Your employees are happy, right? Turnover is low. The parking lot is full by 8:30 a.m. You’ve gotten almost everyone’s RSVP for the upcoming holiday party! So, whew! A great employee experience all around.
We all hope this is true, and it should be in some companies, but it’s more likely that you’re somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as the employee experience is concerned.
In our recent Employee Experience Survey, HR Acuity surveyed more than 1,300 employees and found out what employees think.
And for HR, the most critical aspect is how your company tackles problems and how you handle the workplace investigation process.
Can Your Employees Speak up about Problems?
You want your employees to be whistleblowers — not to the press or Congressional committees — but to you, so you know what is happening. You can’t solve problems that you don’t know about. But, do your employees feel comfortable speaking to you, and do they know where to go when reporting an incident or reporting misconduct?
To keep reading, click here: Do Your Employees Trust Your Company’s Workplace Investigation Process?
Employees only report problems they are unable to resolve themselves. Sometimes, they believe they cannot resolve it themselves because of a power imbalance: the person with whom they are having a problem ranks higher than they in the company’s hierarchy and/or is actually above them in the chain-of-command. Employees often — mistakenly — believe that HR is their ally and is there to advocate for individual employees. Big mistake: HR exists to assist management in running the company as smoothly as possible. Regardless of what HR recommends, management is free to accept or reject HR’s recommendations and to do what makes the most sense to them, from a business — usually financial — perspective. Sometimes, that means siding with a more powerful employee over the less powerful — i.e., more expendable — one, regardless of the merits of the particular situation. Thus, the complaining employee has taken the risk of coming forward, exposing themselves to the danger of retaliation from the person about whom they complained, while — simultaneously — damaging their own future prospects with the company at large.
Reporting and knowing that a complaint will be taken seriously and looked in to are two different things. I’ve worked in places where I know I can report concerns but nothing comes of it and I’ve worked in places where there isn’t a formal process but when I mentioned something it was taken seriously. These are not the same thing!