As we get into the swing of 2022, we would like to start the year by reflecting on the whistleblowing positives of 2021. Despite challenging markets, it was nonetheless an exciting year of growth for the WhistleB solution and team, and we have summarised the year's highlights as the five Ps.

  1. Protection of whistleblowers across Europe  – On 17th December the EU Whistleblower Directive came into effect across all EU member states. While the majority of countries have yet to finalise their national whistleblowing laws under the Directive, the event still marked a monumental step forward in the world of whistleblowing. We are delighted that from now on, whistleblowers in Europe will be accorded the protection they deserve, and organisations are set to gain from more timely knowledge about misconduct taking place within their walls.
  2. Product – And naturally, the WhistleB whistleblowing solution is ready and compliant for these EU-wide whistleblower protection laws, including GDPR compliance and secure EU data storage. Other relevant features include that WhistleB allows confidentiality, enables you to provide acknowledgement of receipt of a whistleblower report within seven days and let's you inform whistleblowers of follow-up within three months – even if they have reported anonymously. We recommend you watch this webinar or download this solution guide to find out more.
  3. People – We are fortunate to work with fantastic people, and we want to thank you all. Thanks to our customers who lead the way in good business ethics and trust our whistleblowing solution to help you do so. Thanks to our employees for your outstanding commitment to always providing the best product and service excellence. Finally, thanks to our suppliers, many of whom we have long-lasting relationships with, for helping us and our team to deliver.
  4. Partners – This could go under "People" but we would like to give a special mention to all the companies in our WhistleB Partnership Programme. The programme and network have expanded greatly during the year and we are so very proud to work with some of the world's top-tier legal and other firms to offer customers a one-stop-shop for whistleblowing advice, services and solutions.
  5. Professionalism in whistleblowing – Finally last summer we saw the release of the ISO voluntary guidance standard for whistleblowing systems, ISO 37002. The standard provides "guidelines for implementing, managing, evaluating, maintaining and improving a robust and effective management system within an organisation for whistleblowing". In other words, guidance is now available to help companies of all sizes become more professional in their whistleblowing programmes.

We hope you are feeling invigorated after the holiday season, and we wish you a peaceful, prosperous 2022.

Originally Published 11 January 2022

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