NEW YORK, NY, May 16, 2024 – HR Acuity, the enterprise leader in employee relations case management and investigations software, released its Eighth Annual Employee Relations Benchmark Study, providing crucial insights into the evolving landscape of workplace challenges and how organizations are responding. The findings illustrate the speed in which the field of employee relations is evolving and highlight the need for organizations to strategically adapt to address both cutting-edge technological advancements and complex human-centric issues. The findings include input from more than 250 organizations representing over 8.7 million employees globally, including nearly twenty percent of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies.
Mental health issues in the workplace continued to dominate in 2023.
For the second consecutive year, mental health challenges significantly impacted employee relations, driving an increase in issue volumes in major categories. Policy violations, behavioral issues, discrimination, harassment, retaliation allegations and EEOC claims reached their highest levels since 2018, and performance issues also saw an uptick from 2022.
A staggering 70% of organizations cited an increase in mental health-related challenges as the primary factor behind rising case volumes. The widespread mental health crisis in the workplace is exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, aggressive return-to-office mandates and a generation of workers more aware of mental health diagnoses. Organizations must focus on refining their processes to triage mental health issues and use employee-related data to identify patterns and implement targeted interventions to better support employees.
Organizations agree that trust is imperative, but too few proactively build trust with transparent, two-way communication.
The findings show that 89% of organizations recognize the importance of building trust through transparency, yet only 11% share aggregated, anonymous employee relations and investigation outcomes with their workforce, primarily due to legal concerns. A lack of transparency can lead to misconceptions that negatively impact an organization’s reputation.
AI can improve employee relations effectiveness, but a balanced approach is key to alleviating legal concerns and preserving the human element of the work.
There is a consensus on the potential of AI to transform employee relations. Nearly all surveyed organizations (90%) expressed interest in using AI for enhanced data analytics, predictive modeling, and ensuring compliance, yet adoption is still in the early stages amid concerns over legal and ethical implications.
“This year’s benchmark findings are a call to action. The continued rise in mental health issues and policy violations require that we refine our processes, gather feedback and enhance aftercare for affected employees,” said Deb Muller, CEO of HR Acuity. “It’s crucial for organizations to embrace transparency to foster trust and integrity. By integrating AI and enhancing investigative training, we can support our workforce more effectively and preserve our organizational culture. However, it’s critical to adopt AI ethically, ensuring it complements essential human interactions to protect our employees.”
The complete Eighth Annual Employee Relations Benchmark Study is available here: https://www.hracuity.com/employee-relations-benchmark-study/
As a category-leading software as a service (SaaS) company, HR Acuity proudly boasts a growing customer base, working with hundreds of leading enterprises including LinkedIn, Lyft, Verizon, General Mills and Adobe. HR Acuity is the founder of empowER™, a growing community of more than 5,000 employee relations, investigations, human resources and compliance professionals and is the creator of ER/Q, the first-ever maturity model for employee relations.
About HR Acuity
While you can’t prevent every employee relations issue, you can change how you respond. HR Acuity is the only technology platform specifically built for employee relations and investigations management. HR Acuity’s SaaS technology empowers you with built in intelligence, templates and reporting so you can conduct fair investigations according to best practices; uncover trends and patterns through forward-looking data and analytics; and provide trusted, consistent experiences for your people.
For more information, visit hracuity.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
