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When times get tough, a phone call with a friend can work wonders. But, when times get tough at work, many employees don’t know who to turn to for help.
Only 43% of US employees with first-hand knowledge of “unethical behavior” at work in the past year reported it, according to a recent Gallup report. And 22% of those employees said they didn’t think their company would do anything about the complaint if they had.
Many companies don’t realize the importance of an anonymous, confidential hotline to employees, Ashley Herd, co-host of the HR Besties podcast and founder of Manager Method, said during a webinar hosted by compliance training platform Ethena on Nov. 13.
“How do you convince leadership that there is this channel that should be a last resort, but that may be exactly the only resort that people feel comfortable with?” Herd said to Roxanne Petraeus, co-founder and CEO of Ethena, and Colin Slade, VP of people at Cloudbeds.
“It would be incredible if [in] your company just everyone felt comfortable totally speaking up. That is not normally the average,” Slade said. “The normal is that there are pockets of toxicity, and there are pockets of really good leadership, and so [a hotline] allows you to have a tool to do it.”
It can be harder for HR teams at smaller companies to convince leadership to purchase a hotline tool, Petraeus said. But she recommended that people pros advocate for it, emphasizing to their senior leaders that having a safe space for employees is crucial, even for a scaling company.
“If you’re in a small organization, saying to leadership, ‘Yeah, we’re small, and so you would like to think everyone says everything,’” Herd said. “But on the flip side, if you’re an employee, and you have these relationships that may make you even more afraid to say something.”
Employees in larger organizations may not feel like their voices are being heard, Herd added, and, as a result, may not bring up concerns.
No matter the size of a company, Slade said a hotline can help protect employees and prevent problems from simmering and worsening.
If budget is an issue, Petraeus advised highlighting the cost of inaction. “If I’m wrong, we’re out a couple 1,000 bucks, but if you’re wrong, we might have just avoided a very expensive, costly issue in which we’d have to end up getting a hotline anyway.”
