The leaked document, which was revealed by the BBC on Friday (6 June), also stated that “dominant personalities and a weak control environment facilitated opportunities to commit fraud” at Unite the union.
Auditors BDO reported “unusual relationships” between former senior staff and Unite’s customers and suppliers, along with a culture that “failed to ensure” appropriate financial reporting.
Unite's general secretary, Sharon Graham, ordered the audit shortly after she was elected in 2021, amid questions about spending and accounting related to building a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham. She has committed to tightening governance procedures including around expenses, gifts and hospitality.
In response to the auditor's findings, Graham told the BBC: “The re-audit is in its final stages and as we move to completion, I will ensure steps are taken so that this can never happen again... we have already started the process of getting our money back.”
As the union moves forward from the findings, we asked commentators how organisations can tackle pervasively problematic workplace cultures.
Empowering employees to speak up is critical, said Angela O’Connor, founder and CEO of The HR Lounge consultancy, along with reforming systems.
Read more: HR must help safeguard workforces against fraud
O'Connor told HR magazine: “The goal has to be, not only to stop wrongdoing and fraud but to build a corporate culture where this can no longer thrive. This will require rebuilding a sense of the organisation’s values with a focus on integrity, transparency and accountability.”
According to O’Connor, ensuring leadership that models right behaviour is also crucial, and people who are found to have broken the rules, or managers who stood by, should feel the consequences, particularly at the most senior level.
Transparent work cultures are built on having difficult conversations head-on, explained HR consultant Kate Maddison-Greenwell. “That means creating space for an honest dialogue, listening without defensiveness and addressing issues with compassion and clarity,” she said, speaking to HR magazine.
Maddison-Greenwell continued: “It takes practice, and it isn't always comfortable; leaders have to be courageous enough to chance getting it wrong at first.”
HR professionals' role can be pivotal in leading conversations with empathy and demonstrating commitment to accountability at all levels, stressed Maddison-Greenwell.
Read more: Are your anti-bribery and anti-fraud policies up to scratch?
Leandro Herrero, CEO and founder of change management consultancy The Chalfont Project, compared workplace culture to a petri dish, “where things grow – good or bad.”
“Input poor behaviours, inefficient processes or poor governance and the resulting output that we describe as culture is bound to feel negative, toxic even,” Herrero told HR magazine. “As in a petri dish, this negative culture grows exponentially if left unchallenged, invading every aspect of corporate life.”
However, according to Herrero, there is little point in attempting to fix negative traits. Instead, an organisation needs a 'counter-epidemic' of positive behaviours spread by those with influence, and role-modelled by leadership.
“These behaviours can be the drivers for many desirable outputs – transparency, trust, honesty, etc – but must be articulated in such a way that employees can live and breathe them on a daily basis. Only then can a negative culture be truly challenged ‘from within’,” said Herrero.
