Looking at many of our top stories in the past couple of weeks, based on traffic to our website, it’s amazing — and alarming — to see how many involve employee misbehaviour, to put it lightly.
Take, for example, the Canada Post shop steward in B.C. who was convicted of sexual assault of a co-worker, after two female co-workers accused him of an ongoing pattern of sexualized conduct.
Then there’s the B.C. lawyer who not only stole a poor client’s money but was then found guilty of a horrible first-degree murder of the client.
Or how about the hundreds – hundreds! – of workers at the Canada Revenue Agency caught falsifying hours or snooping, by accessing their own or third-party accounts — sometimes more than 100 times — including those of spouses, relatives, friends, former roommates, business partners, deceased individuals and colleagues.
In Nova Scotia, a 33-year Sobeys meat cutter who repeatedly used racist and homophobic slurs in the workplace is another example of employees behaving badly. In that case, the court confirmed that employers can dismiss employees for discriminatory language without progressive discipline when the conduct constitutes wilful misconduct.
Also in Nova Scotia, we have a senior finance clerk who is facing four years of jail time over a $4-million fraud case.
Drain on HR’s time and resources
Reading about these types of cases each day, each week, it got me thinking about the burden on HR. I can only imagine the time and effort required to handle these situations, both big and small. The investigations and communications needed to dissect and disseminate the information, the hours of work with legal counsel to decipher the intricacies and comply with the rules, the necessity to document every step.
And then, of course, there’s the disruption to the workplace, the ripple effect of all these efforts, whether intentional in requiring the input of witnesses or management or other employees, or unintentional in lowering morale while raising concerns about workplace policies and values and leadership.
Whether it’s someone challenging a dress code policy or someone committing horrendous harassment, the time suck on HR is considerable.
Distraction from HR’s top priorities
“The best-laid plans (of mice and men) often go awry,” said Robert Burns. And it’s true, we all start our day with the best of intentions, hoping to check everything off our to-do list – only to be waylaid by unexpected crises or intrusive requests or forgotten meetings that suddenly pop up.
But for years, and especially during the pandemic, we’ve seen HR professionals and leaders rise up in the ranks, in demonstrating how they are truly a value to their organization in combining people strategies with business acumen.
In almost every interview I have with an HR leader, they talk about the importance of people in their organization. And that dedication is further seen in the many admirable initiatives around wellness, DEI, succession planning, training and development or mentorship programs.
At a higher level, HR executives are focused on long-term workforce planning, people analytics and ROI, budgets and strategic goals, or organizational design.
But with all this misbehaviour, do they really time for all that? I’m sure many of these well-intentioned if not must-have initiatives must be put aside while fires are put out elsewhere.
Getting your time back
Presumably most HR teams have learned to be adaptable in anticipating and addressing instances of misconduct when they inevitably arise, in whatever form.
And I’m hoping they know that the impact of this disruption can be lessened through some basic best practices, such as clear policies that are consistently enforced, effective manager training to cool heated emotions, faster processes for investigations and discipline, strong documentation and tools, and people taking ownership.
Being as proactive as possible, instead of the never-efficient reactive is the ideal. Basically, “always be prepared,” because bad behaviour is all around us.
Mind you… with these stories being so popular with our HR readers, does this mean they are interested in learning about what can go wrong, and how to properly respond?
Or could it be that many HR professionals like hearing about missteps and foibles taking place elsewhere, either as a distraction from their duties or as reassurance that “at least we don’t have that here”?
Either way, I’m quite sure the misdeeds will continue. But hopefully most HR leaders are still finding the time to do the important work that they love.