Give a detailed example of an effective ethics assist line.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A good ethics assist line has many qualities. Very important is the promise of
anonymity, something that should be made very clear to employees when they are
informed of the existence of the line. There should be multiple ways to contact the line in case an employee is more comfortable with an email or text than a phone call. All reported issues should be taken seriously when they come through an assist line, even if it’s a simple matter of providing advice on how to deal with a human resources issue.
Managers should also make clear that they support employee use of such a resource if needed. Employees should also be warned that any false reporting to an ethics assist line will be punished with sanctions by the organization.
Although all these tasks can be accomplished whether a company creates their own
assist line in-house or contracts one through a third-party, third-party lines have the
added benefit of being more attractive to most employees, who will likely place greater trust in their anonymity if they are calling a line not sponsored by their own company.