Your workplace has just been through an incredibly difficult investigation. One of your senior managers, whom you had worked with for years and trusted completely, was accused of a variety of terrible behaviours. Once one complainant came forward with allegations of sexual assault, you learned of more bad behaviours – bullying, discrimination, verbal harassment, etc.
You knew that you needed an external, third-party investigator, and you’ve now had a chance to review their report. It was incredibly disturbing. You realize that even though you thought you knew you knew your workplace, you had no idea this was going on. Worse, this was coming from someone you trusted. You’ve ended their employment, but now you and everyone else are left reeling.
The fallout from such an event can shake trust, morale, and even your workplace culture. That’s why the next step isn’t just closing the file, it’s figuring out how to rebuild. This is where workplace restoration comes in.
What is workplace restoration?
When a person goes through major surgery, they’re not back to normal the next day! Much like surgery, a workplace investigation can involve opening wounds, and the workplace can be incredibly sensitive after. It may take a while to recover. Remember, your workplace is founded on a basis of trust – you need to trust your employees, and they need to trust you.
By leaving someone who is damaging in your employ for so long, you’ve jeopardized that trust. You are responsible for keeping your employees safe, and you have effectively failed to do that. Your employees might also feel like you do not have sufficient oversight – how could you have missed what was going on? They may also be worried that if something happens again, they won’t be believed.
There are a lot of emotions that need to be dealt with, and valid concerns that need to be heard. Simply pretending everything is okay won’t resolve any of the underlying issues. What you may need instead is a proper workplace restoration, and the same investigator who did your investigation may be able to assist.
A workplace restoration is led by a professional to do exactly that – restore the workplace atmosphere. It helps facilitate those difficult conversations between workers and management about what’s gone wrong and how to make things right. A workplace facilitator may go through strategies and exercises that work to restore that team dynamic and rebuild some of those relationships.
If an investigation is the workplace version of surgery, a workplace mediation may count as rehab. It can be uncomfortable, but it is usually necessary for the healing process. Having those difficult conversations and restoring communication is part of making sure that similar incidents do not happen again. But healthy conversations alone aren’t enough; you also need clear guardrails. That’s where strong, up-to-date workplace policies come in.
Are your policies up to date?
If your employees are doing things that they shouldn’t be, how do they know that that sort of conduct is off limits? What workplace policies do you have in place to prevent that sort of behaviour? Workplace policies aren’t automatic – they need to be written and implemented properly in order to be effective, and some are even legally required.
For example, your workplace bullying and harassment policies, including sexual harassment, are a legal requirement in Ontario. There are specific requirements for these policies, and they need to be at least reviewed annually to ensure that they are current. These policies are not meant to simply sit in a binder in a dusty drawer; rather, they should be displayed prominently and easily available to all employees.
Along with your harassment policies, you can effectively put in place most any workplace rules that you would like, so long as they are not discriminatory. If you want to lay out an employee uniform, you can do that in a workplace policy, so long as it does not mandate that women need to wear completely separate clothing from men.
Your workplace policies are not simply decorative. Even the most minor policies can have penalties for infractions, up to and including dismissal for cause. If an employee disobeys a uniform rule once, that may be a warning. However, if they repeatedly disobey or ignore instructions, that may reach the level of insubordination and could be subject to dismissal for cause. However, you are unlikely to be successful in arguing that certain behaviour gives you just cause if your policies are not clear or non-existent. And even the best-written policies will fall flat if no one understands them. That’s why training is just as critical as policy.
What about your training?
Your workplace policies may be immaculate, but if your employees have never been trained in them properly, how can they be expected to follow along? How can you properly play the game if you’ve never learned the rules? Simply expecting employees to follow a stack of written documents perfectly is not always practical, and often just won’t work.
The answer comes in training, and it can help resolve some of these key issues. If you are seeing incidents of discrimination, for example, offensive jokes or belittling of others, you can deal with them directly, but you can also train your staff broadly to understand what is simply not okay.
Training can take all kinds of different forms. It can be targeted to address specific incidents that you’ve been incurring (such as those from your investigation), or it can be more generalized. Working with an external trainer means that you can get customized training that meets your specific needs and ensures that your employees know exactly what to do and how to report any issues as they arise. Together with strong policies and intentional restoration efforts, training can complete the picture. So where does this leave you? Let’s wrap up with some final thoughts
Final Thoughts
Your workplace investigation may have felt like it was upsetting the apple cart, but don’t worry – things can get back on track. Some workplace restoration, a review of your policies, and a great training program can help make sure that your employees feel comfortable once again, and you’ve got the right protection to avoid any future problems.
~ Oxford HR Group
