Welcome to our FAQ section. Here, we answer some of the most common questions about IntegrityCounts, our ethics hotline, and case management system, as well as the services provided by WhistleBlower Security.
From understanding the advantages of outsourcing ethics reporting to learning how to make a report, you’ll find detailed answers to your most pressing questions. We cover topics related to data security, training options, compliance with legislation, and much more.
WhistleBlower Security’s Ethics Reporting and Case Management program, IntegrityCounts, offers third party transparency and a secure amalgamated database that enables our clients to proactively identify and react to trends within their organization. By encapsulating all incident related data in a single place, our clients are better able to holistically manage issues on a continual basis.
Our 'live-answer' hotline Contact Center Agents are available 24/7/365 and are trained in empathetic and investigative techniques to support your Reporters when they do decide to come forward.
Overall, it is a comprehensive system that cannot be duplicated by an internal system with part-time support.
WhistleBlower Security is the only ethics and compliance based reporting service provider on the market dedicated to delivering a truly Human Centric Experience. Our flexible and modern Ethics Reporting and Case Management program, IntegrityCounts, has provided organizations worldwide with the best 24x7x365 reporting experience in the marketplace.
Since 2005, WBS has been dedicated to safeguarding hundreds of organizations against risk and fraud globally, while promoting and improving ethical work environments. The IntegrityCounts solution will enhance your organizational integrity and empower both employee and stakeholder contributions to developing an ethical workplace. WBS works with public, private and non-profits to augment, support and enhance cultures of integrity, accountability and transparency.
Reports are sent to designated representative in an organization. Once a report has been filed, a notification is sent to an organization’s representative. Reporters are informed as to who their report is being sent to while they are making the report and they will be able to have it redirected if one, or more, of the individuals is implicated in the report.
WBS currently services nearly 300 global clients ranging from private, public and not for profit, in a variety of industries such as education, aerospace, banking, healthcare, utilities, government, food and beverage, and sports to name a few. Our longest standing clients have partnered with us since our inception in 2005 and continue to use our services to ensure their employees and stakeholders have a safe place to voice concerns.
According to an Ernst & Young survey, 80% of people would come forward and report unethical behaviour using a whistleblower hotline.
Whistleblowing hotlines are increasingly inherent in ethics and compliance programs. According to a study, boards that include a Chief Compliance Officer are more likely to ensure that an internal whistleblower system is accessible to employees and stakeholders. Deloitte’s survey of very effective companies, shows that almost 80% had whistleblower hotlines and another 10% planned to implement them.
First, the program must be available 24/7/365. Next, one of the biggest threats to an effective whistleblower hotline is lack of awareness and engagement. If employees and stakeholders don't know of the availability of the service or are cynical when made aware of the service, the program will not be effective or successful. An effective program requires communications planning, training, management support, and policies and procedures to support both the launch of a system and the ongoing effectiveness.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), one of the most prominent federal regulatory agencies. Their mission “is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”
Their main areas of enforcement are:
According to the ACFE's Report to the Nations, employee tips are by far the number one method to detecting wrongdoing. So it is crucial that companies provide avenues for employees and vendors to come forward with information.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is part of the US Department of Labour. They are the main federal agency charged with the enforcement of safety and health legislation.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety promotes a safe and healthy working environment by providing information and advice about occupational health and safety.
No, not through WhistleBlower Security. We are a private third party that facilitates transparent and confidential communications between organizations and their key stakeholders. You may be referring to the Dodd-Frank Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchanges (SEC) new whistleblower program. We are not associated with this or any government organization. For more information regarding the Dodd-Frank act please visit Visit SEC website.
Yes. There are 13. Each province and territory has a securities commission or equivalent authority and its own provincial or territorial legislation.
Yes. We encourage those using our service to feel secure in reporting an incident. We offer 3 levels of anonymity.
Our system includes statements ensuring the Reporters’s anonymity will be maintained in the event they choose not to share any contact information. We further ensure that if a Reporter chooses to remain anonymous, no personal information is shared and no information about their originating telephone or computer is collected or displayed in any form.
In certain countries, Reporters are not allowed to be anonymous according to the local regulations. Our system adjusts to this criteria accordingly.
WhistleBlower Security operates this hotline and ethics reporting service on behalf of companies who have subscribed to our services. If your company has not subscribed, we cannot record your complaint. We suggest you contact the relevant authorities, directors or management inside your company.
Alternatively , if calling from USA – Contact your HR representative, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), or the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
If calling from Canada – Contact your HR representative, or Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).
WhistleBlower Security's IntegrityCounts reporting system supports many different organizations and each of these organizations has established and publicized how reports will be reviewed and by whom. Please review the communication material from your organization for specific details.
Your login will expire when your report has been closed by the authorized reviewers from the organization.
The information you provide is available immediately to the authorized designates from your organization who have been set up to receive reported complaints. The reviewers will assess each reported complaint and decide what actions are appropriate. When filing the complaint, you will be able to see who has access to it. You will be able to select or deselect these members if they are implicated in the report. This way, they will not have any access to the report.
