Before commencing any workplace investigation, HR investigators must understand what they’re investigating. Is it unsatisfactory performance? Is it misconduct? Is it a combination?
Employers who get it wrong may be vulnerable to an unfair dismissal finding if they’re sued.
We highlight a recent dismissal case involving a child care centre that demonstrates the importance of knowing the difference between performance and conduct…
Many HR investigators make the mistake of cloaking a request for a meeting about alleged misconduct in an overly casual way.
The reasons for not being upfront with an alleged wrongdoer may be tactical or may be simply to avoid alarming the person. Whatever the reason, when inviting an alleged wrongdoer to a formal disciplinary meeting – not calling “a spade a spade” is fraught with risk.
In today’s news article, we highlight why HR investigators need to be clear about the purpose of a meeting if it is part of a disciplinary investigation and what can go wrong if they don’t.
Find out the mistakes an employer made over its ‘little chat’ with an employee and how you can avoid them
Despite having a shocking disciplinary record and being on his final warning, an employee who called his supervisor an “idiot” and a “d**khead” was still found to have been unfairly dismissed.
How did the employer get it so wrong?
Find out how the employer’s HR investigation was brought undone and what this means for your workplace …
In what could be described as a lesson about how not to conduct an HR investigation the Fair Work Commission found that the ANZ Bank’s attempts to “trick” or “catch” an employee with inconsistent answers constituted an attempt at “entrapment”.
The Bank had accused the employee of breaching two workplace policies, yet almost comically, the bank was found to have breached its own Disciplinary Policy.
Find out what the Commission had to say about the other ‘sins’ committed during the HR investigation …
