Does Training Stir Up Old Issues or Prevent New Ones?
I frequently advise new clients that they want to receive complaints about workplace issues. They’re resistant to this idea. “Lynne, I have enough complaints!” they will frequently assert. “I don’t need new ones.”
Why Complaints Are a Good Thing. We teach that you need to have a “complaint friendly” environment. Trust me, you don’t want to have the first notice of some messy issue to be the subpoena that lands on your desk. Instead, you want to know what’s going on with your people, practice what Tom Peters called “management by walking around”, and make sure that you’ve advised your staff that they can come to you with any concerns. This is especially true, of course, with hot button issues such as harassment and discrimination.
Why Training is Essential After an Investigation. Frequently, if you’ve been through a messy investigation, you just want everyone to take a deep breath and move on. The last thing you want to do is “stir up old issues.” The problem with this tack is that the old issues are probably still out there, particularly if you haven’t taken any steps to do what I call “Team Rebuilding” after an investigation. Read my Monday Memo “Do You Know How and Why to do Team Building After an Investigation“. During investigations rumors abound, staff takes sides and you’re likely to stir up simmering disputes of which you have no knowledge. The smart move is to surface all this noise and address the issues head on.
Does Training Create New Issues? In my experience, no. What training does is provide people with an appropriate outlet for their complaints. These latent issues may arise during the session itself or after the program is over. This can lead managers to lament that the training created the new issues. Again, these problems were there before and it’s much better that you know about concerns so you can address them with internal resources, rather than pushing people to run to outside agencies or attorneys.
What Should You Do?
- Training After Complaints: In most cases, you do need to conduct new
 training after a complaint. Even if you believe that you’ve offered these sessions before, reviews never hurt.
- Address Rumors: Either during or after the session, you need to make sure that you surface any pending rumors and provide a sanitized version of the facts. Confidentiality and defamation should also be explained to squash gossip.
- Be Prepared for New Complaints: In the session, make sure that attendees know your complaint procedure and that they have multiple sources they can access for complaints. You may have a slight blip after the training, but these will decrease after a time and the complaint trends will move downward.
What Do You Think?
What’s your experience conducting or assessing workplace investigations? Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
 Did You Know
All our sessions on discrimination and harassment address proper complaint avenues and procedures, as well as squashing rumors and preventing gossip.
Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com
Learn more about our training offerings and check out our team members at:
www.workplacesthatwork.com
Be sure to read Lynne’s books on Affirmative Action and Sexual Harassment
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April 29, 2019
