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Labor & Employment Law

: Strategic HR Lawyer

Workplace Investigation Pitfall: Failure to Take the Complaint Seriously

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How does the recipient of the complaint know how seriously to consider it? Offhanded comments can amount to putting the employer on notice that something awful is bubbling under the surface. Unfortunately, these comments may be brushed aside by the untrained or unwary. The untrained believing that some sort of formality needs to be put forth by a complainant (i.e. in a formal document) or the unwary being too busy to consider the implications of failing to act.

Not everyone who is the recipient of inartful statements by an employee has the skills to decide whether those statements are such that they amount to a claim of discrimination or harassment and should be taken seriously. Therefore, an effective process must be put into place to ensure that seemingly offhanded comments are directed to the right person to handle. Thus, when the manager in a hallway overhears something, he/she must be trained at a minimum that this might be something that will result in organizational turmoil or liability. The process needs to ensure that someone is available that the supervisor can turn to who is qualified to distill this information an act accordingly. How many times does an employee in litigation allege that he/she reported his/her complaint to management time and time again to no avail? Quite a bit, the organization that can effectively and quickly pass this information to an appropriate party each and every time will ultimately be able to demonstrate a consistent and fair process that nips potential problems in the bud and resolves issues before they explode.

For more, see my book: Workplace Investigations: Discrimination & Harassment

Full post as published by Strategic HR Lawyer on February 09, 2012 (boomark / email).