Every company sooner or later has to deal with integrity issues and undesirable workplace conduct that gets reported. This can include (systematic) bullying, (sexual) harassment and aggression, fraud, bribery, theft and much more. This kind of situation is becoming increasingly visible nowadays. There are many misconceptions about how to handle such conduct and complaints about it. This frequently causes a great deal of damage, not only to the victim but also to the company. For that reason, we discuss a number of practical examples below. After covering these, the role of HR and management is set out.
Case 1. “My daughter Lisa was assaulted here in the workplace. Why aren’t you firing that idiot?”
This is a question suddenly put to the director of a cleaning company by the father of an alleged victim. Following this question, the director promises he will investigate Lisa’s report. A number of colleagues are therefore interviewed by HR at the director’s request. Alleged perpetrator Tim is subsequently dismissed. However, the director has acted too hastily. He failed to create a safe working environment for Tim by not giving him the opportunity to tell his side of the story. Crucially, the content of Lisa’s report was only communicated to Tim at the point when the dismissal decision had already been taken. The result is that the director’s intention to provide a safe workplace was not fulfilled. This can even lead to a liability claim by employees against employers under Section 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code. That was not the case here. Tim did, however, ultimately receive fair compensation of €4,500, since, according to the court, the employer had acted with serious culpability due to the carelessly conducted investigation.
This example, in which the organisation overreacts and wants to act too hastily in the interest of the victim, is becoming more common these days. Employers are also increasingly quick to opt for an external investigation, to suspend the accused, or to summarily dismiss the employee immediately. Acting hastily is not always careful and sensible when handling a report of undesirable conduct. Despite good intentions, a certain degree of hearing both sides and expert handling are also needed. Management, supervisors, HR and the confidential counsellor within the organisation will all need a certain level of expertise. It is a joint effort once the reporting party has decided that something needs to be done about the report. Everyone must understand their role and task.
Case 2. “One of the two supervisors goes way too far! His behaviour is intimidating everyone here.”
This is a complaint received by the confidential counsellor — from a window cleaner. He states that this supervisor is causing a culture of fear, as a result of which no one enjoys going to work anymore.
Case 3. “It’s a shame it has to end this way, but you’ve already had so many warnings..”
— so says the director of a cleaning company, verbally informing his employee that he has been dismissed. The reason given is that the cleaner keeps taking the most expensive cleaning products home. This is theft and can even lead to the most severe measure an employer can use: summary dismissal.
Follow-up steps, internal rules, cooperation.
It is important that the director, supervisors, HR staff and the confidential counsellor have knowledge, in situations like these, of the necessary follow-up steps needed to stop the conduct and integrity violation and to limit the damage to the victim and/or the company. Do internal rules for this even exist within your company?
What exactly is the role of the confidential counsellor, which has become increasingly visible and important over the years? It has therefore become much more apparent that the confidential counsellor above all needs to have built a good working relationship with management, HR and staff. To achieve this, four building blocks are important:
- Creating and keeping policy alive;
- Importance;
- Clear division of tasks and responsibilities and;
- Effective cooperation towards a safe and honest workplace
With the right knowledge, training and tools for supervisors, management, HR staff and the confidential counsellor, good cooperation based on these four building blocks can be established. In this way, everyone can consider, from their own role, what value they can add to these four building blocks.
A few more practical examples about the division of roles!
Example 1:
The director of a company calls HR in because of a fourth report of intimidating behaviour by one of his supervisors. The director then asks HR: “Could you have a conversation with this supervisor? Could you also make clear to him that this really can’t continue this way? I even heard that an employee from his department left because of all that intimidating behaviour. You’re better at having these kinds of conversations than I am. If that conversation could happen this week, that would be great.”
Before the HR employee can respond to this request, the director has already walked off. In the end, the HR employee holds this conversation with the intimidating supervisor. This does not actually fall within his own task, but rather within that of the director. You can see in this case that it is not actually intended for HR to take over the director’s role.
Example 2:
The reporting party has asked his confidential counsellor to join him for support in a conversation with the supervisor by whom he feels intimidated. The supervisor, in turn, has asked the HR employee to be present at this conversation to represent his interests.
In this case, HR sits next to the supervisor and supports him. In this way, HR is seen as an advocate for the supervisor, and the balance in the relationship between the parties is lost. It is important that everyone understands that the confidential counsellor is only there to stand alongside the reporting party, and certainly not to represent his or her interests. So the confidential counsellor should not do the talking — the reporting party should!
Practical tip
On the RAS website, employees can find the reporting point by searching for “Meldpunt ongewenst gedrag” (undesirable-conduct reporting point). This can be done anonymously. An employee can then make a report to a confidential counsellor. Some cleaning companies have shared their company’s confidential counsellor contact details on the RAS site. This may create confusion for employees who do not see their own employer listed there. So as a company, make sure the confidential counsellor within the organisation is made visible! This can be done by listing the confidential counsellor’s details on the company’s own website. Even better is drawing up a set of regulations on undesirable conduct and integrity violations, in which to state the confidential counsellor’s details and present this policy and the confidential counsellor to staff. The Legal Company regularly drafts this kind of regulations for cleaning companies and supports and advises on this. It also trains companies and confidential counsellors.
In summary, it is of great importance that supervisors, HR and the internal confidential counsellor are properly trained and educated! They need to know from each other where their role begins and ends.
You can easily achieve this with two of our masterclasses:
- ‘Become an internal confidential counsellor in one day!‘ on 1 June and 9 November 2023.
- ‘Rights and obligations regarding undesirable conduct and integrity violations‘ on 22 June and 23 November 2023.
We can also deliver these masterclasses at your location for up to 10 people.
Are you interested in one of the masterclasses, or would you like to receive more information on this topic? Then contact us directly via info@thelegalcompany.nl or call 020 345 0152.
