Investigations to maintain safe work environments
Maintaining a healthy work environment where your employees are excited to come to work and can feel safe and appreciated is paramount.
Which is why it is important that when workplace issues arise, they are not taken lightly.
Whether it is a case of investigating reports of sexual harassment and misconduct, health and safety violations or workplace bullying these matters must be taken seriously and looked into to ensure a safe and healthy culture for your employees.
According to a Statistics Canada report in 2018 on harassment in the workplace, 19 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men reported they had experienced it while doing their job. This included verbal abuse, humiliating behaviour, threats, physical violence, and unwanted sexual attention and harassment.
Unhappy workplaces lead to decreased ROI
When employees are unhappy — and that includes when there’s an improper investigation — it can filter throughout your organization and cause a damaging ripple effect you might not realize until it’s too late. Disengaged employees are costly.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report (2021) flags that employee engagement is around 20 to 34 per cent in the US and Canada. On top of that, the lost productivity of an employee who is actively disengaged? It’s equal to 18 per cent of their annual salary.
Employees want to feel connected to an organization that cares about their health and safety. They want to work for someone who takes complaints seriously.
What a workplace investigation will do
A workplace investigation conducted properly allows the people involved to feel that they are being heard, that they are relevant and that the company cares about them.
If workplace issues are taken seriously and investigated properly they can:
- Protect employees
- Save time
- Save resources
- Save the company from reputational harm
- Avoid general liability
These dispute resolution mechanisms need to be responded to quickly, decisively, and discretely when work-place issues arise.
In this day and age, workplace culture and policy are scrutinized more than ever.
AtMethod Workplace Investigations, we have heard loud and clear from organizations from across Alberta that there is a growing need for HR professionals, business owners, and managers to become competent in internal investigation law, process, and best practices. There is also a need for high-quality, legally-trained workplace investigations services advice.
That’s why we are here. To provide a neutral, expert level approach to your investigations and ensure your organization can move forward with a safe and empowered culture for your employees.