[atrt2] Another possible task for a outside expert - ICANN whistleblowing and employee morale

[Steve Crocker]

Avri,

What questions are you trying to answer regarding the whistleblower program?  For example, are you interested in:

a. Does ICANN have a whistleblower program?  [Yes.  Internally it's called a hotline.]

b. Is it publicly visible?  [No.  It's available to employees but not to non-employees.  It's well documented on the internal web site and is part of the internal training.]

c. What standards does it meet?  [Very high standards.  I don't have the proper terms handy, but it will be easy to get the details.]

c'. Does it protect the identity of the employee?  [Yes.  The process is handled through recognized external third parties.  I labeled this c' because it's part of the previous question.]

d. Has it been tested?  [Yes.  There has been a carefully constructed drill to make sure the process works.]

e. Has it been used by employees for actual complaints?  [Yes.  Not often, but, yes, it's been used.]

f. Do employees know it's available?  [Fair question.  I don't have data.  Perhaps data exists.]

g. Do employees think it's effective?  [Tough question to answer.  It stands to reason that if an employee uses the hotline and sees ICANN management take action aligned with his complaint, he is likely to think the hotline works well.  On the other hand, if an employee uses the hotline and doesn't see the result he had in mind, he might think the hotline doesn't work very well.]

h. Does ICANN publish the statistics on the number of hotline calls and their disposition?  [No.  See http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icann.org%2Fen%2Fabout%2Ftransparency%2Fdidp-response-20111027-1-supporting-document-28nov11-en.pdf&ei=GuSYUYTFFYqy0QWOnIHYBw&usg=AFQjCNGje1tzUqnqWiMDDVkbc6BuXucTiQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.d2k .  Copy of the PDF at this location is attached for ease of reference.]

i. Why didn't the employee use the hotline instead of using the method he did?  [Hard to tell.  We don't know for sure that it's an employee, and we definitely don't know who it is.  Because he didn't use the hotline, there was any way to follow up with him to learn more nor to provide any feedback to him.]

j. What did ICANN do about the allegations in the message?  [With respect to the allegations of cronyism in hiring, the records were examined.  As a matter of practice, ICANN regularly posts open positions and always has multiple people interview candidates.  Some of the statements in the letter are simply not true even on the bare facts.  With respect to the assertions about incompetence, that's handled through management reviews.  The Board holds the CEO accountable for the quality and effectiveness of the staff, and the CEO, in turn, ensures that proper standards are set and that performance is measured against those standards.  Performance evaluation is, of course, necessarily confidential.]

My answers are my best understanding of the answers you should expect from authoritative sources or that you will find from independent examination.  No need to take my word for these.

What other questions would you include?

Thanks,

Steve


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On May 19, 2013, at 3:24 PM, Avri Doria <avri at ella.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Given the current issue of whistleblowing at ICANN.  And given the difficulty even this group might have at delving into it in a fully open and neutral manner, perhaps bring in an outside expert to act as a Special Investigator into the ICANN Whistleblower program and employee morale might be a good use of an outside expert.
> 
> avri
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> atrt2 mailing list
> atrt2 at icann.org
> https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/atrt2