Blog

We're kicking off our new series of team member profiles with Lisa House, Senior Product Specialist. Lisa joined the team in 2012 and has been earning her black belt in customer success ever since. Learn about her knack for problem solving and why she's passionate about the work she does at HR Acuity.

Attorney-client privilege is an important legal privilege available to individuals and businesses alike. To protect this privilege and ensure confidentiality, here’s what HR leaders need to consider.

Employee burnout is a significant threat to workforce engagement. Avoid stress and frustration by considering these practices.

Workplace investigations are difficult for everyone. These investigation questions for the accused will help ensure the process, and the individual, are handled with care.

It’s no surprise that establishing a culture of mutual respect is a good employee relations practice. Less obvious are the positive outcomes, such as higher employee engagement and productivity.

An effective whistleblower program not only mitigates risk, it also creates a fair work environment in which employees feel safe. Here’s what to consider when creating one.

In addition to reducing risk, there are other positive outcomes business leaders want from a strong investigation program. Here’s what your program should do to create a better work environment.

Quality employee performance documentation both protects a company from future litigation and benefits its employees by providing feedback for improvement. Many companies are moving away from the trad

Investigations are one of the least-loved aspects of employee relations, yet my hypothesis is that if HR leaders took more time to properly plan and carry out investigations, it would dramatically imp

Investigation protocols are a set of standard statements that publicly explain the process and expectations that guide the process. Once they’re put in place, they exert tremendous power in making sur

The open-office wave has undoubtedly soaked offices around the country. In the shuffle to appeal to millennial talent, however, organizations are finding difficulty maintaining daily office procedures

HR professionals in the role of Investigator are under enormous pressure: by concerned employees asking for case updates and by management looking to quickly conclude the investigation and move on.

Employee Relations technology provider HR Acuity recently released the findings of its inaugural 2016 Benchmark Study.

When the decision is reached to conduct an investigation, several processes are activated.

Employees play a major role in the diversity and inclusivity of office environments.

Employees with a bad attitude lurk in every office behind furrowed brows, frowns, and sarcastic remarks. They demoralize the workplace, bringing coworkers down to their negativity.

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” A phrase first coined by John Wesley, has since become a mantra related to organization.

Bullying is a major problem within almost every industry. Learn how leaders can identify a bully before impacting the company’s brand, and how bullying to prevent bullying in the first place.

Almost every state has adopted an “at-will” employment arrangement, but not having a consistent process for managing tardiness – or other behavioral issues – can set up organizations for frivolous and

Sometimes voluntary and at other times mandatory, arbitration clauses are often portrayed as legalese put in employment contracts to protect the employer. However, employers – not just employees – are

A thorough investigator has the responsibility to analyze the facts as uncovered, assess the credibility of the parties involved and come to some reasonable determination – even in a “he said, she sai

Managing employee relations can be challenging, especially when one employee accuses another of serious allegations. Learn how to handle “he said, she said” situations in a consistent and fair way.

Open a laptop and load your spreadsheet of choice. What you’ll see is a compilation of data that is probably 13 columns across and about 37 rows deep. ...

In reality, the negatives of permitting nepotism in the workplace far outweigh any positives, and an anti-nepotism policy has become an essential component of employee relations best practice.

Exit interviews are an important employee relations tool, yet often misunderstood and poorly executed. Here are 6 common exit interview myths dispelled.

The Fraud Triangle is a well-known concept that has its roots in criminology. Largely attributed to researcher Donald Cressey, he believed that people ...

Remember the childhood playground game, Red Light–Green Light? One person gets to be the traffic light and stand at the front with his/her back facing ...

Ethics hotlines are growing in popularity. They provide an accessible and anonymous way for employees to report potential wrongdoing; and in principle ...

HR Acuity® turns 10 years old this month, and we’re taking the opportunity to look back at 10 employee relations milestones from the past decade. We c ...

Bad headlines drive readership, and stories about people have the added advantage of tugging on our emotional heartstrings as well. In a recent articl ...

Big data is slowly permeating the workplace. Managers are tracking engagement, enterprise platforms are monitoring employee social media activity, wor ...

With the close of 2015, many of us are reflecting on the year that passed and, of course, the one that lies ahead. The employee relations landscape ch ...

Workplace retaliation is a form of misconduct that can be difficult to identify, but is posing an increasing financial and legal risk to organizations. Here are 3 must-know facts about workplace retal

From same-sex marriage benefits to protecting employee confidentiality in a workplace investigation, the employee relations landscape is in constant f ...

The green and black headline announces, “TATTOOS. Yes!” and is accompanied by a thumbs up graphic sporting a coffee cup tattoo on the wrist. Along wit ...

Aging Americans are working longer – a lot longer. By 2022, almost 32% of the population between 65 and 74 will be working – almost double the labor p ...

Thursday was full of surprises. Just when the HR Acuity® team thought we knew the consensus view, someone’s commentary would change the course of the ...

Employee Relations and Social Media

There may be no other industry that confronts quite the array of employee relations challenges seen in healthcare. Here are 5 employee relations challenges confronting healthcare now and will continue

The Role of Data-Driven Insights in Employee Relations

In a response to an inquiry by three U.S. Senators, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) admitted that the average duration of a Title IX investigation ...

Can a casual comment at the water cooler land you in hot water with your employer? How about if you tell a group of co-workers a joke laced with foul ...

