Ask any manager or business owner which two words they hate to hear the most from HR, and you are likely to get a response of “workplace investigation”. Those words have a bad reputation for leading to things like, litigation, termination and other …tion words that we would all [READ MORE ...]
Almost 80% of the questions Googled pertaining to harassment and discrimination investigations begin with one of the five “W”s. When I saw this, I decided that a quick review might be in order. To cover all of the bases, we will also include the “How”. So let’s get right [READ MORE ...]
Every manager and HR Representative has to deal with this type of complaint at some point during their career. As a matter of fact, these complaints are reported in the work place much more often than you might imagine. There are your everyday complaints, “Danny comes in to work [READ MORE ...]
There is such as thing as constructive silence….and then there is just silence. Unfortunately some employees believe that they are protecting themselves, or their co-workers, if they simply refuse to answer any questions in a workplace investigation. But the law does not allow employers to simply state that they [READ MORE ...]
While conducting harassment investigation training, I have been asked many times, “Are we required to investigate if we receive an anonymous letter or email reporting possible harassment?” The real conundrum is whether an email or voicemail meets the definition of a complaint if there is no identifiable complainant. Still, [READ MORE ...]
In the business world, nothing ever seems to be black and white. Instead, the daily grind comes in many shades of gray (way more than 50!). This too applies when a complaint is received by an employee, leaving the manager or HR representative to determine credibility of the claim [READ MORE ...]
If you ask any HR professional who has been responsible for employee relations, the majority of them will tell you they have had a conversation that started with this phrase. (I don't want you to do anything, I just thought you should know). Your response is very important, but [READ MORE ...]