I'm With Them Releases Report on Performance of Top 10 Tech Companies' Misconduct Hotlines; Shows Tech Giants Lag Far Behind Top Ten
New report shows Top 10 Tech Companies' anonymous hotlines are hard to find and harder to use. Could this contribute to lack of sexual misconduct reporting in tech?
ORANGE, Calif., July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- I'm With Them, the nonprofit whose mission is to reduce work-related sexual misconduct, today announced a report, "Bridging the Gap in Reporting Sexual Misconduct in Tech," that rates the Top 10 U.S. Tech companies on how easy it is to find their anonymous reporting hotlines.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act(1) requires that companies have an anonymous system for reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors ethical concerns that could result in financial impact. Many companies choose to implement an anonymous phone line through which complaints are compiled into reports and then channeled to the committee. The report highlights a significant barrier to reporting in tech which may contribute to simmering sexual misconduct problems: mechanisms are hard to find and access.
The study looked at Google search results for each company with the company's name and the words "anonymous hotline." Of the ten companies evaluated, I'm With Them gave five – Dell, HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft—D's, and three – Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook—F's. Only two received grades higher than a C: Cisco earned a B for having a comprehensive reporting page, and Oracle an A-. Most remarkable was that the Fortune Tech 10 had 8/10 companies with abysmal grades, whereas the Fortune 10 had only 4/10, suggesting that publicity about the tech sector's misconduct challenges may be understated due to poor support for reporting in that sector. Astonishingly for a sector that should be internet-savvy, a number of broken internet links were identified.
"We were disappointed, but not surprised," said I'm With Them President Laurie Girand. "These hotlines may be the only way for affiliates—those not employed directly, such as contractors, interviewees and vendors—to inform a company of bad actors in its midst. Tech companies should know how to make information accessible; instead, they seem to be following the letter of the law, not its intent."
In addition to the suffering of victims, survivors and their colleagues, instances of sexual misconduct cost companies in lost productivity and employees. Repairing cultures of misconduct can cause massive disruption to business operations. A single serial perpetrator can expose a company to millions in settlements or even bankruptcy. The report offers actionable steps companies can take to encourage reporting sexual misconduct through their anonymous hotlines.
To view the full report visit: https://www.imwiththem.org/perspectives/bridging-the-gap-in-reporting-sexual-misconduct-in-tech-pdf
(1) Section 301 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 requires that audit committees of the Board of Directors of publicly-held companies have "confidential, anonymous" procedures for employees to submit "concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters."
About I'm With Them
I'm With Them is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce work-related sexual misconduct. Its website, https://www.ImWithThem.org, unites survivors and victims and breaks through barriers of isolation and doubt, empowering them to share substantiation and coordinate approaches to better achieve their justice goals. Follow us on social media at @ImWithThemTOO
SOURCE I'm With Them
Share this article