Gender Discrimination Complaint: How Should HR Address This Resignation Issue?

One female employee has raised a complaint in her resignation about gender discrimination by the team leader. As an HR professional, what steps do I need to follow to resolve the matter? Please guide me.

Dear member, If an employee perceives discrimination in the past by her team leader, then you may order an investigation. Please note that this is not a domestic inquiry. Neither is this case related to PoSH. Identify a proper person who has investigation skills. Do not rely on the "experience" of the person or the length of service in the company. The investigating officer needs to:

a) Focus on the incident and not on the person(s) involved
b) Know what discrimination is in general and gender discrimination in particular. Does the company have a policy on discrimination?
c) Find out whether the discrimination was ongoing but the woman employee brought it to the surface
d) If the Team Lead engaged in gender discrimination, then why did the woman employee not bring it to the notice of her manager? Was there a disconnect between the Manager or HOD and the woman employee?
e) Why did the woman employee not deem it fit to approach HR? Was there a disconnect between the woman employee and the HR Department?
f) Why did the woman employee wait until her separation from the company? What was the insecurity in her mind?

Incidents of this kind provide learning lessons. Taking a cue from the incident, you may have to educate staff in general and the Managers in particular on discrimination. You may have to improve the policy on discrimination or equal employment opportunity. Lastly, the lesson for the HR department is to engage with the employee. "Employee Engagement" is dear to HR professionals. However, engagement should not be only with the organization. It should be with the HR Department as well.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Hi, you can take a formal complaint and investigate accordingly as per company policies.

See if the complainant wishes to formally take the complaint forward; then you may keep her resignation on hold. Sometimes, employees use terms like harassment or discrimination to avoid serving notice periods, getting exempt from notice recovery pay, or taking preemptive action against a manager.

If she wants to leave without any fuss of investigation, then let her be. You can make a note on the team leader's file for future reference, and you can also check with the remaining team members for any patterns of negative behaviors.

It's better to take an email/written complaint with all details from the complainant.

Check with the ICC/POSH POC if this falls under the ambit of sexual harassment. If yes, then form an ICC and follow the protocols of the POSH Act. If no, then address it through the grievance redressal mechanism in your organization.

Dear Uhcia,

I refer to the sentence in the third paragraph. It says, "If she wants to leave without any fuss of investigation."

I have a difference of opinion here. Please note that the investigation is not a "fuss" as such. Conducting the investigation is an administrative procedure. Once the employee makes an allegation or accusation in the letter of resignation, it merits investigation. It cannot be at the discretion of the employee.

Conducting an investigation helps in identifying the shortcomings or gaps in the administration. These need to be plugged. However, these cannot be conducted subject to the satisfaction of the person who has made the allegations.

A sentence in the first paragraph of your post says, "Sometimes employees throw words like harassment, discrimination, etc., so as to not serve the notice period, get exempt from notice recovery pay, preemptive action on manager, etc."

The investigation helps in identifying the intention behind making the allegation. If it emerges that the allegations are false, then the administration can reserve the right to take action against the employee for making false allegations.

Conducting an investigation also helps in sending a signal to one and all that the company promotes a culture of justice and fairness, and the issues are not brushed under the carpet.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar