Employee relations teams took a hit in 2020
Lack of resources and increased caseloads made the job more difficult during a time when employee relations professionals were needed most.
A new study takes an in-depth look at employee relations in 2020, outlining the many challenges that emerged in the field during the pandemic. The annual Employee Relations Benchmark Study, by HR Acuity, is based on research from more than 125 organizations, representing approximately 4.5 million employees globally and 2.3 million employees in the United States.
“The year 2020 was like no other for employee relations practitioners,” the study said, noting that employee relations at companies were suddenly more important than ever, as workers coped with time off, remote work, changes in benefits, and the complexities of racial justice and other equity issues. However, lack of resources and increased caseloads made the job more difficult.
Related: Why 2021 will be the year of employee relations
The study found signs that leadership is turning to employee relations teams to help navigate the new normal of the business world. One finding was that two-thirds (67%) of employee-relations teams share their tracking data directly with senior leadership, which is an 8-point increase since 2019. The authors said that this suggests that organizations continue to value such information. “It is clear that senior leadership is increasingly reliant on the insights that employee relations teams can provide to their organizations,” the report said.
Best practices and technology coming into focus
The report said best practices and industry standards are emerging from the lessons learned during the pandemic. Centralization of data is very common, with 93% of respondents using either a centralized or mixed model.
The report also found that more employee relations teams are handling policy oversight (71%,) and policy development or benchmarking (65%). “This may in part be due to the large number of COVID-related policies,” the study said.
The number of organizations using employee relations technology to track employee issues and investigations also is trending upward. The report found that 75% of respondents now use technology solutions for employee relations—an 11-point jump from last year. And 34% of those not yet using employee relations technology yet said they are very likely to start doing so in the next year.
There was also a significant increase in organizations using case management systems for employee relations documents, with 50% of respondents now using such systems, up from 35% in last year’s study.
Another big development in 2020, the movement toward more diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), is another area of change for employee relations. The study noted a sharp increase in social and political activism by employees, resulting in more time spent on issues around DEI concerns.
“One-third of organizations reported the most significant case volume increases in accommodation requests, followed by social media issues (13%) and discrimination complaints (13%),” the report said. Cases also took longer to close, a development that the study said might be due to lack of resources and the constraints of remote work during the pandemic.
Lack of resources = a setback for employee relations
The changes brought on by the pandemic was disruptive to employee relations processes, resulting not only more time spent on cases but also a decrease in transparency. In the previous year there was a spike in transparency, with 29% of organizations sharing aggregated, anonymous investigation or employee relations data with employees. For 2020, just 16% of organizations shared such data.
“Transparency is essential to drive accountability and show that employee concerns and allegations will be taken seriously,” the report said. “Organizations committed to building a culture of trust will need renewed focus on transparency to achieve this goal.”
Part of the disruption was a lack of resources—the researchers tracked a drop in employee relations hiring, reducing staffing levels to that of two years ago. The report blamed the pandemic and its impact on the economy for the change.
“The drop in the use of required investigation processes, the decrease in transparency and the reduction in employee relations headcounts is disappointing. Each is essential to drive accountability and show employees that their concerns will be taken seriously,” said HR Acuity CEO and founder Deborah J. Muller. “I suspect that COVID-19 and the events of 2020 are the root causes, as employee relations leaders shifted focus to respond and adapt to remote work, employee health, safety and wellbeing. Employee relations leaders have worked tirelessly to make great strides in elevating the function. I hope that this year’s data is just an anomaly and that organizations will re-commit to the processes that are critical to create consistent, fair workplaces and deliver positive employee experiences.”
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