Whistleblowing
Confidential reporting channels handled with care and integrity
Confidential channels for staff and third parties to raise concerns, and a controlled workspace to handle what they report — with strict need-to-know access, protection for the reporter's identity, structured investigation and an auditable trail from first report to outcome. A speak-up programme lives or dies on trust: people report only when they believe they will be protected and taken seriously. OnyxOne provides the confidential intake and the disciplined, access-controlled handling that let a firm honour that trust, meet its speak-up obligations, and treat every report with the seriousness and integrity it deserves.
How it works, visually
Alert, triage, investigate, decide, report — with clear ownership and a defensible trail at every stage.
The problems this module solves
The operational realities that make this hard for compliance and risk teams today.
People don't report because they don't trust the channel
If staff fear their identity will leak or their concern will be brushed aside, they stay silent — and the firm loses its earliest warning of misconduct. A channel that cannot demonstrably protect the reporter is a channel no one uses.
Confidentiality is impossible to guarantee informally
When reports arrive by email or land on a manager's desk, the reporter's identity spreads with every forward. There is no way to confine a sensitive concern to those who genuinely need to know, and no record of who saw what.
Reports are handled inconsistently or lost
Without a defined process, one concern is investigated thoroughly and another quietly ignored. Reports fall through the cracks, timelines slip, and the firm cannot show it takes every disclosure seriously.
Anonymous reporters can't be kept in the loop
A reporter who wishes to stay anonymous often has more to add, or wants to know the outcome — but informal channels offer no safe way to communicate back without unmasking them, so the dialogue dies.
There's no defensible record of how a concern was handled
Speak-up obligations require the firm to show it received, assessed and acted on concerns properly and protected those who raised them. An informal process leaves no trail to demonstrate any of it.
How OnyxOne addresses it
Confidential channels people will actually use
Concerns are raised through confidential channels that support named or anonymous reporting, so staff and third parties can speak up in the way they are comfortable with. A channel that visibly protects the reporter is a channel that gets used.
Strict need-to-know access by design
Each report is confined to a defined handling group under strict need-to-know access, with the reporter's identity protected and access recorded. Confidentiality is enforced by the system, not left to the discretion of whoever receives the report.
A consistent, serious handling process
Every report enters the same structured process — acknowledge, assess, investigate, resolve — so no concern is handled better or worse than another, and the firm can show each was taken seriously and progressed on a defined path.
Two-way contact that preserves anonymity
The firm can communicate with an anonymous reporter through a secure channel — asking for detail, giving updates, sharing an outcome — without ever needing their identity. The dialogue continues while the protection holds.
An auditable trail from report to outcome
Every step — receipt, access, assessment, investigation and outcome — is recorded on an append-only trail, so the firm can demonstrate that concerns were handled properly and reporters protected, exactly as speak-up obligations require.
What's in the module
Turn on what you need and add more as your programme scales.
Confidential intake channels
Provide confidential channels for staff and third parties to raise concerns, named or anonymously.
Anonymous reporting
Accept concerns without capturing the reporter's identity, while still allowing follow-up.
Need-to-know access control
Confine each report to a defined handling group under strict, recorded need-to-know access.
Reporter protection
Protect the reporter's identity throughout handling, with disclosure controlled and logged.
Structured triage & assessment
Assess each report consistently for seriousness, category and the right handling path.
Confidential investigation
Investigate concerns within a controlled workspace, keeping the report and its evidence confined.
Secure two-way messaging
Communicate with an anonymous reporter for follow-up and outcome without unmasking them.
Conflict-of-interest handling
Exclude implicated individuals from a report's handling group to protect integrity.
Case linkage & escalation
Escalate substantiated concerns into investigations or cases while preserving confidentiality.
Immutable handling trail
Every receipt, access, assessment and outcome is written to an append-only record.
The views your team works from
Purpose-built dashboards and views, each answering a question a specific role needs to act on.
A representative layout of the KPI tiles and charts these dashboards present. Figures shown are illustrative examples, not real data.
Report queue
Open reports by category and status, visible only to authorised handlers, with handling-time and next action against each.
Acknowledgement tracker
Reports awaiting acknowledgement or an outcome update, so no reporter is left without a response.
Category & trend view
Confidentiality-preserving trends in concern categories over time, surfacing where issues cluster.
Access log
Who accessed each report and when, evidencing that need-to-know confinement held throughout handling.
Programme health
Speak-up programme indicators — volumes, handling times, outcomes — for board and audit-committee oversight.
What the platform automates
Rules, workflows, alerts and scheduling that run the routine so your team works the exceptions.
Acknowledgement automation
Every report is acknowledged automatically through the secure channel within the timeframe your policy defines.
Need-to-know confinement
Reports are confined to their defined handling group on intake, with access enforced and recorded automatically.
Conflict exclusion
Individuals named in a report are excluded from its handling group automatically where the match is known.
Handling-time alerts
Reports approaching a handling or update deadline are escalated automatically to keep the programme responsive.
Escalation to cases
Substantiated concerns raise a linked investigation or case automatically, carrying the confidential context under access control.
Where AI helps the analyst
Assistive, decision-support features that speed up the work on the record. Suggestions are always reviewable, and a person stays in control of every decision.
Report summarisation
Summarises a submitted concern for authorised handlers to grasp it quickly, subject to their review before action.
Category suggestion
Proposes a likely category and seriousness for a concern to speed triage, which the handler confirms or overrides.
