Companies continue to struggle with whistleblower retaliation issues, a problem exacerbated by a lack of transparency and rank-and-file employees increasingly becoming part of the problem.

Those were among the conclusions drawn by NAVEX Global, a global ethics and compliance intelligence consultant, after it surveyed senior executives and ethics and compliance professionals in September on whistleblower retaliation prevention and ways to “cultivate trust and engagement between workers and management.”  

The survey, which included professionals from multinationals and Fortune 500 companies, found that only 15 percent of respondents said organizations inform employees about retaliation trends and internal reporting of suspected misconduct, a statistic that was called “low and concerning.”

Also among the findings:

Employees increasingly view retaliation as coming from peers and not just management. When asked how front line employees define retaliation, the definition typically included negative comments from their peers. Being “socially shut out by co-workers and managers” was also cited.

Seventy-four percent of respondents view training and awareness programs as most effective in minimizing retaliation claims. The next two most effective methods identified were more open communications between management and line workers (45 percent), and an enhanced corporate culture (41 percent). Stronger disciplinary measures ranked as among the least effective methods.

A “significant” number of respondents (35 percent) said executives or high performers are merely “coached” after they engage in retaliation, as opposed to “fired,” “penalized” or subjected to other disciplinary action.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents said their organization uses whistleblower reporting data to inform reports to the Board of Directors. 

“Providing a hotline number for raising concerns is not enough. To maintain a positive corporate culture that is rooted in trust, organizations need to share sanitized information on how management actually handles claims,” says Shanti Atkins, president and chief strategy officer of NAVEX Global. “It is time to take away the mystery of what happens after an employee reports an issue.”

The NAVEX Global study comes on the heels of similar research regarding whistleblower retaliation conducted by to the Ethics Resource Center. It found that retaliation rates had an 83 percent increase in the past five years. Nearly a third of whistleblowers who experienced retaliation say they endured physical harm or had their home or vehicle damaged after reporting wrongdoing in 2011.