TL;DR
- Healthy internal whistleblowing programs are a major business asset, and many ways to promote reporting are fairly straightforward.
- Some well-established ways to promote an internal reporting or “speak up” program are attainable for little or no cost.
- Fundamentally, many effective strategies to promote a speak-up program involve increasing trust.
How to improve your speak up program
A strong internal whistleblowing or “speak up” program provides rich and invaluable risk intelligence to organizations large and small, and many of the proven measures to promote reporting are often straightforward and achievable for little or no cost, according to a panel of experts in a recent NAVEX webinar.
Drawing from deep experience in the compliance field, experts leading the August 5 “8 Proven Strategies to Promote Your Speak-Up Program” webinar provided practical advice anchored on eight areas of opportunity. Often, that guidance returned to an underlying goal – to foster trust in the program and the organization’s ethical culture.
“It’s not just the technical aspect of having a good hotline. It’s about having a strong corporate culture,” said Matt Kelly, CEO of Radical Compliance and panel moderator.
What is a speak-up program?
A speak-up program provides employees with trusted channels to report concerns, ask questions and raise issues related to ethics, compliance, workplace conduct and organizational risk without fear of retaliation. Effective speak-up programs help organizations identify and address concerns before they escalate.
Kelly, who has spent a career writing, reporting and reflecting on compliance issues, noted that the most recent global NAVEX customer internal reporting data shows median Reports per 100 Employees rising in recent years.
“Employees are speaking up, and that is good news for a compliance program. Speak-up reports are the raw material for your compliance program – they are the fuel on which your compliance program runs,” he said.
The question at hand for Kelly and fellow presenters is – what steps can organizations take to promote that reporting?
1. Branding your speak-up program
Organizations commonly choose a name for their speak up program, which can help increase awareness and broadcast certain corporate values. Mary Shirley, a webinar panelist, author and global compliance leader who has run multiple large programs, called out one such brand she encountered in her previous role – the “courage line.”
Audience polling on the matter of named programs was split, with the largest share of respondents indicating their organization used a bespoke brand for their program and that employees knew it by name. Following that group were those who indicated their organization did not have a branded program – but they wished it did.
Shirley emphasized that consistency is important if branding for a speak-up program is to be effective.
“What I think we have to be careful of is using a consistent language around it, so that the branding does not get diluted,” Shirley said.
She also cautioned that “speak up” may not be a familiar idiom for non-native English speakers and encouraged providing sufficient context for the term.
2. Employee training
In a finding that concerned the panel of experts, NAVEX’s 2026 State of Risk & Compliance Report found only 43% of organizations promote speak-up expectations in onboarding or training. This is despite the important opportunity those touchpoints have for reinforcing the value of a speak-up program.
This means 57% of organizations might be missing an opportunity to establish themselves as having a culture of ethics that encourages employees to speak up, said Erena Langley, panelist and NAVEX’s director of regulatory solutions.
“I like to think about first impressions and cultures,” said Langley, who has spent her career helping organizations in numerous fields navigate complex regulations and compliance concerns. “Culture is a thing in an organization that, once it’s established, can be hard to change. This is an easy, low-cost way to embed into your onboarding something that really helps communicate the company culture”
As a way to go about that onboarding exercise, Shirley suggested a “scavenger hunt” approach as opposed to straightforward instruction. Trainees are asked to track down contact information for a chief compliance officer or a page in a certain policy within the organization’s intranet or policy management system, for example.
3. Building 24/7 awareness
In addition to onboarding and periodic training, panelists highlighted the value of ongoing efforts to promote awareness of the speak-up program. The specifics can vary by organization, but attendees were encouraged to find ways to repeatedly reinforce understanding of where employees can find resources and access the tools to make a report.
When one attendee suggested adding a link to program resources in the compliance officer’s signature block, Shirley acknowledged such a move would make an inbox search yet another inroad to access the program. She suggested going even further.
“Ask if you can get leadership allies in the organization to also add it to their signature blocks. If you ask leaders to do it as well, you can also get some points for the tone from the top,” she said, referencing another way to encourage trust in the program through leadership support.
Some traditional awareness efforts like posters and screen savers risk blending into the background if rarely changed, she said. She encouraged regularly refreshing those reminders and considering ways to draw attention by including some real-world anecdotes reflecting the sort of whistleblowing the organization would want to promote.
