We are continuing to financially support the National Bullying Helpline charity (No 1117852) and to capitalise on the work we are doing in the area of Investigations we are opening up access to our current services.
Especially in the Public sector we are seeing organisations in need of our independent view on workplace malpractice, but wanting to carry out the investigation themselves. This has the advantage of increasing the investigative skills of their own staff and reducing both the cost of the investigation itself and the exposure to the risk of litigation.
HR & Diversity Management Ltd (HR&DM) is launching a Training programme to help in each of these areas.
For each organisation that wishes to take part we will:
1. Provide a 1 day training course on how to carry out a full investigation using the copyrighted '20 step guide to Investigations' The course will be delivered by one of our experienced investigators.
2. Provide a full copy of the '20 step guide to Investigations'
3. Provide support as necessary during the first and subsequent investigations.
4. When an investigation has been carried out, an HR&DM experienced investigator will review findings to ensure any bias has been removed and that the investigation has been carried out in compliance with the '20 step guide to Investigations'.
This last step is vital from a complainant acceptance point of view. It is well known that strong complainants may not accept internal investigation findings that do not go in their favour, with the oft quoted view - 'Well they would find in favour of their employer wouldn't they?'
For further details please call David Pratt on 01793 338888.
Monday 23 November 2009
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Help and Support for Organisations
It seems that many organisations are still experiencing workplace behavioural problems and trying to solve them internally, especially in the public sector. There is still a strong belief that such behaviour can a) be contained, with the protagonists not taking formal action or b) that any such problems can and should be dealt with by 'the system'.
Whilst many cases may just 'go away', we have found that internally activated investigations really are not as unbiased as the organisations would have those involved believe.
Working with http://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/ we find that many aggrieved parties find no consolation or conclusion when internal 'solutions' are applied.
So, what is the problem. Well each case has its own circumstances but in many instances the problem lies at the level of First Line Management. Why is this? We feel that first line managers, especially where they are in technical or specialist areas, for example, Nurses, are well trained in those areas but not trained to look for the symptoms of behavioural issues.
As examples we believe managers should be taught to:
a) Just look at the history in the department of those that have strong personalities and those that are more introverted and to keep a weather eye out for abnormal interactions.
b) Where voices are being raised to quickly step in and take action and 'nip in the bud' small issues before they have a chance to fester and become major time consuming and costly problems.
Easy to say from this distance perhaps but the problem for the manager is 'How do you step in and What do you say?' Simply something as soft as 'Susie could I have a word please' in a quite normal tone of voice is effective. It breaks the conversation, and the issue breaks down. It takes Susie away from Bill. Both think the interruption is over normal work issues. The manager then says to Susie out of earshot of Bill, 'What was all that about?' and finds out one side of the issue. The manager then repeats the action with Bill out of Susie's earshot to find out the other side of the problem.
The manager then has to decide what to do. Either s/he can implement a solution from his/her own experience in which case s/he does so, or needs HR support if the issue is not straightforward. At this point the first line manager has either cleared up the issue or passed it to HR to clear it up and s/he can return to running his/her department.
Very easy solutions like this can be implemented by short training sessions for the line manager which would reduce the chance of costly and time consuming litigation.
Whilst many cases may just 'go away', we have found that internally activated investigations really are not as unbiased as the organisations would have those involved believe.
Working with http://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/ we find that many aggrieved parties find no consolation or conclusion when internal 'solutions' are applied.
So, what is the problem. Well each case has its own circumstances but in many instances the problem lies at the level of First Line Management. Why is this? We feel that first line managers, especially where they are in technical or specialist areas, for example, Nurses, are well trained in those areas but not trained to look for the symptoms of behavioural issues.
As examples we believe managers should be taught to:
a) Just look at the history in the department of those that have strong personalities and those that are more introverted and to keep a weather eye out for abnormal interactions.
b) Where voices are being raised to quickly step in and take action and 'nip in the bud' small issues before they have a chance to fester and become major time consuming and costly problems.
Easy to say from this distance perhaps but the problem for the manager is 'How do you step in and What do you say?' Simply something as soft as 'Susie could I have a word please' in a quite normal tone of voice is effective. It breaks the conversation, and the issue breaks down. It takes Susie away from Bill. Both think the interruption is over normal work issues. The manager then says to Susie out of earshot of Bill, 'What was all that about?' and finds out one side of the issue. The manager then repeats the action with Bill out of Susie's earshot to find out the other side of the problem.
The manager then has to decide what to do. Either s/he can implement a solution from his/her own experience in which case s/he does so, or needs HR support if the issue is not straightforward. At this point the first line manager has either cleared up the issue or passed it to HR to clear it up and s/he can return to running his/her department.
Very easy solutions like this can be implemented by short training sessions for the line manager which would reduce the chance of costly and time consuming litigation.
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