Building a Business Case for a Whistleblowing Platform

How the latest data on misconduct and reporting stacks up for boards and why the business case for a whistleblowing platform is so strong.

Most risk and compliance leaders don’t need convincing that employees should have a safe way to raise concerns in the workplace. The harder task is convincing the people who approve the budget.

Boards see a steady stream of proposals competing for the same funds. Without the right framing, a whistleblowing platform can look like another compliance line item, a cost with no obvious return. The case lands when it is made in the terms directors use: risk, cost and accountability.

The business case for a whistleblowing platform has never been stronger.

The risk the board already understands

If you are business case for a whistleblowing platform to take to your board, start with this figure: more than half (58.3%) of the reports made through the Report It Now™ EthicsPro® platform are made anonymously.

The bottom line: Most of those concerns would never have reached management through a line manager or an HR inbox. An independent platform surfaces information organisation would otherwise never receive, early enough to act on it.

Fraud is a cost every director recognises. The ACFE’s Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, based on 2,402 cases across 143 countries, estimates organisations lose 5% of revenue to fraud each year. The median loss per case was USD 104,000, and one in five cases exceeded USD 1 million.

Tips are the most effective defence. They detected 43% of frauds, more than half of them from employees, and 52% in the Asia-Pacific region.

Organisations with one recorded a median loss of USD 100,000 and detected fraud within 11 months. Those without lost USD 150,000 and took 17 months. Schemes caught within six months had a median loss of USD 40,000. Those running beyond five years exceeded USD 1.1 million.

Organisations that trained both staff and managers recorded median losses of USD 84,000, against USD 150,000 where neither was trained.

Legal exposure

The Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 strengthened protections for whistleblowers across both the public and private sectors. Demand is rising alongside it. Whistleblower complaints and enquiries to the Chief Ombudsman rose 58% in 2023/24, yet 30% of New Zealand public agencies have no system for recording and tracking concerns.

Retaliation is the sharpest exposure. NAVEX’s 2026 Whistleblowing & Incident Management Benchmark Report found retaliation reports were substantiated at just 16%, against 44% overall, and took a median 35 days to close. A documented, independent process is the organisation’s strongest position when those claims arise.

Beyond fraud

Fraud is not what most people report. Across EthicsPro® in early 2026, bullying and harassment made up a third of reports (33.3%) and health and safety a further 26.7%. Theft and fraud accounted for 13.3%.

These issues carry their own costs in turnover, absenteeism and litigation. They are also among the hardest for internal channels to surface, and they rarely appear in fraud-focused risk registers.

Common concerns, answered

“We already have an open-door policy.” The Institute of Business Ethics found 77% of New Zealand employees know their organisation has written ethical standards, yet only 57% know of a helpline for ethical concerns. Policy alone does not create a channel people will use.

“It will flood us with complaints.” Even at record levels, NAVEX found median reporting of 1.65 reports per 100 employees a year. A rising count usually reflects growing confidence, not deteriorating conduct.

“Anonymous reports can’t be investigated.” NAVEX found web reports are more likely to be anonymous yet still show strong substantiation, and follow-up with anonymous reporters reached a five-year high. On EthicsPro®, a confidential ID number allows secure two-way follow-up while the reporter stays protected.

Measurement matters

Focus on metrics that show exposure, action and accountability: reports per 100 employees, time to close, substantiation rate, outcomes, and retaliation reports. For context, NAVEX’s median closure time rose from 21 to 28 days in 2025, and nearly a quarter (24.5%) of substantiated reports to Asia-Pacific organisations resulted in no action. On EthicsPro®, 79.2% of reports arrive online and cases close in an average of 20 working days.