People may believe that a company’s owner is the fundamental cause for its success. Still, they overlook that a business cannot succeed unless it has excellent and hardworking staff. This is why taking care of your employees well being should be a top focus in every organization. Knowing this, human resources departments must do their best to assist their employees.
Even if you provide outstanding care to your staff, there is a strong likelihood that they will be charged with a crime at any point in the future. What do you do as the company’s owner if this occurs? How do you defend the company’s reputation while still protecting your interests as the owner?
You must be extremely cautious in your actions in this situation; one wrong move could be the end of your business. Here are various lists of things you should do to be prepared for this situation.
1. Hire an attorney
First and foremost most before taking any further measures is to look for a legal team and ask about the legal aspects of this criminal matter. If you aren’t a lawyer, don’t draw your legal conclusions. To be sure, speak with a criminal defence attorney and share the information you’ve gathered from the authorities with them.
The attorneys will be able to give you more detail about the prosecution as well as guidance about how to handle it and the seriousness of the court case.
2. Investigate calmly
As the employer, you should also consider conducting an internal investigation into the incident. This might either help the employee’s case or supply even more evidence against them.
You can start by interviewing coworkers involved in the matter of working closely with the employee in question. Then, request all documentation that might contain clues, such as CCTV video, contact history and notes, financial reports, attendance records, addresses, and other data that you may locate.
Internal business investigations should be treated apart from criminal investigations. This means that if an employee is caught doing something unlawful at work, the employer has the right to fire them even though the criminal case is still pending. You will not require the court’s final verdict to make their own choice on the employee’s future at your company.
3. Think of disciplinary actions to be taken
You must assess the facts and determine your next moves based on the information you have obtained. The next step should be to issue a statement that clarifies the company’s position on the issue and clears the air. This statement should also clarify your intentions for the employee in question.
You have the option of suspending the employee, terminating the employee entirely, or imposing a sanction. Your choice will be based on the severeness of the crime and the information you have acquired. However, you must be cautious about the disciplinary actions you take because they may harm your company’s reputation.
These procedures, in my opinion, should be sufficient to begin dealing with the problem on your own. It’s critical that you take these three steps in resolving this problem to avoid things growing worse. When your employees or staff have a criminal record, the human resources department is vital in resolving the situation. This can impact the employee’s performance as well as the firm’s reputation, which is why when faced with a situation like this, the human resources department and your firm must take strategic action.