Where Were BP's Whistleblowers?

It is becoming painfully obvious that holes in BP's workplace policies, culture and ethics are the real culprits in our nation's largest environmental disaster on record. Ethics and accountability must be an obligation for all employees, not just those at the executive ranks.

By Shanti Atkins

With BP's ruptured oil well tentatively capped, government officials are directing their investigation to accountability, prevention and protection. It is becoming painfully obvious that holes in BP's workplace policies, culture and ethics are the real culprits in our nation's largest environmental disaster on record.

Reminiscent of stories that uncovered Wall Street executive misconduct and glaring conflicts of interest, there are allegations that BP operated boldly within a culture of "cronyism" and impunity when it comes to regulatory compliance. And these allegations go beyond outside government regulation. They strike inward at BP, questioning its workplace policies, its culture and its commitment to ethics at the very core.

Beyond the Boardroom

It is easy to want to place all of the blame on BP's most high-profile and wealthy executives. A public figure of contempt, former BP CEO Tony Hayward faced intense scrutiny by the Senate, the media and the public over his lack of knowledge and seeming disregard that the exploded rig was unsafe.

But Hayward's real neglect was in his former company's culture around workplace safety and reporting -- a culture that penetrates far beyond the boardroom and impacts everyday BP employees and managers.

Deepwater Horizon was just one BP rig out of hundreds around the world. It would be impossible for Hayward to personally inspect each one or to have detailed knowledge of daily operations. To focus on his personal knowledge gaps is to miss the bigger picture.

It was the responsibility of rig workers and rig overseers who had intimate knowledge of drilling operations to report safety concerns. And more importantly, it was the responsibility of BP management and HR to not only investigate these reports, but also to encourage and protect whistleblowers who had come forward in good faith.

Where Were the Whistleblowers?

BP's "commitment to safety" in its Code of Conduct outlines this specific commitment. In the code, Hayward personally reminds his employees, "If you are unsure of what to do in particular circumstances or concerned that the Code is being broken, you have a responsibility to speak up. The Code explains the mechanisms to do this ... and the protections to ensure that retaliation against those who do speak up will not be tolerated."

Though BP's Code reflects an open-door policy on safety concerns, the actions of BP management sent the opposite message. Several whistleblowers have come forward claiming that not only did their reports of safety hazards on the rigs fall on deaf ears, but they were actually retaliated against for speaking up.

You can assume for every employee who did speak up, there were several who didn't for fear of ostracism and losing their jobs.

Now factor in the unique working environment of an oil-rig employee. These workers (many of whom are highly compensated) are together on a rig for weeks and sometimes months at a time, forming a tight-knit bond with their colleagues.

Reporting can be extremely difficult in close quarters, where employees know that if they speak up, drilling can be delayed or interrupted, and their team's livelihood is directly affected.

A Code is Just Words

At BP, the commitment to encourage reporting and protect whistleblowers appears to have been empty words. If managers were encouraged and trained to take employee concerns seriously -- and to report them to HR and senior management -- this disaster might have been prevented.

As the litany of lawsuits continue to pour in, one has to wonder how, in a culture where profits often appear to trump ethics and safety, a disaster like this did not happen sooner.

It's a powerful lesson on the need for companies to bring their codes to life -- to invest seriously in the training, education and the cultural shift that is required to build a truly transparent and ethical workplace. Senior HR executives play a critical role in this process. They are responsible for connecting rules and policies to people, helping to ensure that their companies' codes are a true foundation for employee behavior and decision-making.

A Cultural Shift

These are not "soft" people issues. These are core business issues that strike at the heart of a company's viability. The BP disaster should be a wake-up call that ethics is not a "check-the-box" issue. It can be a "bet-the-company" issue, and in the case of this environmentally devastating oil spill, it's a "bet-the-planet" issue.

If we have any hope of preventing similar disasters in the future, we need to get past a polarized view of accountability. It is too simple to pin all the blame on a select few BP executives. While they are no doubt ultimately accountable, it is essential to examine the series of ethical missteps and errors that permeated throughout the ranks of the BP workforce.

While at any company, a tone is set from the top, a tone is also set at the middle and from the bottom.

We also can't forget the critical role of HR in preventing ethical missteps, and supporting ethics and compliance programs. The HR department should be the eyes and ears of any company because they have the most experience handling employee complaints and are specifically trained on how to properly handle difficult ethical issues.

HR also needs to be a fierce advocate for more robust, expansive and effective employee-education programs.

It is hard to forget the sight of the billowing plume of oil, contemplating its indelible environmental impact around the entire world. Trying to understand the science, technology and sheer manpower that will be required to keep the leak capped, and to finish cleaning up the disaster, feels unfathomable. And even with the end in sight, it is impossible to imagine the anguish of families and co-workers who have lost cherished loved ones.

But as we reconcile all of these tragic events and try to piece the puzzle together, we have to remember that at its heart, this catastrophe is a workplace event. Ultimately, it is the decisions and behavior of people -- of employees -- across the ranks at BP, which led to this devastating result.

Now with the future of BP unsettled, an entire region's economy destroyed and countless lives inextricably altered, the central role of ethics can no longer be ignored.

Individual ethics and accountability is not just an obligation for executive management. It is a personal commitment that should be shared by every employee of every organization -- regardless of its size, location or industry. This is the BP lesson for all of us.