Workplace Investigations Difficult Respondents – What can or should you do? – Remain calm and professional,  do not engage in arguments and stick to your interview plan/process.

At times during a workplace investigation you may have to deal with difficult respondents, this can occur in a number of ways;

1. The respondent refuses/declines to attend an interview to discuss complaint/allegations made against them.
2. The respondent refuses/declines to answer questions or…

Workplace Investigation Questions and the question of what and how to ask questions during an interview.

The interview is typically a means to gather evidence, to clarify points made in a complaint, to find out what people saw, heard or experienced and also an opportunity for the person who is the subject of the complaint to provide their side of the story.

There are two key elements to the actual interview that are of paramount importance – asking questions and listening to…

Workplace Investigations Complaint Ownership

Workplace Investigations Complaint Ownership – What if the employee does not want an investigation into their complaint?

In some circumstances, an employee may raise a workplace issue with their employer or make an “informal” complaint but does not wish for any formal action to be taken, what are the options for the employer, Manager or HR professional.

While it is…

Although workplace investigations are not expected to be conducted in the same way as a police investigation, it is essential to keep in mind the principles of evidence which might apply. This is particularly important against a backdrop where many workplace investigations end up in the Fair Work Commission or otherwise in a contentious, litigated setting.

We examine the rules of evidence which should be followed to…

Stress, anxiety and burnout have all been big headlines in our industry in 2019, one of the big stories being the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially recognising burnout as an occupational phenomenon.

There is another part to the WHO story that will be made clearer in 2020, which is the fact…

Can trust be regrown or is broken trust a barren landscape?

Recently I have had a number of Facilitated Discussions where I heard the phrase “They’ve broken my trust. I won't trust them again, once trust is broken it’s gone!!!”. In…

We were delighted to be invited to this year’s CEBIT Australia - the three-day conference that brings together tech and business with legendary keynote speakers, cutting edge exhibitors and thousands of industry insiders. We spoke on a panel moderated by Susie Bayes at The Guardian about how Tech can Make us Better Humans. …

There seems to be a lot of uncertainty whether future jobs will be replaced by robots or not? So, what does this mean for our workers and the workplace in general? Is Artificial Intelligence a threat to jobs or is it something that will make life easier for workers and the general business? Should our workers worry about the future of their jobs or should they embrace these technologies?…

The benefits of coaching have long been proven in sports, but is there a place for it in leadership too? The answer is a definite YES!

If you want to encourage learning in your organisation, accelerate self-development in individuals, drive collaboration in your team and create a positive culture where employees are loyal and self-motivated, it might be time to change to the coaching leadership style.

Not sure if it is for you? Here are five team building benefits that coaching…

Unsurprisingly, the access to pornography can be extremely problematic in the workplace. Not only does the access to pornography at work open up a minefield of possible harassment and other sexually motivated complaints, it contributes significantly to presenteeism (where staff are physically present but not concentrating on their jobs).

Indeed, according to a report in the Financial Times, 45% of daily viewers of popular pornography compilation site Pornhub,…

2019 is racing to the end like a rocket-propelled sleigh. Your team have worked hard all year and you plan to reward them with an office end-of-year/Christmas party, with all the trimmings.

You worry though about what might happen if things get out of hand and it is natural to be cautious. I don't want to be all boohoo about this time…

Is hooking up on Tinder whilst on a work trip a problem? Well, it depends. It depends on what happens and for whom it might be a problem.

The act itself may be a problem for someone you are already in a contractual agreement with, like your wife or husband, but does your boss really care?

Like most, I am incredibly curious about the two headline cases of workers compensation vs sexual encounters on a work trip.

The French case

In the 2013 French case where a…

Not all marriages are destined to last. This is nothing out of the ordinary, as people change as they grow old and decide that their spouse is no longer the right man or woman for them.

But there's no such thing as easing…

An employer’s past job advertisements, which stated a preference for “Asian staff”, have been used by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to support its finding that an employee was dismissed because she was not of Chinese descent.



In Ayton v You Come Pty Ltd t/a Foodworks Ashmont [2019] FWC 6585, a long term casual employee at a supermarket claimed that she was unfairly dismissed after she received a text message from her employer which stated “I decide…

While there are a lot of people who argue that recreational drug use doesn’t have to interfere with one’s workplace performance, the truth is that an employee with drug addiction is a liability that your enterprise simply doesn’t need. There are so many problems with the idea of hiring someone with this habit that may come to plague your enterprise or even run it completely into the ground. Before we get into this any deeper, we should first discuss the…