Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 13 to investigate can result in penalties through the Ministry of Labour: up to $1,500, or for individuals with penalties, I believe it can be as high as $100,000. But it can also result in the employee claiming constructive dismissal [and] saying that their implied rights in the workplace were violated," she says. "Then they can ask for a severance package. If the failure to investigate is particularly egregious, they can ask for additional punitive and aggravated damages, which is a suggestion that the employer has acted egregiously and not just in failing their employment contract." But because the messages are sent digitally, this might help human resources departments when an investigation commences, says Brown. "In many cases, in an in-person situation where comments are made and maybe people don't hear it, [with digital tools], there may be a record of those communications that could at least be looked at in terms of appropriateness by an HR person or an investigator." Preventive steps include education, policies Even when social media tools are in- volved, context is everything, according giving feedback if it can relate to some sort of objective measure." Being consistent with all employees is also key to providing proper disciplinary measures, says Henry. "When you show that you're being consistent in terms of how you treat employees, employees are less inclined to say, 'I feel like I'm being picked on.' If you have a bunch of employees doing the same job, there's certain metrics that they need to meet and you want to make sure that you're treating employees equally in terms of how you're evaluating them based on their performance," she says. "Try to stay factual, keep your own emotions out of it and concentrate on what are the deliverables that the employee didn't meet. Then, the employees are less inclined to say harassment." Costly mistakes if not properly investigated The cost to not looking into allegations of harassment can be severe, according to Lucifora. "From the employer's perspective, once they learn of harassment, they have a duty to investigate. And a failure to Brown, as the comments in question must be job related to qualify as work- place harassment. "Employers are going to have to take a careful look at their policies. It might be possible where you have a couple of employees communicating about work in Facebook Messenger that isn't a normal method of communication in the workplace; it's not your workplace email or it's not through the regular phone lines and that's blurring the lines of the workplace." On the other hand, "if it's not connected to the workplace, it's very difficult to discipline an employee for that, but there's a need for HR folks to look at their policies and, considering the current environment we are in: 'What are the preferred methods of communication that we want our workers to be aware of, and how are we going to police that?'" he says. So, how should HR departments try to prevent potential harassment or disagreements from happening? Education is always ke y, says Henry, especially in the new normal environment of remote workplaces. "[It's about] reminding employees that 'The same professional standards we "Just because it's done online over the internet, over a phone call or video conference, harassment is still harassment." Samantha Lucifora, Monkhouse Law expect of you in the office should continue to apply as you work remotely.' That may be something that [they'll] have to send through if it becomes more of an issue." In the rush to get employees set up from home, this whole issue might be easily forgotten, she says. "Regrettably, usually training comes after you had an incident in the workplace. And then the employer says, 'I just realized I haven't trained my employees in harassment in the last 10 years, maybe I should do that.'" CHRR

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