You always encourage employees to bring their complaints to you, so you’re glad that Sally came forward and told you about her boss’s unwelcome advances. But there’s a catch: “I don’t want you to investigate,” Sally tells you. “I just thought you should know.”
If you’re a longtime HR professional, this scenario has probably unfolded in your office more than once.
Employees have different reasons for wanting to keep things confidential: Maybe they’re afraid of retaliation, or of the office rumor mill. Maybe they think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill and don’t want to “make waves.”
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Regardless, this is one time when you simply can’t do as an employee asks. You’re legally required to investigate complaints even if an employee explicitly asks you not to. Here are 7 tips for softening the blow:
1. Reassure the employee that he or she did the right thing in coming to you, and remind the person about the protection provided by your company’s anti-retaliation policy.
2. Explain that you are legally obligated to investigate the complaint, now that you have been put on notice of it.
3. Tell the employee that the investigation will be handled in a professional, discreet manner, with all information shared on a “need to know” basis only. (This is different than telling the employee that you’ll keep their comments “just between us,” which you simply can’t do in the context of a thorough investigation.)
4. Keep the employee posted on the status of the investigation as it proceeds
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5. Periodically remind the employee of your anti-retaliation policy, and encourage the person to come to you if she or she feels that it is being violated.
6. Be careful not to take any inadvertently retaliatory action against the complaining employee, such as transferring him or her away from the alleged harasser to a less desirable post.
7. After the investigation has concluded, periodically check in with the employee to be sure that the problem has truly been rectified.
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