The Complete Buyer’s Guide to Employee Relations Technology

A Note From Our CEO, Deb Muller

Keeping up in today’s changing HR and employee relations (ER) environment is a challenge. As HR and ER leaders, we’re surrounded by change and choices — not just when it comes to the tools we use to manage our day-to-day priorities, but strategically when it comes to creating fair and safe employee experiences, equipping executives with actionable insights for decision-making and collaborating with senior leaders across our organizations.

When issues arise, how we manage them impacts not just our employees, but also our organization’s reputation and brand. As HR and ER professionals, we need to listen to employees’ concerns, investigate unacceptable behavior and ensure that all are treated fairly and consistently. Equally important is the overall employee experience (EX).

Our roles here have expanded, as we now are more strategically aligned with senior management in how organizations define and support employee experience. We are not only expected to create and evangelize a vision of employee experience, but also identify the levers of employee motivation and productivity.

To accomplish those goals, we need the right tools, data and analytics to identify critical gaps, like pay equity; manage escalating trends, like the gig economy; and address harassment and discrimination in today’s #MeToo era. We need proven best practices, processes and technology that help us strengthen the strategic collaboration across HR, executive teams and employees. Ultimately, we need to make proactive decisions that drive our teams and our organizations forward.

With this buyer’s guide, you’ll get the knowledge and confidence you need to make the right decisions for your organization — decisions that help you drive compliance, protect your brand and your employees, build the culture you want and achieve greater organizational effectiveness. We will also offer tips to inspire your journey and elevate the way your organization thinks about employee relations.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly or anyone on our team. We are employee relations experts and we know the challenges you are facing. We’re here to help.

Deb Muller
CEO, HR Acuity®
Connect with Deb on LinkedIn

Executive Summary

Transform Your Employee Relations from Reactive to Proactive

This comprehensive guide helps HR and ER leaders evaluate and select the right employee relations technology platform. Key insights include:

• Why You Need ER Technology: A single employee issue can cost time, legal fees and reputation. Purpose-built ER technology transforms how you identify, track and investigate issues while uncovering trends before they become crises.
• Your 4 Technology Options: From basic spreadsheets to dedicated ER platforms, understand the critical differences and why 3 out of 4 options leave you exposed to risk.
• Essential Features Checklist: Use our comprehensive evaluation framework covering investigations, workflows, analytics, integrations, security and support.
• Build vs. Buy Analysis: Six critical questions that determine whether to develop in-house or invest in proven solutions.
• ROI & Business Case: Organizations see an average 520% ROI from ER technology, with benefits extending far beyond cost savings.
• Stakeholder Buy-in Guide: Tailored messaging for CEO, CHRO and General Counsel to secure organizational support.

Quick Navigation:

• Why Do I Need an ER Platform?
• Technology Options Comparison
• Features & Functionality Checklist
• Build vs. Buy Decision
• Making Your Business Case
• Stakeholder Selling Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do I Need an Employee Relations Technology Platform to Transform My Workplace?

Managing employee relations through spreadsheets and scattered emails isn’t just inefficient—it’s risky. Critical details get lost, accountability slips and compliance becomes an afterthought. It’s not a sustainable way to support your people or protect your organization.

Here’s the thing – a single employee issue can cost you more than just time and legal fees. It can destroy your reputation, erode trust and create a toxic workplace culture that drives away your best talent. In today’s #MeToo era, where workplace issues can go viral in minutes, you need more than hope as a strategy.

The Real Cost of Inadequate ER Management

Employee relations requires a unique approach, specialized technology and a dose of innovation. It’s a distinct function within HR—one that benefits from dedicated tools and strategies designed to handle sensitive issues, ensure consistency and reduce risk. Think about it from the lens of:

• Legal risks: Without proper documentation, you’re one lawsuit away from disaster
• Reputation damage: In our connected world, one mishandled case can become front-page news
• Employee trust: When issues aren’t handled consistently, employees lose faith in HR
• Hidden patterns: Without data, you can’t spot the manager who’s had 5 complaints in 6 months

The right employee relations technology platform transforms how you identify, track and investigate employee issues. It provides built-in intelligence that guides you through best-practice investigations, ensures consistent documentation and uncovers trends before they become crises.

Key Takeaway: Employee relations requires a unique approach, specialized technology and a dose of innovation. Just like you’d go to a trained specialist for your health — the same idea applies to your employees. Learn more here.

What Are My Options for Employee Relations Software That Actually Works?

At the most basic level, you need a way to methodically and efficiently track, investigate and analyze issues. While many solutions are designed to accomplish this goal, understanding how each one works will help you identify the one that’s right for your organization (or validate your current method).

