By Adam Turteltaub

The 2022 Risk & Compliance Hotline & Incident Management Report from NAVEX included data that showed that helpline calls, while increasing, were not back to pre-pandemic levels.

New research from Gartner confirms that data, reports Chris Audet, Gartner’s Senior Director, Research. It also provides new insights into reporting and where organizations continue to struggle to win over their workforces.

The drop in observed misconduct reported likely reflects, he explains, a decline in actual misconduct – a reflection of less opportunity for it – and a significant change in the landscape: the type of misconduct is changing. Bullying, intimidation, unwanted behavior and misuse of time and resources are going up.

So what should organizations do with employees calling the helpline not as often? He recommends relying less on reporting and more on embedded controls, as was discussed in his previous podcast. In addition, many are seeking technologies that support narrow risk areas such as insider trading.

Gartner is also seeing an increase, he reports, in questions about wider views into risk through GRC and other third-party risk tools.

But, even with all that, the helpline is critically important to compliance programs. To increase its usage, the research suggests revisiting the value proposition about reporting. Expectations have change for the employer/employee relationship over the last few years. Feeling safe from retaliation is not the driver that it was thought to be. Their data suggest that there are other levers to pull.

Listen in to learn about what those levers are and how to use them most effectively.