4. Reinforcing anti-retaliation
“Of all the strategies we are going through today, this strikes me as the most fundamental, and most important to get right,” Kelly said. “I don’t care how cool your employee hotline is…if employees see that bad things happen when others speak up, your hotline is not going to be a good tool, and your speak-up program is not going to work, and everything else will atrophy from there.”
Indeed, of all the efforts to promote a speak-up program, panelists emphasized the importance of reinforcing anti-retaliation as paramount.
The share of reports made to NAVEX customers in 2025 categorized as “retaliation” was relatively small, at 1.20%. However, the fear of retaliation – justified or not – is difficult to quantify and remains a major barrier to reporting. Eighteen percent of respondents to NAVEX’s 2026 survey said retaliation was a challenge for their organization’s speak-up culture, and 51% said employees fear negative career consequences if they speak up.
Regulations such as those under the United States’ Sarbanes-Oxley law threaten consequences for retaliation against whistleblowers, yet various factors, including simple unawareness, can still discourage an employee from speaking up, Langley said. Reinforcing the anti-retaliation policy promotes trust that employees can raise concerns without fear of reprisal and also encourages reporting about retaliation itself.
“Trust is the fundamental currency of your speak-up program,” she said.
5. The tone from the top
NAVEX surveying shows a clear relationship between leadership’s tolerance of greater compliance risk and a greater incidence of negative compliance issues. For example, for those who said leadership tolerated greater risk, 23% said their organization experienced legal or regulatory action in the past two years. For those who did not indicate a greater compliance risk tolerance, that number was 13%.
“Senior managers are the ones that define, support and lead the culture,” which includes the speak-up culture, Kelly said. “People do take their cues from the top.”
Still, only about half of organizations were said to use regular leadership messaging to promote their speak-up program. In that vein, Shirley said she likes to enlist leaders as “adjust professors of compliance.” The CEO may send a message about what the company values mean to them, for example. She also suggested identifying a leader or two who are engaging and enthusiastic about speaking opportunities on topics like anti-retaliation or dispelling myths to show that more reports – not fewer – are a sign of better cultural health.
6. Providing diverse intake channels
Kelly noted that some efforts to promote speak-up programs are more tactical, such as providing multiple channels through which individuals can make reports or inquiries.
Langley explained that, like in other elements of promoting a speak-up culture, one size doesn’t fit all reporters. Younger reporters might be more inclined to use a web form, for example. Having a variety of intake methods – a phone hotline, web intake, in-person reports and other means – is ideal.
“Not everyone is at a desk. Not everyone is going to be able to use the same format,” she said.
Fundamentally, emphasizing the ability to remain anonymous, a commitment to anti-retaliation and training on how to actually use the intake mechanisms helps support trust in all preferences and situations for making a report, she said.
7. Making leaders accountable
Despite how frequently employees might raise a concern with their manager, only 43% of respondents to NAVEX’s recent survey said their organization requires speak-up training for managers. Only 40% require manager training in report escalation.
Shirley suggested establishing a set of “dos and don’ts” with managers. This might include guidance that managers should not conduct investigations themselves, but should gather information to support an investigation.
“It’s finding the right balance,” she said.
In a nod to concerns of retaliation, she added that it was important for organizations to set expectations that managers treat employees who report misconduct the same as they always have.
8. Showing the program works
Finally, the expert panel emphasized the value of showing that the speak-up program works. When prospective reporters see the organization takes allegations of misconduct seriously, they are more likely to make a report.
Langley suggested organizations share metrics, with explanations of their significance, with employees at some appropriate interval. This could be quarterly for a large organization with many reports, or on a more ad-hoc basis as points come to light for a smaller firm.
Speakers all emphasized the significant impact of having an individual who made a report speak from their own experience about how their action led to a positive outcome.
“I can’t think of anything better to support a program than to say, ‘This person is here to tell you how it worked for them," Langley said. “When they see the process, they trust the process…they trust the ethical sense through which the program is done, that cascades throughout the organization."
8 Proven Strategies to Promote Your Speak-Up Program
Employees won't use a speak-up program they don't know about—or trust. Join NAVEX to learn eight proven strategies for increasing employee speak-up awareness, building confidence in reporting channels …
