for organisations. The changes have been introduced as a form of amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and came into place on the 1st of July 2019 – with ASIC commencing compliance audits on the 1st of January. Is your organisation up to date with the new laws? If not, it’s important to note that if you are a large proprietary company, a dedicated whistleblower policy is compulsory (although its protections apply to all companies, regardless of size).
What do you need to do?
ASIC has commenced compliance audits on the 1st of January. Hence, it is extremely helpful for your organisation and staff to have a policy in place, and that your staff is trained on the new laws.
Why should you be training your staff on the Whistleblower Policy?
You can place a book on the shelf, however it will not read itself.
In the same way – you will need to train your staff on the whistleblower policy laws, in order for them to be understood and applied in your organisation.
Aside from the obvious legal penalties that could affect your business, and its reputation, whistleblowers are imperative to the health of an organisation. You only have to look as far as the recent Royal Commission and Corporate Scandals such as the misconduct in the CBA’s financial planning arm, which revealed that in fact it was whistleblowers who had crucial corporate intelligence that was critical to the discovery of misconduct within companies.
Incorporating the policy into your organisation means greater protections for staff who may otherwise be afraid to report on misconduct. The new laws have strengthened the protections available to individuals who call out unethical behavior – in effect providing a greater transparency of essential knowledge that affects the culture in the workplace.
Online training makes it easy to roll out a consistent message that’s auditable
Using Safetrac’s off the shelf course and tailoring it to the unique requirements of your business and workplace culture, is the simplest way to provide staff with an engaging course that will educate them on your company’s policy.
Safetrac’s Whistleblower policy course is designed to promote a culture of honesty and ethical behavior to ensure that employees are proactive in asking questions, understand how to report misconduct and provide information as to how their complaints are dealt with.
Remember, whistleblowing is crucial in managing risk and cultivating an ethical culture in your workplace. A whistleblowing policy provides employees with confidence in reporting unethical conduct, dishonest or illegal activity.
Review the Safetrac Whistleblower Policy course, or contact us to discuss your organisation’s training needs.
