In Touch
Designing Effective Hotline Programs

If your organization does not currently offer your employees a confidential and anonymous way to report concerns to senior management, it is increasingly in a minority. Back in 1991, when Peter Lilienthal, the president and founder of Minneapolis-based In Touch became one of the first to sell such hotline services, his efforts were met with skepticism. Companies believed that the concept would undermine their “open door” cultures and confuse reporting lines. It wasn’t until after several years when the Wall Street Journal documented the success of an In Touch program at The Pillsbury Company that the value of such a tool established traction.

Fast forward to today, hotline programs are relatively commonplace. Part of that prevalence is a result of such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices and the British Anti-Bribery Act that mandate the use of hotlines. Part of it is a result of the number of corporate scandals that have erupted around the world. The other part of it is the proven success hotline programs have had in uncovering organizational issues.

Against that backdrop, what Lilienthal believes sets In Touch apart is its focus on assisting CIO’s and others in taking a critical look at their hotline programs. How do you know if your organization’s hotline program is as effective as it could be? How can you confirm that your employees are aware of and trust it? When was the last time you checked to see how your pricing compares to market rates? Many CIOs are shocked to discover they are overpaying by thousands of dollars for woefully underperforming programs.

What to know about hotlines

On almost a daily basis, there is news of yet one more organization being rocked by discovery of harassment, corruption or malfeasance. CBS, Wells Fargo, Theranos and VW all had established hotline programs, yet unidentified issues erupted into overnight PR disasters. The question CIOs should want to understand is where and why things did not work. How can you protect your organization from damaging and often costly surprises?

According to Lilienthal, there are several steps an organization can take to increase the likelihood that it will hear about simmering problems. One of the first is to provide as many ways as possible for employees to report their concerns. Most existing hotline programs limit the reporting channels to a call center and a web reporting tool.

While those certainly do work, there are other alternatives an organization can consider using: automated (IVR reporting) email and text reporting are good examples of options that many employees actively prefer. The second step is to consider how a program is positioned and branded. Maybe an organization’s program could benefit from a refresh. The third step is evaluating how user-friendly a program is for a company’s international employees. Do the toll-free numbers your vendor offers actually work? Can they be accessed from mobile phones? The only way to know is to test the integrity of your system on a periodic basis–something that remarkably few companies take the time to do? Finally, it is important to assess the level of awareness and trust associated with the hotline program.

How is In Touch different?

In Touch distinguishes itself by its willingness and ability to proactively consider all aspects of both existing and contemplated confidential and anonymous reporting initiatives. One of the best evaluation tools it offers is a comprehensive Hotline Buying Guide that can be downloaded from In Touch’s website. This document covers a wide range of topics from program positioning to the benefits of pairing a program with a case management system–database software suites that are of relevancy to CIOs. In Touch’s CaseTrac, cloud-hosted SaaS package is considered the current market leader. Where training and reinforcement are concerned, In Touch offers an animated training video that can easily be customized to an organization’s specific need. A sample of that can also be viewed on the company’s website.

Last, but not least, In Touch offers a highly cost effective, outsourced exit interview program. The company’s skilled interviewers are trained to determine why your employees have really chosen to leave and to make certain that they have not experienced any misconduct or unethical behavior while employed. In today’s extremely tight job market and the significant cost associated with hiring and training replacements, a third-party managed exit interview program offers a significant return on investment. An Exit Interview Guide can also be downloaded from the In Touch website.

Where is the compliance market headed?

According to virtually every authority on the subject, the compliance market will continue to soar at annual double digit rates over at least the next decade. Assuring that organizations and their employees are adhering to laws, regulations and Codes of Conduct can have substantial economic benefit–both from a positive and negative perspective–and that is why compliance programs are increasingly a priority. The fastest area of growth is on the international front where a variety of factors–among them legal, cultural, language and geographic– present a difficult challenge. It is for that reason that In Touch specializes in designing programs that will work on a global scale. The good news, especially for CIOs, is that as the cost of storing and processing data continues to decline, so too will pricing in the compliance space. If your organization’s compliance program is not in the cloud, it should be.

You likely might be familiar with two or three of In Touch’s colossal competitors. That is because they have a widespread presence at conferences, exhibitions and in the compliance press. In contrast, In Touch simply sells its wares via the Internet and word of mouth. Nonetheless, the company had attracted a base of over 1,000 customers world-wide who have been attracted by the best combination of service, price, and technology and the industry. If you have not already, perhaps it is time for you to get in touch with In Touch!