In small and medium-sized enterprises too often no confidential advisor | Interior

The National Association of Confidential Advisors (LVV) thinks that due to all the attention for scandals, slightly more companies have been assigned a confidential advisor, but a huge increase has not materialised, says LVV chairman Inge Te Brake.

“That has not yet happened in many places,” says Mariette Hamer, government commissioner for sexually transgressive behavior and sexual violence.

Hamer relies on a survey by the CNV trade union in which 71 percent of workers indicated that their employer does not have a policy against (sexual) harassment. She is therefore pleased with the initiative law of GroenLinks to oblige companies to appoint a confidential adviser. Today this is being debated in the House of Representatives.

It is now a year after the revelations about abuse of power by Marc Overmars at Ajax and earlier at The Voice. According to a study from 2020 and therefore before the The Voicescandal, half of the companies did not have a trusted person at the time.

LVV chairman Te Brake has no hard figures, but she does see that the central government and the banks are ‘doing well’. Steps are also being taken in education and healthcare, she says. She worries about business. “That is really lagging behind. I don’t mean so much the big players, but small and medium-sized companies.”

When it comes to the appointment of confidential advisers, this picture is confirmed by figures from 2020: at the time, two thirds of smaller companies (up to 9 people) had no confidential adviser and 30 percent of medium-sized companies (up to 50 employees). Larger companies (from 50 employees) scored better: only 6 to 7 percent did not have a confidential advisor.

Te Brake: ,,There are still employers who do not pay attention to this subject, because they do not consider it important. They value hard numbers. And if employees are bothered by it, then they should leave, that is the attitude.”

Due to the scandals about transgressive behavior, employees are more likely to approach a confidential adviser. Gimd, the third-party counselor provider, saw an 82 percent explosive increase in employees using a third-party counselor last year compared to the previous year.

Employees see abuses happening within their own company and believe that this should be denounced, Rita Wielemaker, a social security and integrity specialist at Gimd, explains the increase. In a recent survey by the National Association of Confidential Advisers, more than half of the interviewed confidential advisers already indicated that the number of reports of transgressive behavior has increased, sometimes even doubled.

According to the experts, figures show how important it is that employees can turn to someone. It is up to employers to do this, say government commissioner Mariëtte Hamer and chairman Te Brake. They also point to occupational health and safety legislation that states that employers must put the safety of employees first. Te Brake: ,,That law dates back to 1986. Companies have had enough time to do something with it themselves. If they don’t want to, then it’s time to force them.”

This is also the view of GroenLinks, which has submitted an initiative law that obliges companies to appoint a confidential advisor. This is being debated today in the House of Representatives. The question is whether the law will pass. There is sympathy for the proposal, but CDA, D66 and SGP expressed their concern in the run-up to the debate whether a duty would not be too great a burden for smaller companies. The VVD has already hinted that it considers the proposal superfluous, because many companies would already feel some kind of obligation to appoint a confidential adviser.

MKB-Nederland is in favor of the law. Spokesperson Mieke Ripken: ,,It is important that everyone can turn to a confidential advisor and it is good that this is regulated by law. It is also important that employers will soon have the choice to organize this internally or externally. The latter is especially beneficial for smaller companies, because you can imagine that an internal confidential adviser is quite complicated if you only employ four people.”

According to the spokesperson, SMEs have indeed received more attention for the subject. “Of course, no employer wants undesirable behavior in his company. If you do not have a confidential adviser, this does not mean that you do not have an eye for transgressive behaviour. Particularly in a smaller company, certain behavior may be noticed more quickly and you can discuss it sooner.”

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