Employee Relations Basics
The term for a company’s effort to build positive relationships with employees.
What is Employee Relations?
The tool used to identify who owns an Employee Relations issue.
What is the ER Ownership Matrix?
Your go-to person when you need support handling an ER issue or don’t know what to do.
Who is your HRBP?
When documenting an ER issue, always write down what happened, who was involved, and when.
What are the basic facts of the situation?
An employee is consistently late to work but has no prior write-ups.
What is handle it locally?
This is why good employee relations matter.
What are productivity, trust, and respect?
Minor issues manageable with coaching or documentation at the field level.
What is low risk?
You suspect serious legal, safety, or compliance risk. This is your next stop.
Who is Corporate HR or Legal?
This is the main reason we document ER issues.
What is to protect the company and ensure fairness?
An employee says their supervisor is constantly micromanaging them and giving them negative feedback.
What is handle it locally?
At Crete United, ER is handled by this kind of effort.
What is a team effort?
Issues presenting operational or compliance risk that may require local escalation.
What is medium risk?
When escalating an issue, stick to these four basic facts.
What are who, what, when, and where?
Every Employee Relations documentation should include when it happened, who was involved, what happened, your response, and next steps.
What are the basics to include in documentation?
An employee tells local HR that they’re being harassed based on their race or gender.
What is escalate to HR Compliance Manager?
These issues are typically handled by Corporate HR, not local teams.
What are high-risk issues (e.g., discrimination, retaliation)?
Issues posing serious legal, compliance, safety, or reputational risk.
What is High Risk?
Before you escalate, make sure your summary includes these essentials.
What are the key facts of the issue?
Good documentation is fact-based. That means leaving these out.
What are assumptions and opinions?
An employee repeatedly refuses to follow site protocols but claims it's "not in their job description"
What is escalate to Safety Staff Onsite, Local Leadership, then HRBP
This pattern of repeated complaints or concerns from multiple employees over time may indicate a deeper ER issue needing investigation
What is a trend or pattern of behavior?
You hear a concern involving race, gender, or other protected class. You should do this immediately.
What is escalate to Corporate HR?
This platform allows you to keep your notes safe and accessible.
What is the All Voices platform?
An employee keeps leaving early without notifying their supervisor and claims they “didn’t know they had to.”
What is document the behavior, clarify expectations, and handle locally?