Empowering HR to handle complaints well, while increasing resilience  

Challenge 

A financial services company asked us to upskill the entire HR team to handle complaints more effectively. Additionally, they asked us to run a session to support the HR Business Partners who were under strain. The challenge: 

  • Consistency | Equip everyone in HR to recognise and deal with tricky issues with good judgement. 

  • Unity | Foster a ‘one HR’ perspective, to increase mutual understanding and accountability.

  • Resilience | Provide the HRBPs with the tools needed to sustain their wellbeing and influence change. 

Approach 

To deepen understanding of Employee Relations matters, participants needed to share their experiences and test their decisions. We designed two sessions to build consensus and ownership of their role as a control function: 

  • HR Business Partners | We ran an all-day session focusing on the strategic elements of their role in relation to culture and Employee Relations cases, as well as wellbeing. 

  • All HR | We created an immersive case study. Using gamification, HR was divided into teams to analyse each step of a case study from complaint, to grievance, to investigation, to outcome.

Results

  • Capability | At the start, only 30% of HR was confident they could fulfil their role in relation to complaints, grievances, and investigations, and no one felt very confident. After the programme, everyone was confident or very confident.

  • Impact | Participants reported being much more able to identify and triage issues effectively, and to challenge managers when appropriate. Feedback also showed greater understanding: “I feel much more knowledgeable and empathetic towards what my colleagues go through in their roles and feel better equipped to not only support them but also wider colleagues if they come to me with issues.” 

  • ‘One HR’ | The ‘one team’ message was accepted, with typical feedback being, "I feel the function is more aware of our responsibilities as members of HR. It is a collective effort, and we all have a role to play in identifying and addressing inappropriate behaviours." 

  • Collaboration | We have since run the session for new HR joiners.