Let’s examine the four main approaches organizations use today – and why three of them are setting you up for failure.

Option 1: Basic Systems (Spreadsheets, Email, Shared Drives)

Basic approaches to managing employee relations are just that: basic. They include tools like spreadsheets, email and shared drives — and are often the first go-to methods for smaller businesses and startups. Word of caution: While inexpensive and readily available, basic systems like these come with major drawbacks.

Documentation Nightmares The skillset required for these simple systems is fairly basic — but your employee relations data is anything but basic. There are severe limitations:

• Excel doesn’t allow attachments
• Cases are scattered across different platforms
• Data entry varies by person (no standardization)
• Scalability becomes arduous, if not impossible
• Legal defensibility is practically non-existent

Reporting & Analytics Limitations Basic systems can report on simple matters, like the date a case was opened or closed — but it’s what happens in between that reveals vital details. You’ll face:

• No ability to track patterns by person, department or issue type
• Missing data that makes trend analysis impossible
• No early warning system for problem areas
• Inability to benchmark against industry standards

Investigation Risks While collaboration software like Google Sheets, SharePoint and shared drives can help facilitate sharing data, they pose serious compliance and ethical risks:

• No control over who sees confidential information
• Easy for sensitive data to be shared inappropriately
• No audit trail of who accessed what and when
• Anonymity is impossible to maintain

Key Takeaway: Basic systems are simple but come with major limitations

• They don’t address the “how”
• There is no consistency among investigators
• They don’t connect the dots
• They don’t address employee experience

Option 2: Legacy Case Management Systems (Salesforce, ServiceNow)

You’re likely already using some sort of case management solution in your organization—a customer resource management (CRM) solution or a ticket management solution like ServiceNow. Your organization has already made the investment, and you may be familiar with it. Sticking with what you have may seem attractive, but the reality is that these systems were not built to handle employee relations.

Documentation Challenges Legacy case management systems let you track various components of your employee relations process in a very linear way. But employee relations is rarely that straightforward. Creating perceived process efficiencies should not come at the expense of meeting the nuanced needs of HR. For example, a system designed for expediency may help you resolve an issue quickly, but it might not ensure you do it correctly.

Investigation Limitations While these systems are more secure than basic approaches and can handle routine matters (Tiers 0 & 1), they cannot handle medium- to high-risk matters that are more complex, require escalation and/or demand significant expertise (Tiers 2 & 3). Critical gaps include:

• No guided interview process for multiple parties
• Lack of standardized investigation workflows
• Missing best-practice templates
• No built-in compliance checks

Reporting & Analytics Confusion A legacy system can record details to create a database — but not necessarily in ways that offer any real insight. Problems include:

• ER data mixed with unrelated information
• No ER-specific metrics or KPIs
• Vendors who don’t understand employee relations
• Reports that don’t answer executive questions

Key Takeaway: Legacy systems can’t meet all the needs required to effectively manage employee relations:

• The system doesn’t evolve, and changes may not be a priority in the future
• The system is owned by another department that doesn’t understand employee relations

Employee relations issues were handled very differently 10 years ago than they are today. The fact is, change is a constant as employee relations continues to evolve and elevate. The systems we use must keep up with that trend.

Option 3: Ethics Hotlines

Ethics hotlines are a legal requirement for public companies. They are mainly focused on governance, risk and compliance. While they can play an important role in employee relations, they alone cannot manage employee issues.

HR Acuity’s Employee Experience Survey revealed stunning statistics:

• Only 6% of employees phone in their concerns
• It’s the least effective method of reporting employee issues
• Employees favor reporting to managers 30% more than reporting to HR

Documentation: Just the Tip of the Iceberg Confidentiality, anonymity and security are often handled well by hotlines since they’re usually administered by third parties. Nonetheless, they’re more akin to a notification system, and many notifications may be missed.

As an exercise, look at the number of cases your team sees in a typical month. Then break that down by source (hotline, direct calls from HR business partners, managers, employees, etc.). This will give you an accurate sense of where your volume is really coming from.

Investigation: Where Hotlines Stop An ethics hotline is nothing more than a notification tool; it cannot be used to uncover facts surrounding allegations. Plus, with no guided investigation process to follow up, it can be impractical, even unfeasible, to ensure full compliance and mitigate risk.

Reporting & Analytics: The 94% You’re Missing Only a small percentage of employee relations cases come through hotlines. Employees typically won’t report lower level infractions, which means you will be left with incomplete reporting and analytics that prevent you from benchmarking, spotting trends and addressing root causes behind issues.

