Your core tasks as a proactive confidential advisor
Your responsibilities are broad and include three main tasks:
- Education, prevention, and strategic advice
You play an active role in raising awareness about social safety. You do this by sharing information, providing training, and making signals within the organization open for discussion. In addition, as a proactive confidential advisor, you take on a strategic role by identifying trends and recurring themes and reporting them (anonymously) to management. Based on these insights, you provide both solicited and unsolicited advice on policy development and improvement measures. You also facilitate team discussions and contribute to maintaining continuous attention to social safety within the organizational culture. - First-line support and confidential advice
You provide employees with a safe and accessible space where they can express their concerns. You listen, offer support, and help them explore their options without immediately taking formal steps. You advise on possible next steps and, when necessary, refer them to specialized support within or outside the organization. - Guidance and support
When an employee decides to take further steps, you provide guidance and support. This can range from helping to draft a report to offering moral support throughout the process. You act as a sparring partner and help employees make well-considered decisions.
What can you, as a confidential advisor, contribute?
Employees can come to you with a wide range of questions and concerns. You are not only there for situations in which someone is considering filing a report but also for broader issues related to well-being and social safety. You can provide support with:
- Questions about social safety and the organization’s prevention policy.
- Dealing with a difficult home situation that affects work.
- Experiencing an unpleasant atmosphere in the department and looking for solutions.
- Being a witness to undesirable behavior and feeling unsure about how to handle it.
- Discussing other personal or work-related concerns.
Confidentiality and non-commitment
A conversation with you as a confidential advisor is always confidential and non-committal. You take no action with the shared information unless the employee explicitly requests it. The goal of these conversations is to provide employees with a safe space where they can share their concerns and receive support. You help them gain insight into their situation and guide them in making a well-considered decision about possible next steps.
Conversation versus formal report
It is important to clearly distinguish between a conversation and an official report:
- Conversation: an informal discussion in which you support, advise, and help the employee explore their options. No formal steps are taken without the employee’s consent.
- Report: a formal action submitted to HR or a supervisor. This may lead to an investigation or other interventions, with HR or the supervisor determining the appropriate next steps.
You, as a confidential advisor, are not a reporting point. Employees can come to you to discuss or consider making a report, but formal reports themselves are submitted to HR or management.
Awareness, prevention, and strategic advice
As a confidential advisor, you have both a signaling and a strategic role. When certain themes regularly recur in conversations, you can bring them (anonymously) to the organization’s attention. This helps to implement preventive measures and promote a safe work environment.
As a proactive confidential advisor, you go a step further. By preparing annual reports on trends and risks, you provide management with valuable insights and recommendations for improvement. You actively contribute to policy development and support supervisors in holding preventive conversations about social safety within their teams. By organizing team discussions and encouraging open dialogue, you help build a work culture in which social safety remains a continuous priority.