The purpose of this policy from TechRepublic Premium is to provide guidelines for the practice of whistleblowing to ensure unethical and/or illegal acts can be investigated, and guilty parties punished to protect the organization and its employees.

This policy can be customized as needed to fit the needs of your organization.

From the policy:

A whistleblowing response team shall be set up, consisting of individuals who will be responsible for receiving and handling whistleblowing complaints. This team should involve appropriate staff such as management, HR or other personnel with the authority to investigate these complaints.

A whistleblowing telephone hotline/email address/website form shall be set up to report illegal or dishonest activity. Employees shall be instructed on how/why/when to utilize these resources and be informed they can speak to their supervisors or HR directly.

Any available information whistleblowers possess regarding the activity being reported should be provided to the appropriate personnel. This can include documentation, emails, electronic files, audio or video recordings, names of witnesses involved or other data.

Whistleblowers are not to be responsible for investigating reported activities. This will fall upon the whistleblowing response team.