Is blogging the new whistle-blowing?

October 18th, 2008

Rather than simply being a bit of harmless fun, have blogs actually prompted a change in working practices? Is this perhaps a new way of getting unscrupulous or old-fashioned employers to change their ways, or a dangerous employment game with potential gross misconduct consequences?

What do you do if you find out your employees are writing about you on the internet? Do you join in and build on a popular listing, thereby showing you’ve got a sense of humour and are open to feedback, or do you throw the book at them and try to get the site pulled immediately? I guess that largely depends on what they’re writing, but when it’s something you’d prefer stayed behind closed doors, then you could legitimately be looking at a gross misconduct dismissal for bringing the company name into disrepute, or even perhaps, breach of confidentiality depending on the contents and what’s already in the public domain.

We’ve already seen cases where employees have been sacked for what’s been written in their blogs (remember Waterstones some two years or so ago, when blogging was strictly for geeks?), but as the media continues to obsess about the time spent by employees on social networking sites like Facebook (I have to confess it is rather addictive, and yes, I have been going on there in work time – sorry!), could this actually become a legitimate way of raising concerns about a company?

Could the blog become the new whistle-blowing letter to the firm’s accountants or other nominated ‘safe’ contact of the future, and thus give the author automatic protection from recriminations from the firm??? Could these sorts of postings be deemed to be in the public interest? Might we see future legislation or maybe case law indicating that the practice of blogging is the worker’s ‘right’ to freedom of speech, and that any wrong-doing highlighted therein is a ‘protected disclosure’?

Sounds a bit far-fetched for the time-being, but who knows – with the way case law and legislation is going in this country – watch this space!

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Today’s Top HR Tip…Start collating your evidence

September 30th, 2008

IT’S ALL IN THE PAPERWORK…

Yes, we know we’ve all done it – you’ve finally got a great job applicant in front of you after spending all morning interviewing every misfit under the sun, and before you know it the offer’s out of your mouth and they’re starting on Monday! Somehow that recruitment paperwork never quite gets done, and you’re ready to move on to the next pressing people problem.

Easily done we know, but unfortunately in today’s increasingly legislated work environment, such a lack of paperwork has the potential to leave you in a very risky position. Whilst we’re all for the paperless office, sadly when it comes to HR records, this is one area where a lack of paperwork will do far more harm than good.

Ask yourself this: If you haven’t got scoring criteria to prove it, how can you show that the decision not to appoint the only male applicant wasn’t because of his sex but because he scored lower than the successful applicant who just happened to be a woman? Or argue your way out of the £10,000 fine for employing an illegal worker, if you haven’t taken a photocopy of what you thought was an authentic passport?

A few minutes spent on carefully thought out paperwork now, can save hours, not to mention £s, later (remember there’s no cap on compensation payments for discrimination claims which can be brought even at the job advert stage!). It needn’t be anything fancy or long-winded – a simple tick-list can do the job quite nicely and will also ensure that you don’t have enough space to write anything rude or insulting about the candidates that could come back to haunt you!

To help you get a manageable paperwork system in place, Salgado Investigations recommend the following tips:

• Keep to one page per candidate and use bullet points with a space for a tick, cross or mark out of say 5
• Set out each of your essential criteria such as: degree in X, knowledge of Y, etc. as a simple tick box – they either have or they haven’t so why complicate things?
• Decide upon scoring criteria for testing key skills and capabilities, with say 5 as meets perfectly to 1 as little/no match and agree a cut-off pass mark before the interviews.
• Don’t forget to have housekeeping reminders to work through at the bottom, so you can ensure that you remember to ask about all those little details like booked holidays and notice periods; but more importantly, tick boxes to show you’ve double-checked their criminal records statement, you’ve seen and photocopied their proof of eligibility to work, and any essentials like driving licence or exam certificates.
• Complete one for each candidate and keep securely for 6 months just in case anything is ever questioned.
•  And finally, take great delight in shredding once the tribunal time limit’s passed!

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Top Tips for managing people problems

September 23rd, 2008

TOP HR TIPS FROM SALGADO INVESTIGATIONS…

1. Put everything in writing – contracts, policies, procedures, actions agreed, meeting notes, etc. etc. You may have to sacrifice a few minutes now, but believe us it will prove time well spent if it avoids any doubt at a later date.

2. It doesn’t pay to be nice! No, we don’t mean that you shouldn’t be friendly, polite or treat your employees well – just don’t make exceptions or excuses on the basis of wanting to “be nice” to them. It is a sad but only too often seen scenario, that in letting someone get away with being late one day, this opens the door to them being late each week; that by paying full sick pay to your star performer you’ve created a precedent for paying everyone else; and that by turning a blind eye to a policy breach for one ends up negating the whole policy which you may later want to apply to others. The moral of this story? Don’t be “nice” – be consistent and fair – it’s nicer to all in the long run!

3. Assume your employees know nothing! Not really as insulting as it sounds, but the safest way to implement concrete policies you can all rely on. If you don’t specifically tell someone something and have the document trail to show that they have been told it, you can pretty much assume that in the eyes of the law they can’t be expected to know it! If you not only make policies straight-forward, simple to read and clear to understand, but get employees to sign to say they’ve read and understood them, then everyone can know where they stand – problem solved!

4. Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what you should be doing today! You can guarantee that the problem won’t go away, and that things really won’t improve even if left another week. All you can bank on is that you’ll have an even tougher time trying to resolve the issue, and in some instances may even have prevented yourself from safely tackling it at all. If you have a concern – act on it. That doesn’t necessarily mean disciplinary action but perhaps simply some constructive feedback and helpful pointers. Just like training a dog, feedback or corrective action needs to take place as close to the event in question as possible otherwise the poor creature will have no idea what they’re being chastised (or even praised) for! If you therefore see one of your employees do something you do or don’t like – have a quiet word with them there and then whilst it’s still fresh in everyone’s memories. If you do need to consider disciplinary action, then it’s even more important that this is tackled in a timely fashion, as leaving an issue unaddressed for several weeks would suggest to everyone else that it isn’t really an issue at all, making any punitive action you want to consider appear completely unjustified!

5. Take a deep breath and count to ten…gather your thoughts, gather your evidence, and most importantly – gather your composure! Whilst you shouldn’t be putting things off, you shouldn’t be rushing headlong into spur-of-the-moment decisions either. When you feel like you want to throttle someone (never recommended!) or throw the book at them, try to step back a minute and consider why that is. If it is because of what they’ve just done, fair enough; but if it’s because they’re a general pain in the b**t and this last incident was simply the final straw, then you need to tread carefully to ensure your response really does fit the crime. (Think juries not being allowed to know of past convictions and you’re along the right lines). Take time to properly gather your evidence, ensure that you have everything you need to present your case, and make arrangements for the best placed people to hold the necessary meetings, making detailed notes as you go. Again, as per Tip1, time wisely spent now in properly preparing for the action you want to take will pay dividends later, and could even mean the difference between a fair and unfair dismissal (and several £000)!

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