Key Takeaway: Hotlines are more akin to a notification system, and many notifications may be missed.

Option 4: Dedicated Employee Relations Technology Platforms

Various solutions exist to address employee relations specifically, but they are not all built to address the real-life complexity of employee relations. A dedicated solution should not only let you document every aspect of an issue but also guide you through an investigation process that helps you get to the root causes of each issue. Ideally, your dedicated employee relations solution should also support employee relations best practices for permissioning and reporting while maintaining confidentiality.

Managing employee relations cases isn’t always easy. Employee issues rarely follow a set formula or straight path. The right solution will reveal what’s going on in your organization through a user-friendly process that drives greater buy-in and creates the analytics your leadership team demands. With a dedicated technology platform, employee relations professionals have key data at their fingertips to answer executive questions and drive strategic decisions, often before they are asked.

Real-World Applications That Drive Results

Think about a few examples in your day-to-day experiences where an ER technology solution would be valuable:

Reporting to Senior Leaders: The right employee relations software can help you be predictive with your data and tell a story about your culture and business-related issues. Using an ER technology solution, you can integrate both internal events, like a holiday party or sales meeting, and external events, like #MeToo or a recent election. Plus, by delving into certain trends and spikes, you can validate your ROI for creating a new policy.

Benchmarking What Success Looks Like: An ER technology solution can also help you see how your organization stacks up against others. With this, you’ll get a clearer picture of where you are today, where you want to go, how you should be spending your time and goals for improvement.

What Features and Functionality Do I Need for My Organization to Excel?

Leverage this checklist to help evaluate the right software for your employee relations team.

Conducting Investigations

☐ Embedded best practice tips, workflows and tools for employee relations and investigations
☐ Guided interview templates because what you ask is the key to what you are told
☐ Features designed to help your organization protect privilege, when needed
☐ Ability to designate involved parties as complainants, subjects and witnesses
☐ Auto-generated investigation close-out reports that adhere to EEOC recommendations
☐ Role-based permissions to ensure confidentiality and reduce concerns about retaliation
☐ Governed approval and review process

Guided Employee Relations Workflows

☐ Centralized repository for all documentation and evidence
☐ Easy and seamless collaboration with team members
☐ Configurable letter and communication templates
☐ Electronic records of documentation receipt
☐ Scheduled tasks to keep cases current and on track
☐ Ability to upload documents, regardless of file type
☐ Document library for easy access to the most frequently used policies

Accessing Analytics & Insights

☐ Ability to compare case information with benchmark data from organizations of similar size and industry
☐ Readily accessible predefined reports and dashboards
☐ Ability to track issues and trends by type, action, owner, severity, status, etc.
☐ User-friendly report creation
☐ Multi-field search, save and schedule capabilities
☐ Permission-based reporting and dashboards
☐ Ability to search and manipulate data within the system

Integrating With Other Solutions

☐ Seamless integration with HRIS
☐ Legacy system data integration to maintain historical information
☐ Integration with ticket management solutions and hotlines
☐ Integration with business intelligence solutions such as Tableau or Visier

Permissions, Security and Confidentiality

☐ Role-based permissions following employee relations best practices
☐ Compliance with GDPR
☐ Single Sign On (SSO)
☐ Multi-factor authentication

Training and Support

☐ Training focused on navigation and adoption
☐ Live support team available 24/7 to answer questions
☐ 24/7 Support Center with employee relations articles and videos

Key Takeaway: After you create your must haves, break them down:

Do you understand which technology platforms meet these needs? Do you understand the difference between the solutions available? Have you explained the value and need to your key stakeholders?

We would love to help you evaluate the right employee relations software for your organization!

Should I Build or Buy an Employee Relations Platform?

Throughout this process, you may be considering developing an in-house solution. This may be the right option for you, under certain circumstances, but it comes with an expensive price tag. Another concern? You won’t be able to implement it right away as your developer team will have to build it out first. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does my organization have highly unique business needs?
2. Is my organization willing to devote a significant amount of time and resources to the project?
3. Does my organization have best practices in place already?
4. Can you really ensure in-house solutions are kept up to date with best practices and policies?
5. Are the HR and IT teams staffed to manage the ongoing maintenance of an in-house solution?
6. Does my organization have the internal technical and functional skills required?

If you answered no to any of these questions, or simply aren’t sure, then investing in an existing solution is the better option. Not only will it save you time, but some providers have extensive employee relations expertise to help you apply tools and protocols for consistent processes and outcomes.