You will have to make a new report. However if you want to provide more information about the same issue and your login has expired, you can refer to the Reference Number (your login ID) of your original report.
The more information that you can provide, the more valuable your report will be. If you do not include enough information it will be very difficult for those reviewing your report to act effectively. However, it’s best to provide any information you have no matter how much or how little. Remember that if the reviewers require more information they will be able to request additional information from you through the confidential messaging centre in the reporting system. In order to check to see if additional information has been requested, you will have to log in to the system using the login and password provided to you when you made your initial report.
Before you submit your report, you will be able to attach supporting documents to your report. If it is in electronic format, you can use the ‘Attachment’ feature, which is located on the report form. In order to protect your identity, be sure to remove all personal information from the electronic documents you are attaching – see ‘How do I protect my identity when attaching electronic documents?’
Unfortunately there is no way to check the status of your report if you lost your login and/or password. As part of our process to protect your identity, we do not provide a retrieval process for lost logins or passwords. If you recorded the Case ID Number, you can make a new report and refer to this Reference Number.
Before you attach a document, it’s a good idea to review it for personal and hidden information, and decide what is appropriate to include. You may want to remove some information from your file via document file properties before uploading your document as an attachment.
To remove personal information from file properties:
Making a report is easy. If you are using the web-based system, just fill out the appropriate fields as shown on the screen. If you are using the Toll-Free Hotline, simply follow the instructions of the In-Take Agent, and ensure you are as specific as possible without giving away your identity (unless you want to identify yourself). You can also email WhistleBlower Security directly by using your company’s customized email address.
In order to check the status of your report, you can log in to the system using the username and password you were provided after your submission. Or you can call the Hotline and provide the same login and password that was given to you when you filed your report. Once inside the system, you will be able to access the messaging center and check to see if anyone from your organization has responded to your report. You may also send a message to your organization.
You can access the IntegrityCounts reporting and case management system by:
Yes, you can use your home computer. All that is needed is a modern browser with an internet connection and JavaScript enabled. The system is available for PCs, laptops, and mobile optimized for both Android and iOS tablets/phones. There are no special 'plug ins' required.
Browsers supported include but are not limited to:
No, all login and passwords are unique. Unless you give someone your login and password, the only people who will be able to view your report will be the reviewers authorized by your organization.
The IntegrityCounts reporting system is operated by WhistleBlower Security Inc. and is independent from your organization; we do not track IP addresses or subscribe to caller I.D. services. We use the latest in encryption and security technology including firewalls to ensure that our system is secure. You must take care when providing information in your report and ensure that you do not provide personal details or information that will expose your identify if you want to remain anonymous.
Technically, yes; however, the organization has subscribed to our service with the intent to provide a confidential and anonymous system to its employees and stakeholders.
We use the latest version of encryption technology to protect your identity and our website has firewall and other security features to protect the information that you are providing in your report.
All data / information transmission is done using encrypted methods. Data is stored in a central database and is only accessed via web portal using Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.2) encryption. Other documents would be transferred using a secured file sharing service that also utilizes SSL encryption.
No, the whistleblower reporting system, IntegrityCounts, is not linked to your organization’s computer. IntegrityCounts is operated independently from your organization and hosted on separate servers inaccessible by any third party.
There are many benefits to enlisting a third party service to handle the governance and compliance aspect of your business. It will ensure that all reports made about your organization remain anonymous and confidential. Reporters will be confident that their identity will be fully protected. The Whistleblower system is proprietary and has been developed through years of research and reporting. We understand the needs of our clients and their employees and stakeholders and we are wholly committed to ensuring the confidentiality of both.
Bill 198 (Multilateral Instrument 52-110) in Canada and Section 301.4 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act require all publicly traded companies to: ‘Establish procedures for the receipt, retention, and treatment of complaints received regarding accounting, internal accounting controls, or auditing matters; and handling the confidential, anonymous submission by company employees of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters’. Our IntegrityCounts reporting system provides not only a confidential and anonymous reporting system for employees and other stakeholders, it also provides a valuable source of information regarding the organization’s Code of Conduct and Ethics and the Reporter’s role and responsibilities.
WhistleBlower Security is able to provide call center services outside of North America. The hotline is available in 150 languages outside of English, French, and Spanish, and is supported by our interpretation partner.
Yes, our hotline is available 24/7/365.
Our intake specialists can directly support English, French, and Spanish and with the help of our interpreter partner we can support up to 150 different languages.
The web intake form is available in 25 different languages, with new languages added every year. Currently the form is available in:
Arabic, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese
If you have questions about implementing an ethics hotline and case management we’ll be pleased to help answer them.
Our flexible and modern Ethics Reporting and Case Management solution, IntegrityCounts™, has provided organizations worldwide with the best 24x7x365 reporting experience in the marketplace.
IntegrityCounts customer support is available 24-7, from 8:30am– 4:00pm Pacific, Monday to Friday.
