A Culture of Fairness Begets a Culture of Retention
by Lorrie Ray
Featured, Hot Topics, HR Expertise and Support, Training and Development
A recent survey finds that nearly half of 4,000 respondents experienced retaliation when protesting about illegal conduct in the workplace. Is this happening in your workplace? Not only might it bring huge lawsuits or large walkouts, but it could have your best employees looking elsewhere.
This is easy to avoid if you follow these steps:
Draft policies regarding complaints and investigations in the workplace that are easy to understand and easy to follow.
Train staff whose positions are named in the policies (such as human resources personnel, executives, and managers) so they know precisely what to do in the event of a complaint. You want an employee with a civil rights complaint to be able to locate a clear policy in the handbook and to feel that as an employer, you have the sophistication to deal expertly with the complaint.
Widely disseminate these policies, include a discussion of them during onboarding, and train on the policies–especially anti-harassment–at least every other year, and possibly every year, depending upon turnover. The goal is to make sure every employee feels comfortable following the process.
Make it clear that your workplace is one where illegal or immoral behavior simply is not tolerated. This comes through the attitude and conversations of leaders, managers, and human resources personnel.
If you are concerned about the culture of your workplace, do let us know. We have a variety of interventions depending upon the scope of the problem, and we can provide solutions to fit the problem experienced.