Redaction assistance
Suggests identifying detail to redact before wider sharing, helping preserve anonymity, always checked by a person.
The enterprise workflow
A defined, end-to-end process with clear ownership at every stage.
Every result, decision and override is captured against the record it belongs to.
Raise
A reporter submits a concern through a confidential channel, named or anonymously, describing what they have observed.
Acknowledge & confine
The report is acknowledged and confined to a defined handling group under strict need-to-know, with the reporter's identity protected.
Assess
The concern is triaged for seriousness and category, and the right handling path — internal review, investigation or escalation — is set.
Investigate
The concern is investigated within a controlled workspace, with secure two-way contact to the reporter where needed and their protection maintained.
Resolve
An outcome is reached and documented, any resulting actions are raised, and the reporter is given an appropriate update.
Close & preserve
The report closes with its full handling trail preserved, evidencing that the concern was taken seriously and the reporter protected.
What your team gains
A channel people use
Confidential, optionally anonymous intake with visible protection encourages staff to speak up — giving the firm its earliest warning of misconduct.
Need-to-know, enforced
Reports are confined to a defined handling group with access recorded, so confidentiality is guaranteed by the system rather than by discretion.
Every concern taken seriously
A structured handling process means no report is quietly ignored, and the firm can show each was assessed and progressed properly.
Reporters stay protected
Identity protection and secure two-way contact let the firm keep an anonymous reporter informed without ever unmasking them.
Integrity when it matters most
Implicated individuals can be excluded from a report's handling group, so concerns are never investigated by their own subjects.
Defensible speak-up evidence
An append-only trail of receipt, access, assessment and outcome demonstrates the firm met its obligations and protected those who raised concerns.
Industries it serves
Works with your existing systems
Described as capabilities — OnyxOne connects to the systems your deployment requires, configured per implementation.
- Presents confidential intake channels that connect into your existing internal and external reporting entry points
- Escalates substantiated concerns into the investigations and case-management modules while preserving confidentiality
- Aligns handling-group membership and access with your existing identity provider, while keeping reporter identity separate
- Preserves supporting evidence within the confidential workspace, drawing on your existing repositories under access control
- Delivers acknowledgements and updates through secure channels without exposing the reporter
Security, compliance & reporting
Security & data handling
- Reports, reporter identity and handling detail are encrypted in transit and at rest.
- Strict need-to-know access confines each report to a defined handling group, with every access recorded.
- Reporter identity is protected throughout handling, with any disclosure controlled and logged.
- Implicated individuals can be excluded from a report's handling group to preserve integrity.
- Secure two-way messaging lets the firm contact an anonymous reporter without capturing or revealing their identity.
- Every receipt, access, assessment and outcome is written to an append-only audit trail, and retention is configurable to your obligations.
Compliance support
- Supports internal speak-up and whistleblowing-channel obligations
- Underpins confidential and anonymous reporting requirements with enforced need-to-know handling
- Supports reporter-protection and anti-retaliation expectations through identity protection and access control
- Provides documented, timestamped evidence that concerns were received, assessed and acted upon
- Supports the handling of concerns that escalate into conduct, financial-crime or data investigations
Reports & exports
- Report volume, category and status summaries (confidentiality-preserving)
- Handling-time and acknowledgement-adherence reports
- Outcome and substantiation summaries
- Access and disclosure logs for a report's handling
- Speak-up programme management information for the board and audit committee
- Full confidential handling files for authorised oversight or regulatory request
How to get the most from it
Offer a genuinely anonymous route
Support truly anonymous reporting with secure follow-up. Many of the most serious concerns only surface when the reporter is confident they cannot be identified.
Confine every report from the first minute
Set the need-to-know handling group at intake. Confidentiality that is applied later, after a report has already been forwarded, is confidentiality that has already failed.
Exclude the implicated
Ensure anyone named in a concern is kept out of its handling group. A report investigated by its own subject destroys trust in the whole programme.
Close the loop with the reporter
Acknowledge every report and give an appropriate outcome update through the secure channel. A reporter who hears nothing concludes the channel is theatre.
Questions, answered
Can people report completely anonymously?
Yes. Concerns can be raised without capturing the reporter's identity, and the firm can still communicate with them through secure two-way messaging for follow-up and outcome — so anonymity and dialogue are not mutually exclusive.
How is confidentiality actually enforced?
Each report is confined to a defined handling group under strict need-to-know access, and every access is recorded on an append-only trail. Confidentiality is enforced by the system's access controls rather than left to the judgement of whoever receives the report.
What if the concern names someone in the handling team?
Implicated individuals can be excluded from a report's handling group, so a concern is never assessed or investigated by its own subject. This protects both the integrity of the handling and the confidence of the reporter.
How does this support our speak-up obligations?
The module provides confidential intake, need-to-know handling, reporter protection and an auditable trail from receipt to outcome — the elements a firm needs to demonstrate it received, assessed and acted on concerns and protected those who raised them. Responsibility for the programme remains the firm's.
Does OnyxOne decide whether a concern is substantiated?
No. The platform provides the confidential channel and the disciplined, access-controlled handling, and can help organise the material, but the firm's people assess and decide. OnyxOne is decision-support and record-keeping software, and the judgement stays with the firm.
Related modules
See Whistleblowing in your programme
Book a walkthrough and we'll show how this module fits your policy, workflows and obligations — then scope an implementation.