An existing employee relations solution will give you a stable, compliant and scalable platform that’s been thoroughly tested and configured for a superior user experience — complete with comprehensive tracking, investigation and reporting features. Plus, when you use a cloud-based solution, you benefit from ongoing enhancements without having to fight for limited IT resources.

Key Takeaway: Before investing in purpose-built technology, internal IT organizations often build the Employee Relations functionality into “general systems,” or they will recreate the existing ER workflows for them.

Unfortunately, we often hear these systems aren’t nearly robust enough and become outdated quickly. IT thinks they’ve checked the box, and they aren’t prepared to provide ongoing support.

How Do I Make the Business Case for Employee Relations Technology?

Employee relations technology is an investment that pays dividends, and it’s important that your organization’s key decision-makers understand not only the value of the platform but also the risk of not making the investment.

To help you make your case to stakeholders, we partnered with Forrester Consulting to uncover the qualitative and quantitative benefits of employee relations technology. Brand reputation, brand advocacy, employee experience and productivity are all directly correlated with a strong employee relations department.

Explaining the Value & Need

As a main user of employee relations technology, you may find yourself focusing on the many software features, process improvements and time savings that impact your day-to-day, but remember, when selling the value to your stakeholders, they need the big picture. Direct your conversation to what it means for them and the value it brings to the organization — things like ROI, ease of use and implementation, connectivity and reducing organizational risk.

Put yourselves in your stakeholders’ shoes: How does an employee relations technology platform help them achieve their goals, address frustrations and ultimately make the organization a better place to work?

Key Takeaway: Employee relations technology helps organizations deliver an average 520% ROI (or more). HR Acuity offers an ROI calculator that can give you an exact value for your organization.

Who Are My Stakeholders and How Do I Sell Them on ER Technology?

Before you make your case, it’s important that you know your audience. Each stakeholder will have different pain points and goals that motivate their decisions.

CEO / C-SUITE

Primary Concerns:

• Reputational risk
• Data
• #MeToo
• Culture
• Employee Experience
• Communication with the Board

Key Benefits of Employee Relations Technology:

• Relevant analytics can be woven into strategy to ensure greater organizational effectiveness
• Employee insights and trends can help improve and direct culture
• Employee alignment around mission, vision and values
• A better workplace and a more engaged workforce

CHIEF HR / PEOPLE OFFICER

Primary Concerns:

• Surprise or scandal that could shine a bad light on HR or the company
• Lack of employee trust in their HR department
• Lack of insights to inform strategic talent decisions
• Having the wrong information altogether

Key Benefits of Employee Relations Technology:

• Relevant analytics can be woven into strategy to help the HR department more effectively support company goals
• Employee insights and trends can help improve and direct culture

Note: Aligning employees with your company’s mission, vision and values requires employee behavioral data, not simply engagement data or employee sentiments.

GENERAL COUNSEL

Primary Concerns:

• Protecting the company’s reputation
• Analyzing risk and consulting with leaders across the organization on ways to address it
• Managing an ethical culture

Key Benefits of Employee Relations Technology:

• • Analytics that inform risk management strategies and protect the brand
  • Information that can be used to improve ongoing development and communication of workplace policies
  • Insight into employee relations issues that might otherwise remain hidden

Frequently Asked Questions

Note: The following FAQ section has been developed based on common questions we receive from organizations evaluating employee relations technology, expanding on themes from the buyer’s guide above.

What exactly is employee relations technology, and why is it different from HR software?

Employee relations technology is purpose-built software designed to manage the complex, sensitive nature of workplace investigations, complaints and behavioral issues. Unlike general HR software that handles transactions like payroll or benefits, ER technology provides guided workflows for investigations, ensures legal compliance, maintains strict confidentiality protocols and reveals patterns in employee behavior that general HR systems miss. Think of it as the difference between a Swiss Army knife and a surgeon’s scalpel – both are tools, but only one is designed for precision work.

How do I know if my organization is ready for dedicated ER technology?

If you’re managing employee issues in spreadsheets, if you’ve ever lost sleep worrying about documentation in a legal case or if you can’t quickly tell your CEO how many harassment complaints you’ve had in the past year, you’re ready. More specifically, organizations typically need dedicated ER technology when they have 500+ employees, handle more than 10 cases per month, operate in multiple locations or work in highly regulated industries. But the real question isn’t size – it’s risk tolerance and commitment to employee experience.

What’s the typical ROI for employee relations technology?

According to Forrester Research, organizations see an average 520% ROI from employee relations technology. But the real value goes beyond dollars: reduced legal risk, improved employee retention, faster case resolution (typically 70% faster) and the ability to spot patterns before they become crises. One lawsuit prevented or avoided PR crisis typically pays for the system many times over. Plus, when employees trust the process, they report issues earlier when they’re easier and less expensive to resolve.

