Ombuds Benefits to Organizations
Organizations with an ombuds office commonly cite the following benefits of the service:
- Offers a safe place for members of the workforce to discuss concerns and understand their options without fear of retaliation or fear that formal action will be taken simply by raising concerns.
- Helps identify undetected and/or unreported criminal or unethical behavior, policy violations, or ineffective leadership.
- Helps employees become empowered and take responsibility for creating a better workplace.
- Facilitates two-way, informal communication and dispute resolution to resolve allegations of harassment, discrimination and other workplace issues that could otherwise escalate into time-consuming and expensive formal complaints or lawsuits.
- Provides the ability to address subtle forms of insensitivity and unfairness that do not rise to the level of a formal complaint but nonetheless create a disempowering work environment.
- Aids compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the U.S. Federal sentencing guidelines.
- Provides an early warning diagnosis system that identifies and alerts institutions about new negative trends.
- Helps employee satisfaction, morale and retention by humanizing the institution through the establishment of a resource that provides safe and informal opportunities to be heard.
- Provides conflict resolution skills training.
- Provides upward feedback to management about organizational trends.
- Helps avoid negative press by addressing issues at the lowest and most direct level possible.
- Provides the organization with an independent and impartial voice, which fosters consistency between organizational values and actions.
- Serves as a central information and referral resource for policies, processes and resources within the organization.
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