Trouble in the Workplace? Here’s When to Go to HR
We all have to work; there’s no escaping it. The bills need to be paid, rent, mortgages, school fees and more. For many of us, work is a means to an end, a way to get by in life and afford some pleasures and leisure. And work should be manageable and not detrimental to your well-being. However, there may be times when you run into trouble at work, and you might consider going to HR with an issue.
This article will cover when an employee should go to HR, as well as what you should consider before raising an issue with the HR department. We’ll also discuss some of the situations at work that might require HR assistance. So, if you’re interested in this valuable topic, continue reading to learn more.
What is HR?
HR stands for human resources, as is the team in your workplace that is responsible for recruitment, onboarding of new staff, staff terminations, dispute resolution, bullying investigations and more.
HR professionals tend to be qualified with degrees such as a Master of Human Resource Management online or other tertiary qualifications, which makes them experienced and trained to deal with all manner of workplace issues.
You can rest assured that your HR team has the relevant skills, experience and training to assist you with workplace issues.
Determine if The Issue Needs HR Intervention
The first thing you should do when facing an issue in the workplace is to determine if it actually needs HR intervention. Some common workplace issues, such as heavy workloads, minor disputes, issues with pay and other minor things, might not actually require HR to be involved.
For instance, if you have a large workload and you’re drowning in work, you should probably reach out to your immediate supervisor first to discuss whether you can pause new work or get their assistance in managing your schedule to allow you to complete assigned work. You might even negotiate flexible arrangements or other ways of completing your allocated tasks.
It is worth noting that coming to work on time, taking your allocated break times and performing your regular duties are all required of you as an employee. So, if the problem is that you are not performing well, HR will likely side with management.
If you have a minor dispute or disagreement with someone, it is best to work it out individually with that person, one-on-one, if you can. If not, you might involve your or their manager to see if they can assist with rectifying the issues.
If your pay is disputed, such as a missed paycheck or incorrect amount, your payroll team is best placed to help resolve the issue. However, some more major issues may require you to seek HR support, which we’ll detail now.
When to Go to HR
You should involve HR if you experience some of the following issues at work:
- If your workload is unreasonably large, and you’ve already requested assistance from your manager
- If you are experiencing bullying
- If you are experiencing harassment or sexual harassment
- If you witness something illegal or untoward at work
- If you have a query about workplace relations or law
- If you experience discrimination
For the second and third points, we should probably expand a bit. Workplace bullying is a term given to any behaviour designed to intimidate, belittle or denigrate someone in the workplace.
This could include widely unreasonable requests for deadlines, name-calling or passive or outright aggressive actions. It is important to note that a reasonable request from your manager, such as to complete a task or ask for an update on a project, is not considered bullying.
Harassment is when someone behaves inappropriately towards you, despite requests to cease the behaviour, and sexual harassment is when someone makes repeated and unwanted sexual advances towards you in the workplace.
Discrimination occurs when someone is treated unfairly because of an aspect of themselves or their identity. This can include disability, health status, ethnic background, cultural identity, religious identity, gender status or age.
If you witness illegal activity or suspect it, such as assault, abuse or someone disclosing company information to a competitor, HR can help.
Also, HR is qualified and able to provide guidance on workplace legislation and guidelines, such as interpreting awards, questions about leave provisions or your enterprise bargaining agreement, if your workplace has one.
All of these issues are worth taking to HR, who can definitely assist you with them.
Gather Evidence and Contact HR
If you are reporting a workplace issue to HR, it is important to gather as much evidence as you can. This may include screenshots of emails or chat messages, notes that you have taken about the issue or any other relevant evidence.
Paper trails are important in the workplace, especially when it comes to accusations of inappropriate conduct against your colleagues. Once you have your evidence, it is time to contact HR.
They might have a generic email address where you can contact them, or you might have a dedicated HR Business Partner who looks after your team or division at work.
Contact them, explain the issue, and attach as much evidence as you can gather. This should aid them should they need to investigate the issue further. It is important to be honest, upfront, and fully disclose all the information to HR so they can better assist you with your issue.
