In the compliance world, no news is not good news.

Let me ask you a question every CCO should be asking right now: Are your employees actually reporting and using your hotline to report legitimate concerns?

Too many compliance officers look at a quiet hotline and breathe a sigh of relief. No calls, no complaints. Must mean everything’s fine.

I’m here to tell you that’s backward. A silent speak-up line isn’t good news. It’s a red flag.

Here’s why: misconduct doesn’t disappear just because nobody’s reporting it. What disappears is trust. Trust that raising an issue will be taken seriously. Trust that there’s no retaliation waiting on the other side.

When that trust is gone, people don’t stop seeing problems. They just stop telling you about them, and that’s exactly when whistleblower risk goes up, not down, because the next person who sees something is going straight to the regulator instead of you.

So benchmark your reporting volume against your industry. Look at your trends over time. If your numbers are flat or falling while everyone around you is seeing increases, don’t celebrate. Investigate.

The Ethics and Compliance Q and A show is produced by One Stone Creative.