Ethics and Compliance Line

Map’s outsourced whistleblower hotline service is a great fit for manufacturing, automotive, and construction businesses, as well as organizations in highly regulated sectors such as banking and finance, along with any business looking to improve safety, trust, and transparency.

This is not a general hotline, but a service we tailor for your organization. When you sign up, we’ll provide you with a unique toll-free number anyone on your team can call any time to speak to a trained interview specialist. Our live agents are available 24/7/365, including on weekends and holidays. (Note that Map does not perform investigations, and we are not a compliance provider; this tool is meant to serve as one element of a misconduct prevention program.)

24/7 Whistleblower Hotline Availability

Callers can anonymously or confidentially file complaints and check on open case status without the fear of retaliation sometimes associated with in-house reporting. Our web-based case management platform also allows people to easily file complaints online. After filing a complaint, every individual gets a unique case number and a confidential account, enabling them to stay in contact with the investigator throughout the process and provide follow-up information as needed.

Trained Third-Party Risk Management Receptionists

Map’s virtual representatives are trained to handle complex and sensitive situations, from fraud to workplace abuse to substance addiction and more. Callers can rest assured they’ll not only reach a neutral third party, but someone who treats them with empathy, respect, and discretion. Our receptionists can answer in English or Spanish—and we can conference in translators for 150 other languages for additional fees.

Accurate, Secure, and Up-to-Date Reporting

When you sign up for the whistleblower hotline, you’ll also gain access to a suite of web-based ethics and compliance tools, including a custom reporting landing page and case management portal dashboard. Our platform enables two-way incident communication, different user permission levels for lead investigators and sub-investigators, case monitoring and reporting, and more. Complaints are encrypted and only available through the secure case management portal.

Whistleblower Hotline Features

• Toll-free number
• Confidential reporting
• 24/7 coverage
• Bilingual capabilities
• Customizable intake form
• Secure online system
• Two-way communication
• Simple implementation
• Sarbanes-Oxley compliant

A Safer Workplace + Happier Employees + a Better Bottom Line

Mitigating and preventing misconduct isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also a smart move for minimizing financial risk, driving organizational efficiency, reducing turnover, and keeping employees happy and engaged.

A whistleblower hotline empowers people to speak up when they see or experience potential harassment, fraud, and other issues—while helping decision-makers better understand what’s happening on the floor or in the workplace.

Addressing and Preventing Harassment, One Call at a Time

Workplace harassment, discrimination, and abuse take many forms. But whatever it looks like, this kind of misconduct poses severe financial risk. Every year, agencies such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) handle tens of thousands of incidents of employee discrimination, with annual charges to businesses totaling over $400 million.

The direct financial impact of employee misconduct is only one piece of the puzzle. When an incident occurs, businesses lose incalculably more in terms of lowered morale, reduced productivity, employee churn, damaged relationships and consumer trust, and missed opportunities.

Despite the meteoric costs, businesses continue to struggle with incident reporting and resolution before issues reach external investigators. Why? Because, in many cases, employees don’t feel safe bringing their concerns to management. They fear their complaints won’t be taken seriously or they’ll face retaliation for speaking up.

The numbers tell a clear story:

• 70% of employees who experience harassment but never make internal complaints.
• 68% of sexual harassment cases that also include charges of employer retaliation.
• 53% of employees who say a “hostile work environment” is the reason they didn’t report issues.

Source: EEOC and Harvard Business Review

Map’s whistleblower hotline service can help you turn these patterns around. For one, it gives employees a clear, easy way to report harassment. On top of that, it’s encrypted, secure, and managed outside of your company—naturally curbing the potential for retaliation.

Keep in mind that your employees might not view an in-house reporting line as truly anonymous. The unfortunate fact is that employers sometimes track phone numbers and IP addresses associated with complaints, or even record those calls.

Outsourcing your whistleblower hotline to Map Communications will give your employees—as well as clients, customers, contractors, vendors, or other stakeholders—the safe space they need to come forward. Our position as an independent, third-party answering service allows us to be fully sympathetic to each caller’s privacy and confidentiality concerns while also understanding the importance of accurate information to your business.

Helping Businesses Prevent Fraud

Making it easier for employees to report harassment and reducing retaliation risk are just a couple advantages of outsourcing your whistleblower hotline. It can also help you address and avoid fraud before it has a chance to undermine your bottom line.

This isn’t only a concern for larger organizations but businesses of all kinds, including small businesses:

$200,000: Median loss related to small business employee fraud

Did you know that, when it comes to employee fraud, small businesses face greater losses than larger organizations? In fact, the median loss in an employee fraud case for a business of fewer than 100 people is $200,000—nearly double that of businesses with 100 or more employees.

57% of businesses fail to recover any losses from fraud

On top of that, the majority of organizations (57%) fail to recover any losses from fraud, and small businesses are particularly vulnerable in this respect.

OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD LASTS 12–18 months

And when you consider that occupational fraud schemes tend to last 12–18 months, the cost and complexity of cleaning up after employee misconduct can be devastating, making it essential that businesses catch perpetrators early on.

Source: ACFE 2024 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse

These risks multiply for organizations under legal obligations to mitigate fraud. Public companies, for instance, are required by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act to have internal reporting and whistleblower protection procedures in place. Meanwhile, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) can take regulatory action against businesses of all kinds for failing to adequately protect employee whistleblowers. For these reasons, numerous companies—public and private—use tools such as Map’s whistleblower hotline service to proactively manage risk.

Which Industries Need Whistleblower Hotline Services?

Why Use a Whistleblower Hotline?

A whistleblower hotline makes it easy for employees to report misconduct safely, privately, and conveniently—from any location, any time of the day or night. And it doesn’t need to be limited to members of your organization. The same tool can also help contractors, clients, customers, vendors, and other stakeholders keep your business safe and accountable.

Whistleblower hotlines serve critical roles in the prevention, documentation, and resolution of numerous kinds of issues that may occur in the workplace:

By allowing anyone to report incidents or concerns, a whistleblower hotline contributes to a culture of trust and transparency—a culture where everyone feels empowered, included, and responsible for speaking up.

A whistleblower hotline can also help you address issues that would otherwise likely follow from misconduct.

• It can reduce turnover by showing employees their voices matter and their concerns are taken seriously.
• It can improve your reputation with customers or clients who fear the impact of a potential incident or may have experienced loss following an actual incident.
• And it can drive efficiency, honesty, and confidence throughout your organization, as employees know they’re supported by each other and leadership and feel directly involved in doing the right thing.

All businesses can benefit giving employees access to a secure, third-party hotline where they can report issues. With that in mind, Map’s whistleblower hotline service is built for businesses of all sizes, including small businesses. It’s a standalone solution flexible enough to support virtually any organization, and available at a single price point—you don’t need to pay more based on the size of your company.