Whistleblowing solutions provider Safecall defined "HR-related complaints" as those that HR could be responsible for resolving, including complaints about bullying, discrimination and unfair treatment.
The proportion is slightly down from the previous year's analysis (2023), where HR-related concerns made up 58% of all complaints to Safecall, the same as in 2022, when 55% of complaints were HR-related.
The statistics in Safecall's annual whistleblowing benchmark report are drawn from its own database of more than 5 million employees in more than 1,000 organisations worldwide.
Overall, Safecall's researchers found that reports of whistleblowing had increased 16% from 2023, its highest recorded level of complaints.
In an environment of increasing complaints, HR professionals must continue their work in fostering employee trust, handling complaints correctly, and building psychologically safe workplaces, suggested Joanna Lewis, Safecall's managing director.
She told HR magazine: “Anonymity, and thus a consequence-free environment, fosters a safe space and assures employees that they will not face repercussions for their reports. Employees should be able to trust that those they are reporting to know how to handle them correctly.
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“HR leaders should ensure that whistleblowing procedures are clear, and detail the designated channel or team who has the training and capability to handle whistleblowing reports, to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks. People in managerial positions should be equipped with the skills to handle concerns from their employees.”
Although it is a positive sign that employees are willing to speak up about issues, employers must of course work to avoid situations that give rise to complaints in the first place, stated inclusive leadership consultant, Jackie Handy.
Speaking to HR magazine, she said: “The volume of issues like bullying, discrimination and unfair treatment is a clear sign there is still work to do in creating psychologically safe workplaces. It reminds us of the need to continue pushing forward with inclusion and belonging work. The correlation of reducing inclusion efforts and increased cases is likely not a coincidence.
“More than ever, employees need to feel genuinely supported. Trust is key to this. Whistleblowing processes must be clear, accessible and free from jargon. But, just as importantly, people need to believe that their concerns will be taken seriously and handled fairly.”
Simply having a whistleblowing procedure is not enough, stated Kate Palmer, employment services director at insights firm Peninsula.
Speaking to HR magazine, she added: “Training those required to act under your procedures, especially line managers who may not have HR expertise, on what it is and how it is to be used, is vital to being an effective means of dealing with whistleblowing concerns."
Safecall's latest report also revealed that whistleblowing complaints related to bribery, corruption, fraud and theft made up one in five (19%) concerns.
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The traditional HR framework for dealing with complaints is outdated, according to David Liddle, founder of conflict resolution and culture consultancy, The TCM Group.
Liddle told HR magazine: “The traditional HR policy framework – which is reactive, retributive and legalistic in tone – has become both outdated and unfit for the modern workplace.
“The collapse of trust and confidence in existing HR structures, and, by extension, in HR itself, explains the sharp rise in whistleblowing, informal conflict, and workplace disengagement. Employees are sidestepping systems they perceive as unjust or ineffective.”
In order for employees to feel comfortable enough to come forward with concerns, senior leaders must set rules about cultural standards, said Josh Bersin, CEO of human capital advisory firm The Josh Bersin Company.
Bersin told HR magazine: "So many stories of senior leaders behaving poorly keep coming up, so we are living in a period where senior leaders don’t always behave.”
HR leaders should do more than tick a box when supporting employees who come to them with concerns, emphasised Hanna Naima McCloskey, founder of diversity and inclusion solutions agency Fearless Future.
She told HR magazine: “Supporting people who raise issues cannot be a matter of box-ticking, it requires a principled commitment to safety, transparency and repair. HR must be resourced to understand the power dynamics at play and to respond not only to individuals, but to the policies, practices and cultures that have failed people.
“If we want fewer whistleblowing reports, the solution is not to reduce reporting. It is to reduce the longstanding patterns of harm and mistreatment. That begins by designing workplaces that centre equity from the start.”
