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Reporting a Concern
Raising a concern should be as easy as possible.
We receive concerns via two forms, our Grievance Form and Whistleblowing Form. Each form is created to receive different types of concerns and it is important you make an informed decision prior to reporting your concern. Select the type of concern you would like to report below and know your concern will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with relevant laws.
Confidentiality
We understand raising your concerns takes courage, thats why all information regarding your concern will be handled sensitively - providing only those who need to know with information in accordance with privacy laws.
Non Retaliation
You should not endure any adverse action for filing a concern or refusing to do something against policy or the law. Anyone who retaliates against another for filing a concern will be subject to disciplinary action.
Our Procedure
If someone raises a concern, we will follow these steps:
1. Receive
2. Acknowledge
3. Assess
4. Investigate
5. Conclude Outcome and Respond
6. Close & File the concern
Grievance v Whistleblowing
What's the difference?
Whistleblowing laws vary in each country. In Australia you are able to file a whistleblowing report if you are a current or former:
In order to be protected under whistleblower laws, your disclosure must have reasonable grounds to suspect that information disclosed concerns actions which are:
If your whistleblowing report doesn’t fulfil these legal requirements, or the legal requirements of your country, it will be treated as a grievance.
Whistleblowing reports will be received by a third party provider, Stopline and will be communicated to 2 Site Members from Hillsong. If there is a clear conflict of interest, there are back up Site Members who will be informed.
Grievances are concerns which do not fulfil the legal requirements of a whistleblowing report. For more information see ‘Grievance Frequently Asked Questions’.
Grievance Frequently Asked Questions
Congregants, event attendees and volunteers are all able to raise a concern by filing a grievance report.
You should file a grievance report when you know or reasonably believe inappropriate conduct has occurred which has not been resolved or is of a serious criminal nature.
You are able to make an anonymous grievance report, however anonymous reporting may limit Hillsong’s ability to investigate the alleged conduct, potentially reducing what action Hillsong is able to take.
Hillsong will treat every grievance report sensitively and will only share your report with those who need to know the information. Your personal information will be anonymized to the extent practicable.
If a grievance report is made about a staff member, Hillsong may have an obligation to disclose the grievance to the staff member to afford them procedural fairness. Hillsong will inform you if the report is to be shared with the staff member and provide you the opportunity for your personal information to remain anonymous as appropriate.
You are welcome to report on behalf of a friend so long as they are aware and informed that you are filing a grievance report. We would encourage you to keep your report as factual as possible and limit the information provided to what you know (not guesses or your personal opinion).
If your report regards someone on Campus or Executive Leadership, such as the Lead Pastor at your location, we encourage you to:
This option has been created so that any actual or perceived conflicts of interest are avoided, and the reports will be managed by Executive Global Leadership.
If you are to email [email protected] please find the below information to include in your email:
Hillsong’s grievance program I-Sight can accept reports for any Hillsong location. To do this simply select the Hillsong Location where the conduct occurred under ‘Location of Incident’ on the Grievance Form.
We believe in biblical conflict resolution and restoration. Where possible and appropriate we would encourage you to raise a concern with your people leader or local campus leadership and escalate as appropriate.
If at any time you find more information regarding your report, please reply to the last correspondence between yourself and Hillsong via I-Sight or via [email protected] with your grievance reference number and the supporting information/documentation.
Each Hillsong Locations Local Grievance Policy will outline who will handle grievance reports, this will typically be the Manager for the Church Location and/or Location Pastor.
For grievances that are reported to Hillsong’s Global Grievance framework via:
The legal function will triage all reports to ensure conflicts are identified and addressed.
From here an internal or external investigation may be conducted during which, the principles of independence and procedural fairness will be upheld.
Glossary
Bullying is the ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behavior that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.
Harassment occurs when a person is harassed against in the workplace and in certain areas of public life because of their:
Sexual harassment includes unwelcome conduct which is either of a sexual nature, or which is directed at an individual because of that individual’s sex when:
Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, even if the reporting individual is not the intended target of the sexual harassment; Such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment; or Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting an individual’s employment.
A sexually harassing hostile work environment includes, but is not limited to, words, signs, jokes, pranks, intimidation or physical violence which are of a sexual nature, or which are directed at an individual because of that individual’s sex. Sexual harassment also consists of any unwanted verbal or physical advances, sexually explicit derogatory statements or sexually discriminatory remarks made by someone which are offensive or objectionable to the recipient, which cause the recipient discomfort or humiliation, interfering with the recipient’s capacity to engage in Hillsong related work.
Sexual harassment also occurs when a person in authority tries to trade job benefits for sexual favors. This can include hiring, promotion, continued employment or any other terms, conditions or privileges of employment. This is also called “quid pro quo” harassment.
Discrimination occurs when a person is discriminated against in the workplace and in certain areas of public life because of their:
Violence is behaviour that is intentional, unwanted, inappropriate, and harmful this includes coercion, intimidation, physical violence, sexual violence or assault and threats.