Have a way for employees to speak up about any funny business they witness? Great. But are those tips being ignored?

Quite possibly … if they’re made anonymously.

That’s the startling finding of a new survey published in the Journal of Management Studies.

Despite the fact that whistleblower mechanisms have been repeatedly proven to be the most effective ways to detect and prevent financial funny business, most companies won’t take any action on a whistleblower tip if it comes from an anonymous source.

The irony: Anonymous tips are often the largest and most dramatic!

No matter what system you currently have in place to guard against fraud, here are two keys to make the most of this critical risk management tool.

Key #1: Make it as broad as possible

A whistleblower hotline doesn’t have to be used strictly when an employee sees a co-worker padding an expense report.

The sad truth is, these days so many actions can negatively impact your organization and its bottom line. So it’s a smart idea to expand your definition of what is a whistleblower-worthy incident, including concerns about:

• safety
• discrimination, and even
• workplace bullying.

Key #2: Embrace as many best practices as possible

While every company is going to hit upon a system that works best for its own situation, there are definitely some best practices when it comes to the “ideal” whistleblower hotline:

• They are monitored externally, rather than in-house.
• They offer 24/7 access, and
• They are live, vs. a recorded message line. (Some people choose not to leave a tip when they don’t reach a real person).

Of course, some of these strategies you may be able to embrace, some you might not.

Bottom line: Make sure that everyone understands that having any type of whistleblower mechanism is better than having none at all.