Workplace Reviews and Workplace Audits

Most organisations are good at managing their employees day-to-day, but often they are not prepared when a dispute arises, or when employees act in an inappropriate or destructive way.

Has your organisation set clear standards of conduct for your employees? Do they understand what type of behaviour can be sexual harassment, bullying or discrimination?
Would your managers know what to do if they received a complaint of sexual harassment or bullying?
How would your company respond to an allegation of vicarious liability for employees' unlawful conduct?
If you asked your employees if they know how to make an internal complaint, or whether they would feel comfortable doing so, how would they respond?
What are the risks to your corporate image and reputation?
Are your managers “walking the talk” and demonstrating the organisation's values?

Workplace Review

Are you aware of informal employee feedback indicating that the workplace is not as harmonious or productive as it could be? Anonymous complaints, critical employee exit interviews and high turnover are often signs that something is not quite right in the organisation.

A workplace review is a good way for the organisation to find out about negative indicators or “noise” about workplace problems, such as exit interviews, gossip, or excessive absenteeism. Like a proactive ‘health check’ of the workplace the employer can initiate a workplace review without a complaint being made, or where the employee is not comfortable being named as a complainant.

A workplace review is an open and qualitative exploration of what is going on in the workplace from the perspective of the employees. Once the data has been collected, Worklogic offers independent, honest opinions about the steps the employer can take to improve the situation. Often the steps we recommend are easy to implement and inexpensive, bring enormous benefits and make a lasting impact.

The key features of a workplace review are:

The workplace review is instigated by the employer;
There is no need for a specific complaint from a named complainant;
The consultant speaks to a larger group of employees;
The consultant usually does not ask the employees about a particular issue or “problem”. Instead, a workplace review provides an opportunity, in private with the consultant, for each employee to explain their experiences in the workplace, and to raise any concerns they have about their workplace and any opportunities for improvement;
In the written report, the consultant summarises any concerns or issues that the employees have raised. The consultant may also make some general comments on trends in the issues being raised by employees. The consultant does not make formal findings of fact about any particular issue, but makes recommendations about how the workplace can be improved; and
The employer can use the notes of discussion, and any comments by the consultant, to assist in its decision-making.

Why have an outsider carry out the process?

It can be difficult for employers to get a genuine appraisal from their own employees. Many employees feel uncomfortable about revealing their concerns directly to their employer, because supervisors and HR managers are often perceived to be subjective or to have their own motives for asking questions, and the employee does not want to appear to be critical or a troublemaker.

Our clients are often surprised at the honest and open comments that their employees make in the workplace review process. Our consultants work to build trust with employees, and as a result, the interviews often reveal a wealth of information to help employers improve morale, productivity and risk management.

Workplace Audit

How do you know if you are meeting staff needs?
How do you know if you are effectively managing workplace conflict?
And how do you know if you are implementing the best policies and procedures to prevent staff bullying and discrimination?

Measurable factors such as workplace stress can be telltale signs of an underlying unhealthy culture in the workplace, which affects job satisfaction, employee retention, absences from work and productivity.

In our Workplace Audit, we carry out a quantitative, diagnostic assessment of how your organisation is travelling and its potential exposure to discrimination, harassment and bullying claims.

Applying a rigorous set of analytical frameworks and benchmarks based on expert and academic research, we make an objective analysis of:

Workplace policies and procedures
Employment induction processes
Recent history of employee training
An on-line employee survey that we tailor to your industry
The views of managers and supervisors, collected in detailed interviews
Managers’ and supervisors’ capability to deal with complaints or disputes
The incidence of complaints, disputes, turnover, absenteeism, and other quantitative indicators

On the basis of the analysis, in our Workplace Audit we will:

Benchmark your organisation against other organisations both in your specific industry and across Australia
Highlight successes within the organisation
Identify any particular problems that the Workplace Audit results have revealed
Suggest concrete and measurable improvements that the organisation can aim for

From this analysis, we give you a clear statistical picture of your workplace, and strategic recommendations for best practice. We will explain what the organisation is doing well, whether processes and procedures can be improved, and how that can be achieved. A workplace audit often forms the first step in an organisational change process. A workplace audit gives the employer a clear snapshot of how it can better achieve its goals.

Worklogic’s Workplace Audit can assist you to:

Upskill your staff
Improve productivity
Give foundation and credibility to future training engagement and change management
Reduce the likelihood that complaints will arise
Engage your staff and managers
Improve your ability to deal with complaints or legal action in future
Minimise workplace disputes, high turnover and other workplace problems.

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