Hiking through the mountains with a tour guide from a well-known travel company, I learned that the company recently asked all of its guides not to sh ...

In a recent VitalSmarts survey, 96% of people polled said they had experienced workplace bullying. It is a behavior that is costing US companies billions in lost productivity and worker turnover.

There is no doubt that the debate over medical marijuana has heightened public awareness and played a role in shifting sentiment, but the issues surrounding medical cannabis remain complex.

Are Title IX Coordinators the answer to the growing wave of litigation on American campuses? They are certainly part of the solution, but the responsibilities inherent in the job are vast.

According to a survey by Captivate, a digital media company, over half of employees spend time in the office on their Facebook, Twitter or other socia ...

DON’T rush. Create a plan for your investigation by identifying what issue(s) you are trying to resolve, what documents to review and who to intervie ...

It seems innocent enough. A co-worker has a birthday coming up, so a little celebration is organized during the workday to mark the event. A slice of ...

The UPS case should be collaboratively discussed by every HR and management team in the country because employee relations is about people, not just the technicalities of HR policy.

HR is often the last to know yet still bears the burden of putting policies in place that protect both the company and employees from the potential repercussions of workplace relationships.

Companies able to maintain a culture of diversity and inclusion attract the top talent.

A defensible workplace investigation case file includes a comprehensive investigation report, interview notes and supporting documentation.

Some outwardly trivial employee behaviors may be more serious than you think, and with the appropriate workplace guidelines in place, companies can take legal recourse to combat them.

Engaged employees, or employees that are emotionally committed to their company and its success, are hugely impactful to the organization’s bottom line. Here are 5 reasons why employee engagement rea

The recent Intuit 2020 Report: Twenty Trends that will Shape the Next Decade highlighted an incredible, emerging workplace trend.

Pick up any newspaper or read the latest headlines on your favorite newsfeed, and you will most certainly find a story about a pending discrimination ...

As technology continues to pervade both our everyday lives and the workplace, it ushers in a whole new set of employee relations issues for companies as well.

Title IX underpinned a move to ensure women athletes would have equal access to sports facilities and scholarship funds as well as comparable coaching to their male peers. But there is far more to Tit

People often evaluate the success of a new company in terms of its growth rate. In fact, I recently read an article which focused on whether year-on-y ...

You might think that social media has no bearing on this particular section of HR, but you’d be wrong.

Dealing with a human resource issue involving a high profile employee or situation is not easy – just ask Roger Goodell.

Learn about the 4Cs of Workplace Investigations - Consistent, Compliant, Comprehensive and Court-Ready - and how to improve your investigation process.

When a problem employee files a complaint, the severity and complexity of the investigation automatically increases. Find out how to manage the situation.

In 2010 retaliation claims surpassed race discrimination as the most common type of charge filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

There are a myriad of to-dos for Human Resources when a new hire comes on, but the most important step of onboarding a new employee is the post-hire interview.

Patterns of behavior can occur in individuals, in teams and in entire departments, and they can be really tough to identify if you don’t know what to look for. Learn how to recognize them.

To employees, HR could be the person they see only when something goes wrong. We‘re there when someone gets fired, during exit interviews, disputes and almost every talk behind closed doors. It’s easy

In this series, I would like to define the risks, explain and identify the impact and provide actionable advice on how to take control within your organization.

This week, HR Acuity held a webinar session explaining why employee relations is the next big frontier for CHROs to conquer.

Let’s be honest, employee relations is a tricky subject, encompassing everything from bullying and harassment to appropriately terminating an employee.

Imagine this: you have a complaint to lodge about a situation in your work environment, but you are hesitant to speak up because you are paralyzed wi ...

A strong employee relations strategy creates an environment that delivers what people want now or in the near future. Learn how to evaluate your success.

HR stories make the news every day, from disgruntled employees to legal precedence, but it’s easy to find the lessons hidden…if you’re looking. Learn from these crazy situations and use your knowledge

Interview usually means the start of something. But sometimes, interviews are the beginning of the end. That is the case when it comes to exit interviews, one of business’ most missed opportunities.

Discover employee relation issues that have concerned organizations, like yours, over the past 12 months with our Annual Workplace Survey Infographic.

The next time you are conducting an investigation, assess the credibility of involved parties in the exact same way you assess a candidate in the staffing process. Here's how.

Documenting an investigation is a critical and often overlooked. Proper investigation documentation can be key for legal defense and make or break an employment-related lawsuit. Follow these tips for

The exit interview can unlock potentially valuable information that may be used to promote an employee retention strategy. Read on to learn ways to make the most of the exit interview, from an HR pro

Documentation is the backbone of an internal investigation – it represents research, interviews, data compilation and more. Learn about some of the different types of documentation in workplace inves

technology – and social media specifically- is evolving at an extremely rapid pace. But using social media in the workplace can be a slippery slope – and especially in workplace investigations. Here

Conducting workplace investigations involves gathering a lot of firsthand information from employees who are involved or are witnesses to the subject of the investigation. Here's a list of five questi

Maintaining a few foundational principles in workplace investigations can reduce the risk of litigation and compliment instead of erode employee relations. Let’s explore a few of those areas.

Documenting employee relations issues is essential for consistently gathering the data you need to improve employee experience and lower organizational risk.

Conducting exit interviews with consistency is essential for gathering the data you need to improve employee retention and engagement. Learn more about the importance of exit interviews.