The Department of Justice (DOJ) wants your employees to blow the whistle on their workplace, and it’s willing to offer a big payout, depending on the outcome.
Under a new pilot program that started August 1, the DOJ is offering compensation to whistleblowers whose tips result in a successful prosecution. The program covers a certain set of corporate crimes, ranging from domestic and foreign corruption to healthcare fraud.
While whistleblowers can submit their complaints directly to the DOJ, the agency has said it wants to “encourage employees to report misconduct internally” before going to the government, and that doing so may actually increase their monetary award. Corporate leaders are being encouraged to go to the DOJ with information about wrongdoing before their workers do, the Washington Post reported. “Company leadership must grapple with the increased possibility that if they don’t self-disclose, an individual whistleblower might beat them to the punch,” Lisa Monaco, US deputy attorney general, told reporters.
This is where internal compliance programs—in some cases, facilitated with the help of HR pros—come in.
What drives workers to report. The share of employees reporting misconduct in their workplaces fell by five percentage points from 2018–2019 to 2020–2021, according to research published by consulting firm Gartner in June 2022. Workers’ reluctance to come forward may be driven in part by pandemic-related work-from-home arrangements. “In a virtual or...
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