Grievances and disputes, recorded fairly and kept confidential

What problem does this solve?

Most employers deal with a grievance rarely, and when one arrives it is already tense. The first message goes to whoever the employee trusts. Notes end up in a notebook or an inbox. The person it is about hears of it before anyone has decided who should handle it. Weeks later, nobody can say what was said, who knew, or what happened next.

Those records matter. They show how the matter was handled, and they may be needed if it goes further, to an Acas conversation or an employment tribunal. They are also among the most sensitive records you hold. Very few people should see them, and never the people they are about.

What HRHive does

• Records a grievance, complaint, whistleblowing concern or other matter as a case. There are nine case types, and employees can raise six of them from their portal. For incidents and accidents, see Incidents and cases.
• Gives each case an owner, a priority, a next action with a date, and a status that moves from submitted through acknowledged, under review, awaiting meeting and outcome issued to closed. A case that passes its next action date is flagged as overdue.
• Decides who can see it from the start. A grievance opens as HR only, a whistleblowing concern is limited to named people, and anyone named in a case cannot manage it, even if their role would normally allow it.
• Acknowledges an employee who raises a concern in their portal, and lets them follow the status, the notes shared with them and the outcome.
• Keeps notes, meeting records and evidence files on the case, each marked internal or shared. Entries cannot be edited or removed. Creating or viewing a confidential case is recorded in the audit log.
• Keeps the rest of the paper trail beside it: the contract, the policies and each person's acknowledgement of receipt, and the personnel file.
• Prints it. The case, the register of cases and the personnel file all print, so the file is ready when someone asks.

How it works

What you see

Open Cases in the main menu to see the cases you can access: open, closed or all. Each row shows the reference, the subject and the people it is about, the owner, the next action date and the status. A padlock marks a confidential case, and a next action date in red means it is overdue. Open a case to see its details and outcome, a timeline of everything added to it, and its status, priority, owner and next action, the people recorded against it and who can see it.

Employees see something simpler. Under Cases in their portal they choose what to report, and later follow what they have raised: its status, any notes shared with them and the outcome. Anything marked internal stays out of their view.

The record it creates

A case is a dated record. Each entry on its timeline shows who added it and when, and cannot be edited or removed. Important activity is recorded in the audit log, which shows who acted, from which device and address, and what changed, and the database rejects updates and deletes on audit log entries. Creating or viewing a confidential case is recorded there too.

Print the case when you need it on paper, or print the register of every case you can see. The register is one of the sixteen reports, and exports to CSV, Excel and PDF. The personnel file has a section for the cases you are authorised to see, alongside the person's policies and acknowledgements, and can include copies of their documents. Letters and other papers you write outside HRHive can be added to the case as evidence, or kept with the person's documents.

Who can do what

Who can see a case depends on its confidentiality level, not only on a person's role. The four levels are Standard (HR and the case owner), HR only, Organisation owner only and Restricted (named people only). A grievance or a disciplinary case starts as HR only, a whistleblowing concern starts as Restricted, and anything else starts as Standard. The owner, an admin, HR or the case owner can change it.

What happens next

Next action dates feed your reminders, so a case does not wait on one person's memory. When a case is closed it stays on file under the retention schedule for case records. A legal hold stops records being destroyed while a claim, an investigation or a request needs them, even if their retention period has passed.

If a grievance does go further, HRHive has already kept what it holds, together and dated:

• the contract or written statement, and its signing certificate if it was signed in HRHive
• the policies, and each person's acknowledgement of receipt of them
• the personnel file, including the cases you are authorised to see
• the case notes and evidence, with who added each entry and when
• the audit log, which shows who created or opened a confidential case

Print what you need and keep a copy. HRHive prints your records as they stand now, and it does not rebuild what you held on an earlier date. What goes to your adviser, to Acas or to a tribunal is for you and them to decide.

The rules are not in HRHive. They are explained, with their sources, on the Acas Code of Practice, right to be accompanied and employment tribunal claims pages, and in Disputes, grievances and tribunals. The tribunal time limit calculator works out dates from the dates you give it.

If you are in the middle of one, start from your situation: an employee has raised a grievance, two employees are in dispute or an employee is going to a tribunal.