Misconduct often goes unreported, says survey

Only a handful of employees who witness misconduct within their organisations actually raise their concerns or report what they know to management for fear of retaliation, a major new survey has found.

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) surveyed more than 525,000 employees at 130 companies around the world. The results showed that on average out of 10,000 employees 15 people witness harassment and three spot accounting “issues” each week.

But only about 20% of these issues are actually reported to management, according to the CEB.

The survey also revealed that employees tend to be unsure about whether the misconduct witnessed is actually worth reporting.

Others refrain from speaking up because they are not sure how to report an incident. The main reason, however, was the fear of retaliation.

Whether employees report misconduct or not will often, so CEB Managing Director Sarah Schwab says, depend on the mindset that senior executives are conveying.

“Employees will react to whether unethical behaviour is tolerated in their department or not,” said Schwab. “If there is a specific framework within a company some of the pressure employees and executives are exposed to today is taken away.”

The CEB identified seven key attributes that affect corporate culture, including clarity of expectations and openness of communication. Using these attributes the CEB ranked the companies by their level of integrity. Those rated the highest displayed productivity gains, better strategic alignment and outperformed their peers.

Schwab points out that a clear outline of company ethics will offer guidance to employees on how to resolve a dilemma they are confronted with. This involves setting clear expectations of what behaviour is not tolerated, holding employees at all levels consistently accountable and sharing details regarding detected, punished misconduct.

Ultimately, executives being proactive about building a stronger corporate culture will have a positive effect on the company’s overall performance, the CEB survey concluded.