HR and Confidential Discussions - Ethics and principles - Our Profession

3 HR and Confidential Discussions

31 Jan, 2022 08:43

I was wondering what other peoples thoughts on speaking to HR in Confidence were. I have just been advised by management that nothing that employees say to me is to be kept in confidence, that they expect me to tell them every time someone comes to me with an issue. I don't agree with this, how are employees expected to trust HR if everything they say to me gets back to their manager.

This has stemmed from me trying to help a manager, I gave them advice on how to deal with a grievance they had about not feeling good enough for their job, advised them to tell the manager what they told me, which they did as the manager relayed the conversation to me. Because they spoke to their manager I didn't see any reason to tell them they had spoken to me and thought it was resolved. Then the employee later came to me to say they were thinking of resigning but made it clear that I was not to inform anyone as they hadn't 100% decided, again I advised them to speak to their manager and they said they would before making any decisions, they didn't and resigned in an email without speaking to anyone. Then when the manager spoke to them about the resignation they had a breakdown and said they had been speaking to me. The owner thought that I knew the employee was heading for a breakdown (which I didn't, if I thought he was a risk confidence would have been broken and I would have said something to ensure he was safe) and said that I work for him and as far as he was concerned all employees that come to me with the expectation that I will tell all of their concerns to management, which is usually the opposite of what they want. So where do we draw the line, what should/shouldn't we be passing on, where does "in confidence" end. I am interested in others' thoughts as I feel torn about what is right in case of staff coming to me in confidence.

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Robey | 0 Posts

31 Jan, 2022 08:55

Your boss is right. There is no "in confidence". We aren't counsellors or independent ombudsmen. We are representatives of the employer.

That doesn't necessarily mean that our employers need to know every detail of every conversation we have, but a manager shouldn't be going into a difficult conversation with an employee unaware that HR has information about that employee's situation. We are the grease upon the wheel of good business operations and withholding information is just refusing to oil the gears.

The moment an employee says "but please don't tell anyone" or "but I don't want this to go any further", you must inform them that you can't promise that and that if what they share presents the business with an obligation to act, the business will act and they don't get a say in that.

Of course, there is an element of professional judgement involved. Not every detail of an employee's private life needs to be common knowledge, after all. But whilst knowledge may not be shared with everyone, knowledge held by HR is knowledge held by the *business* so if a process or meeting involve the best interests of the business, it is vital that those who need to know do.
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Keith | 0 Posts

31 Jan, 2022 09:02

You might find this thread very helpful in thinking through the issues here

www.cipd.co.uk/.../please-don-t-say-anything
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Sharon | 0 Posts

4 Feb, 2022 18:31

In reply to Robey:
I agree Robbie with be careful when someone says "but please don't tell anyone" or "but I don't want this to go any further", you must inform them that you can't promise that.

The problem I've seen though is HR colleagues who believe they answer only to management and leadership and fail to challenge them or present an employee perspective or be interested in the employees as stakeholders in the whole company. We have a tough line to tread sometimes.
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