Yikes! So you received a workplace complaint from an employee, now what?

If you are running a business and don’t have HR, or you don’t get complaints often you may be at a loss for what to do next.

⏳⚡️Things to do quickly include:

✅ Acknowledge you received the complaint and that the business will look into it. Don’t brush it off!

✅ Offer counselling via an Employee Assistance Provider (EAP). If you don’t have one, provide them with details to access free counselling resources or engage an EAP provider pronto!

✅ Check that the employee is safe and consult with them to see if they would like to take some time off while the business works through the complaint. This could be special paid leave so as not to penalise the employee by making them use their entitlements or miss out on pay.

✅ Consider if the employee can continue to work safely (e.g. make arrangements so the complainant and respondent don’t need to work together or see each other if possible).

✅ Consider whether the respondent should be able to continue to work or whether it is appropriate (given the seriousness of the complaint), whether it would be best to stand the respondent down with pay.

⚠️ Before standing the respondent down consider if you can stand them down. Check your employment contracts, enterprise agreement, award and policies.

✅ Ask the complainant what outcome they are looking for and how they would like the complaint handled to inform what approach the business takes.

✅ Take into account any legislative or policy requirements - be careful not to accidentally breach your own policy!

✅ Can the complaint be addressed informally or is a formal approach with an investigation more appropriate?

✅ If an investigation is required, consider who is most appropriately skilled/trained to conduct the investigation - consider any conflicts of interest, potential or perceived bias.

✅ If you have someone appropriate in house that’s great, if not it’s best to engage an external investigator.

✅ Aim to complete the investigation in a timely manner, remembering that such a process can weigh heavily on the complainant and respondent (e.g. anxiety, loss of appetite, reputational damage and inability to sleep).

✅ Ensure that confidentiality is maintained or explain to the complainant and respondent that the matter is confidential and information will only be shared on a needs to know basis.

✅ Always provide procedural fairness at every stage and keep the complainant and respondent informed of the progress (not sharing confidential information) to help manage their expectations.

Contact Raven HR if you need help with an investigation.