Whistleblowing channel
Whistleblowing software built around Directive (EU) 2019/1937
HR Hero gives your company a confidential channel for reporting wrongdoing: a public page where anyone can report anonymously, a case inbox for your designated handlers and a tamper-evident log of each submission, assignment, status change and acknowledgement. The 7-day deadline to acknowledge a report is tracked in the inbox.
The whistleblowing channel is part of HR Hero Professional, at €4.90 per employee per month.
01How it works
From the first report to a verified case log
Public reporting page
A reporting page that needs no account
Your company gets its own reporting link on Office Hero Connect. Anyone can use it, anonymously by default: they choose a category, describe what happened in up to 1,000 characters and receive a reference number. They can then generate a four-word passphrase, shown only once, to check the status of their report.
- Five categories: harassment, fraud, health and safety, discrimination and other
- Staff can give their employee ID, and anyone else reports anonymously
- At most three accepted reports per hour from one network address, to prevent abuse
Case handling
Case handling from receipt to closure
Designated handlers see each report in HR Hero, assign colleagues to it and acknowledge receipt. A case moves from received to under review, investigating and closed, and the handler can write to an anonymous reporter in a private follow-up thread.
- A named reporter with a login receives the acknowledgement by e-mail
- For an anonymous report, acknowledging issues a one-time follow-up token, which the handler sends to a contact the reporter left in the report
- Only the reporter holding the token and people with whistleblowing permissions can read the thread
Deadlines
The 7-day acknowledgement deadline, tracked in the inbox
The directive asks you to acknowledge a report within seven days and to give feedback within three months. Each report in the inbox carries a badge: within the 7 days, past them, 30 days or older, or acknowledged late. Once a report passes 7 days unacknowledged, the handlers assigned to it get a reminder in the app.
- Filter the inbox by status, category and age
- The acknowledgement date is recorded on the case
- A report acknowledged after the 7 days is marked as acknowledged late
Audit trail
A hash-chained log you can verify
Every report has its own log of the submission, each handler assignment, each status change and the acknowledgement. Each entry carries a fingerprint of the one before it, so a changed or deleted entry breaks the chain. Handlers can verify a chain with one click, and every chain is checked each night.
- Each entry shows when it happened, who acted and what was done
- Reading the log is a permission of its own
02Also included
Built for confidential case work
Internal report form
Anyone signed in to HR Hero can also report from inside the app, anonymously or with their name, which only people with whistleblowing permissions can see.
Encrypted reports
Report contents are encrypted at rest with your company's own key, which is protected by a master key held in HashiCorp Vault.
Separate permissions
Reading cases, acting on them and reading the case log are three permissions, so you decide exactly who does what.
Retention period
Closed reports leave the inbox once the retention period, counted from the day a report was received, has passed: 60 months by default, or 12 to 120 months as set for you by Office Hero. A weekly job does this automatically.
Expired reports are marked as deleted, not erased: the encrypted record and its log stay in the database.
Handler training calendar
See when each handler was last trained, with due-soon and overdue flags against a 90-day refresher.
Office Hero keeps the list of handlers for you, so the calendar is read-only in HR Hero.
15 languages
The public reporting page and HR Hero are available in 15 languages.
What the channel does not do
Reports are made in writing: HR Hero has no phone line or voice recording, and reporters cannot attach files. Nobody is notified when a new report arrives, and a report with no handler assigned gets no reminder, so check the inbox regularly and assign a handler to each new report. Only the 7-day acknowledgement deadline is tracked automatically; the three-month feedback deadline is watched with the age badges and filter. Whether your setup meets your national law is for you and your legal adviser to confirm.
04Questions
Questions about the whistleblowing channel
Not answered here? Write to [email protected]. A person from our team in Skopje replies, Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 CET.
Can people report anonymously?
Yes. The public reporting page is anonymous by default and records no identity. Reporters get a reference number and can create a four-word passphrase to check the status. The form has no contact field, so a reporter who wants a two-way conversation leaves a contact, such as an anonymous e-mail address, in the report, and the handler sends a private follow-up token there.
Who can use the channel?
Anyone with your company's reporting link, including employees, former employees, job applicants, contractors and suppliers' staff, without an account. Named reports use an employee ID, so people from outside your company report anonymously.
How does HR Hero help with the 7-day and 3-month deadlines?
Each report carries a badge for the 7-day window, and the handlers assigned to it get an in-app reminder once it passes 7 days unacknowledged. Nobody is told when a new report arrives, so check the inbox regularly. The three-month feedback deadline has no reminder: use the age column and the 30-days-or-older filter to keep track of it.
Does HR Hero make us compliant with the directive?
HR Hero gives you a written reporting channel, tracking of the 7-day acknowledgement and a log of each case. Information on reporting to the authorities, an oral channel where your national law asks for one and feedback within three months are yours to arrange. Your duties come from national law, so confirm your setup with a legal adviser. See our guide to the directive.
How do we start?
Office Hero gives you your company's reporting link when HR Hero is set up. Publish it where your people and business partners will find it, such as your intranet and website, and give your handlers the whistleblowing permissions.
Which package includes the channel?
HR Hero Professional, at €4.90 per employee per month, includes the whistleblowing channel. See pricing for the full package.
See a report travel from the public page to closure
Book a demo and we will file a test report and handle it with you in HR Hero.