A whistleblowing hotline is part of a whistleblowing system or process that is set up by a business, organisation, charity, or government body.
The whistleblowing system or process is designed to help employees, volunteers, and others, to report wrongdoing, illegal or unethical behaviour that is occurring within the workplace.
The term 'whistleblowing hotline' originates in the pre-digital era and originally referred simply to a telephone reporting line. With the advent of digital technology and the Internet the term is now used as a catch-all to describe all forms of whistleblowing contact, including the submission of online forms, emails, and voicemails, as well as the still heavily used telephone itself.
To properly understand why an organisation might want to set up a whistleblowing hotline, see our article '5 solid reasons to have a robust external whistleblowing reporting system'.
Sometimes businesses and organisations will shy away from the term 'whistleblowing' because they believe it might imply there is wrongdoing within their industry.
Equally, there are industries that want to be even more explicit than the term whistleblowing hotline suggests, using words like 'fraud' and 'safeguarding'. Businesses and organisations in this bracket often take a 'does what it says on the tin' approach to be absolutely clear what they are trying to prevent.
Of course, there is no absolute answer to what a...
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