How long does implementation really take, and will it disrupt our operations?

Many organizations are fully operational within 6-8 weeks. The process includes data migration, system configuration, integrations and training. The key to avoiding disruption is a phased approach — start with a pilot group, learn and adjust, then roll out broadly. Modern cloud-based ER platforms are designed for rapid deployment. Unlike old-school enterprise software projects that took years, today’s ER technology can be implemented between busy seasons without missing a beat.

What happens to our existing case data, and can we maintain our historical records?

Quality ER platforms include data migration services to bring your historical data into the new system. This typically includes cases from spreadsheets, legacy systems and even paper files (digitized first). Maintaining historical data is crucial for identifying long-term patterns and defending against legal claims. The best vendors have migrated thousands of cases and know how to handle messy, inconsistent historical data while maintaining the chain of custody.

How do we ensure employee adoption and change management?

Success comes from positioning ER technology as an employee advocate. Focus your change management on: clear communication about the “why” (better employee experience), visible executive support, comprehensive training that includes practice scenarios, starting with enthusiastic early adopters and celebrating early wins. Most importantly, adoption will happen naturally when employees see that cases are handled more fairly and consistently.

What about data privacy and security concerns, especially with sensitive employee information?

Enterprise ER platforms are built with bank-level security, including end-to-end encryption, role-based access controls, detailed audit trails, GDPR and CCPA compliance, SOC 2 certification and secure cloud infrastructure. Proper ER technology is far more secure than your current spreadsheets and emails. Plus, features like automatic data retention and purging help you maintain compliance with privacy regulations.

How does ER technology handle complex investigations with multiple parties?

Purpose-built ER technology guides investigators through complex cases with: structured interview templates for different roles (complainant, subject, witness), automatic conflict checking, timeline visualization tools, evidence management with chain of custody, collaborative features for investigation teams and approval workflows for findings and actions. It’s like having an expert investigator looking over your shoulder, ensuring you don’t miss critical steps.

What if we’ve already adapted another platform the company uses to handle this?

Generic case management tools trying to handle the specialized needs of employee relations is risky and can lead to missed details, inconsistent processes and compliance issues. It’s like using Microsoft Word to do your accounting; it’s possible, but painful and risky. Purpose-built ER technology provides investigation workflows, confidentiality controls, ER-specific analytics and compliance features that generic platforms lack. Many organizations continue using their platforms, like CRMs, for their initially intended purposes while adopting dedicated employee relations technology specifically for investigations.

How do we measure success after implementing ER technology?

Success metrics fall into four categories:

• Efficiency: Case cycle time reduction (typically 50-70%), investigator productivity, documentation time savings
• Quality: Investigation consistency scores, legal defensibility, employee satisfaction with process
• Insights: Patterns identified, proactive interventions, benchmark comparisons
• Outcomes: Reduced legal claims, improved retention in problem areas, culture metric improvements

The best part? The technology tracks these metrics automatically.

What kind of support and training can we expect?

Leading ER technology vendors provide:

• Comprehensive onboarding program
• Role-based training for different user types
• 24/7 technical support
• ER best practice guidance (not just technical help)
• Regular webinars on emerging ER topics
• User community for peer learning
• Annual conferences for advanced training

Look for vendors who are ER experts, not just software companies.

How does ER technology adapt to our unique policies and processes?

Modern ER platforms are highly configurable without custom coding:

• Custom case types and categories matching your policies
• Configurable workflows for different investigation types
• Template libraries for your specific communications
• Role-based permissions matching your organization structure
• Integration with your specific HR tech stack
• Custom fields for industry-specific requirements

The key is finding the balance between best practices and organizational needs.

Summary

We designed this Buyer’s Guide to help you confidently evaluate employee relations technology for your organization. At HR Acuity, employee relations is our sole focus—purpose-built by experts who live and breathe this discipline. We didn’t just adopt another platform; we created the category.

If you have questions about HR Acuity, managing employee issues or how to transform your approach to employee relations, we’re here to help. Reach out anytime—we’re ready to partner with you.

Resources

• HR Acuity Buyer’s Checklist
• HR Acuity Platform Overview
• Forrester ROI Calculator
• HR Acuity Vs. Others

Listen to the brief audio overview of the Employee Relations Buyer’s Guide:

Podcast: Audio Overview

Welcome to the next generation of 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 best practice, fair investigations, uncover trends and patterns through forward-looking data and analytics and provide trusted, consistent experiences for your people.