Stories of toxic company culture have become commonplace recently, including serious ethical breaches at Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, Uber, and more.

Katie Smith, the chief compliance officer at Convercent, a software provider for reporting and analyzing a variety of compliance issues, cautions that employers need to pay attention to how employees are reporting. “An overabundance of anonymous reports can be a red flag that your culture needs work,” she explains. “It likely means your employees fear backlash or don’t trust leadership to listen and respond appropriately.”

Smith believes that a stronger level of trust is signaled when employees understand how to make a report, that they are speaking up, and that the majority of reports are being relayed face to face to leadership or HR in the office.