Employee Relations for Professional Services
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
What this looks like in professional services
The parts of employee relations that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Relations in a Partnership Environment
Where the person raising and the person complained of may both be senior.
What this coversHide
Relations in a Partnership Environment
Where the person raising and the person complained of may both be senior.
What this coversHideProfessional firms have a structural relations problem: partners hold both management authority and ownership, and a complaint about a partner has nowhere obvious to go.
- A route that works where the subject of a complaint is a partner
- Independent handling arrangements defined in advance
- Work allocation and progression disputes handled fairly
- Utilisation and chargeability disagreements addressed honestly
- Harassment and conduct concerns routed formally, immediately
- Consistency across teams and offices
- Junior staff able to raise concerns without career consequence
- Central record independent of the practice group
Defining the independent route before it is needed is the essential step. Designed during a live complaint, it will be contested, and the process is then arguing with itself.
The general method — what employee relations covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the grievance and disciplinary process page. What is above is the part that differs for professional services.
Other HR topics for professional services
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.