Responsibility · Ethics · Component
Speak-up response procedure
What happens after someone raises a conduct concern — acknowledgement, handling, protection from retaliation and feedback to the person who raised it.
The deliverable
What it is
Whether people raise concerns depends less on the existence of a channel than on what they believe happens next. This procedure defines that next step, and the record of following it is what builds or erodes trust.
Where the law requires a whistleblowing channel, its legal specification and controls are mapped in Compliance. This component covers the ethical scope beyond that — concerns about lawful conduct that conflicts with the code — and the standard of response the organisation holds itself to.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
Scope of concerns
Which kinds of concern the procedure accepts, including conduct that is lawful but breaches the code of conduct.
2 attributes: In scope · Routed elsewhere
LearnHandling standard
How quickly a concern is acknowledged, who looks into it, and when the person who raised it hears the outcome.
3 attributes: Time to acknowledge · Handler · Time to feedback
LearnRetaliation check
A follow-up some months after a concern is closed, checking whether the person who raised it has suffered for doing so.
3 attributes: Check due · Result · Checks completed
Learn
Judge the procedure by what happened to the people who used it. That is what everyone else is watching.
The other components in ethics
Code of conduct
The conduct standards the organisation expects above the legal minimum, written as recognisable situations and traced to the values behind them.
LearnDilemma casebook
Ethical dilemmas the organisation has faced, the options weighed, the reasoning and the outcome — kept so the next decision starts from precedent.
Learn