How HR Acuity Helped a Higher Education University Reduce Litigation Risks Through Consistent Workplace Investigations
The Challenge
Having recently undergone a furlough that included both instructional and non-instructional staff, a respected east coast university experienced a surge in litigation claims alleging age and gender discrimination. Even before the layoffs, the university had received more employee-related claims in 5 years than it had seen in the previous 25 years.
Compounded by the complexity of a unionized environment with distinct grievance processes and a decentralized documentation process, the human resources (HR) team at the university was struggling to manage investigations and documentation of employee-related misconduct allegations.
After seeing how HR Acuity provides documentation templates that retain a base level of information while allowing configurability to accommodate different needs, the university turned to HR Acuity.
At-a-Glance
Streamlined Case Management and Documentation
HR Acuity centralized the university’s employee-related event documentation, enabling seamless tracking from inception to resolution and improving internal communication across stakeholders.
Enhanced Litigation Preparedness and Outcomes
By attaching primary source documentation and leveraging standardized processes, the university achieved more successful litigation outcomes and ensured compliance in workplace investigations.
Proactive Insights for Organizational Improvement
The university used HR Acuity’s analytics to identify patterns in claims, enabling targeted reviews of supervisor placements and fostering a more consistent and equitable employee relations process.
“HR Acuity offers far more than software.”
The Solution
Each union within the organization had a different grievance process, and HR Acuity’s software was easily configured for each one’s unique needs. With HR Acuity the university’s HR team was able to develop a custom intake form so that campus administrators could submit information to them and HR could easily enter it into the system. HR Acuity quickly became the central repository for important employee related event documentation and was easily accessible by all of the key stakeholders.
For the first time, the central equity office could view all relevant information on open or closed cases. With the possibility of lengthy litigation procedures that may occur many years in the future, primary source documentation became extremely valuable. HR Acuity allowed users to attach primary source documentation and miscellaneous details. For example, a worker’s compensation claim number could be attached to a case of a worker out on leave, a detail which could be difficult to track down at the time of trial.
All of the documentation and information was located in the system’s central data repository facilitating improved internal communication and sharing. With HR Acuity the HR team gained the ability to track each case from inception to resolution, benchmark data against the system’s proprietary database and generate metrics on-demand.
HR Acuity provided the university with a framework for standardized documentation, best practice workplace investigations, compliant reporting, post-hire and exit interviews, and a consistent ER process.
The university reported more successful litigation outcomes, more consistency in case timelines and closure, and immediate identification of patterns and claim types from allegations, which allowed the university to actively review supervisor placement and management in those departments.
“The HR Acuity team engages with us to complement our HR team and offer a full solution.”
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