Good listeners - From the Editors: Insights on Issues - Editorial

HR Magazine, Jan, 2003 by Terence F. Shea

Employees often bring their workplace problems to HR. But some companies now offer another sounding board--on buds, who allow employees to voice difficulties in a less formal manner.

Ombuds listen to employees' concerns, point them toward helpful resources, try to cool complaints before they boil over in public, and do it all with a pledge of confidentiality. But that leads to questions of how ombuds should handle some types of complaints.

If ombuds learn of imminent danger, they aren't supposed to stay silent. But opinions are less unified regarding complaints of, say, sexual harassment or other illegal behavior--complaints on which HR must act. Should ombuds go to HR? Send the employee to HR? Keep such topics out of the conversation? For suggestions on such issues, see Carolyn Hirschman's article "Someone to Listen" on page 46.

Your company may not have an ombudsman now--there are only a few hundred people with the title--but as ombuds' reputations for defusing workers' complaints grow, you may want to consider how your role and an ombudsman's would intersect in your organization.