Washington, D.C. – According to the new ‘WhistleBlower Security US Report’ released today, 41 percent or 64 million working Americans are aware of wrongdoing committed at their place of work and of those, 78 percent say they are likely to blow the whistle. The top three types of organizational wrongdoing witness by employees are discrimination (38 percent), health and safety violations (38 percent), and sexual harassment (36 percent). The March 2022 research findings were released by WhistleBlower Security Inc. at the 17th annual Compliance Week conference in Washington, D.C. WhistleBlower Security Inc. is a global provider of ethics reporting services and the research was conducted on the Angus Reid Forum with 1,012 employed Americans.
“It seems like Americans are done tolerating workplace wrongdoing with 92 percent saying employees should speak up if they witness it,” says Shannon Walker, Founder and President, WhistleBlower Security Inc. The ‘WhistleBlower Security US Report’ found employees are most likely to report wrongdoing if it affects their colleagues (93 percent), followed by customers (90 percent), the leadership team (88 percent) and the environment (85 percent).
“Following multiple high-profile whistleblowing events in business, sport and politics, American employees seem especially skeptical these days,” adds Walker. “In the ‘WhistleBlower Security US Report’ we found that 89 percent of American employees believe their employers use unethical or illegal practices that only employees know about and as such, almost all working Americans (94 percent) say employers should put safeguards in place to protect employees. If they don’t, a full third (32 percent) believe the organization ‘probably has something to hide’.” As well, if a whistleblower hotline is not available to employees, nearly half (46 percent) will make their concerns public by sharing them with friends/family (21 percent), industry officials (14 percent), lawyers (9 percent), media (5 percent), and social media (5 percent).
The ‘WhistleBlower Security US Report’ also examined the beliefs of 18- to 34-year-old employees and according to Walker, they “see more, fear more and tell more” as compared to their older colleagues. The younger set sees more wrongdoing, especially when working from home during Covid, has greater fears of retaliation if they blow the whistle and on average tells twice as many people about their workplace concerns and are three times more likely to share them on social media.
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About the Research
From March 21 to March 25, 2022, an online survey was conducted by WhistleBlower Security with a representative sample of 1,012 Americans employed at organizations with more than 250 employees. The survey was conducted among members of the Angus Reid Forum. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
About WhistleBlower Security
WhistleBlower Security Inc. is a global, B Corp Certified provider of ethics reporting services, including a 24/7/365 Global Ethics Hotline and Case Management platform which provide organizations with an efficient and trustworthy ethics reporting process. Visit https://www.whistleblowersecurity.com for more information.
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