When people have a disincentive to raise concerns, these concerns are likely to stay hidden and become bigger problems. When people are not permanently employed, they may feel that their job – and their livelihood – is precarious. Sometimes they may feel worried or scared about reporting problems to the business for fear they may lose their job or be blacklisted. Sometimes permanent employees do not have trust in reporting concerns for fear that these concerns may not be acted upon and they will suffer retaliation.

These concerns may relate to the quality of the work product, breaches of regulations or confidentiality, or to worker-related issues, such as discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment. Reticence to report problems may lead to the business being unaware of problems until they become very expensive to deal with because of costly lawsuits and reputational damage.

Most businesses have a number of dimensions to accountability, including vertical and horizontal accountability. Horizontal accountability occurs when colleagues hold each other responsible for competence and proper behaviour. Vertical accountability is when managers hold those whom they manage responsible and those who are managed hold managers responsible.

In many businesses, if they are well-functioning, these two dimensions intersect because workers feel able to communicate their concerns to each other and to other managers and HR. In businesses where workers are afraid to report concerns or do not have an incentive to do so, there may not be any horizontal accountability at all because temporary workers may not discuss concerns with permanent employees or other temporary workers. There may also be a weaker vertical accountability because they may not feel able to report problems to the business’s management. With much weaker accountability, the risk of something going wrong is significantly higher. In addition, the risk of discovering these problems when they are very advanced is also much greater.

Litigation from clients: if the concerns relate to the work product or to competence, clients may complain about the goods or services they received from the business. This may result in costly lawsuits from clients. Similarly, if regulations or confidentiality are breached, this could result in complaints to regulators and fines, as well as potential litigation. In addition, clients may complain with others within the same industry or on social media, thereby creating negative reputation for the business.

Litigation from workers: if the concerns relate to worker-related issues, such as discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying or similar, workers may raise complaints or bring lawsuits against the business. Other workers may also perceive the work environment as toxic and look to move to other businesses, which would lead to recruitment and training costs.

Reputational damage: whatever the nature of the concerns, any problem that remains hidden has the potential to create serious reputational damage to any organisation. News travel fast on social media and complaints can create a ripple effect of negative reputation that can result in the business losing business from current or new clients, who may be concerned about the quality of the work and services provided by the business. It may also lead to clients and workers boycotting the business because they perceive the business does not align with their values. This can be expensive for any organisation.

The key to preventing these risks is to strengthen the horizontal accountability structures and reassure workers that they can report to managers without fear of repercussion.

• Independent mangers who do not work with the temporary workers or their managers should make their presence known to the contractors, who should have confidence that they can be reached if there are any problems.
• These independent managers should routinely monitor what happens among the temporary workers and among the temporary workers and the permanent employees/managers to identify and resolve any inappropriate conduct as early as possible.
• There should be permanent and robust oversight structures to check that the quality of the work product remains high and consistent even when temporary workers are involved.
• Managers should lead by example in admitting where mistakes have been made and putting things right, thus showing that the business cares about high standards in the work product and in the work environment.
• Reporting structures should be communicated to everyone.
• When a problem is identified through these oversight structures, a solution should be applied as soon as possible and carried through consistently.
• There should be open and honest communication with self-employed, employees and managers.