QSR people leaders know that providing consistent physical and emotional employee safety is paramount to successful operations and essential to building a positive brand. One media scandal highlighting toxic workplace culture, employee harassment, or injury can cause serious damage to employee morale, brand positioning, and bottom-line results.

Being able to speak up about workplace issues safely and securely, also known as whistleblowing, is a common and sometimes legislated process in the restaurant industry. But it’s often not communicated and managed well, which limits its value to owners and managers and, ultimately, employee safety. 

Promoting a speak up culture benefits both employees and the business. Employees will know that their concerns are heard and taken seriously, not brushed under the rug. This will make them feel safer and more positive at work, leading to higher productivity and loyalty to the brand, and better overall mental well-being.

Here are a couple of best practices that are often overlooked in building an employee environment that promotes speaking up.

Be strong on anti-retaliation

To have an effective, functional speak up culture, leadership can’t allow retaliation to any degree, in any form. The primary reason to keep retaliation out of a QSR company is to protect employees: everyone deserves to feel safe at work. However, employees who work in positive environments have better physical and mental health, which means they can innovate and do their best in the workplace, providing value to the company, too. 

What is retaliation? In extreme cases, retaliation can mean the reporter is demoted, moved to a different team or shift, or even terminated. However, retaliation can also take the form of smaller behaviors that are also unethical and illegal. A few of these are:

  • Passing them over for a deserved promotion or raise
  • Cutting their hours
  • Micromanaging them and/or criticizing work at a previously acceptable standard
  • Ignoring them and/or not letting them speak in meetings
  • Not including them in social outings

Non-retaliation policies should also protect the bystander. A successful whistleblower program goes beyond protecting just the person who raises their hand and speaks up. This helps create a work environment that feels safe and values employees’ well-being.

Compliance is key

The second most important reason to establish an anti-retaliation program is compliance. A number of employment laws prohibit retaliation in its different forms, including:

Failing to comply with these laws puts the business at risk of fines and penalties by regulators. Companies will also likely receive negative press coverage, which can harm their reputation with customers and potential employees. Make sure that every time the people team investigates and disciplines employees, they follow consistent processes laid out in company policies.

The role of employee training

In large, established, respected companies with plenty of resources, it’s still possible to drop the ball and experience ethics lapses or incidents among employees. Constantly impressing the importance of civil behavior to employees is key. But how? 

Well-crafted employee training modules not only set employees up for success in the workplace, but also protect other employees (from issues like harassment) and the company (from lawsuits and non-compliance penalties). 

The best speak up training promotes ethical behavior at every stage, process, and procedure in an employee’s experience with a business. When interviewing candidates, ask questions about their ethics as well as their experience. Highlight the brand values while onboarding new hires. Incorporate ethics discussions into employees’ performance reviews and exit interviews.

However, nothing replaces traditional ethics and speak up training. Training should give employees a big-picture view of the corporation’s ethical standards, outline real-life scenarios they might encounter and offer them a chance to ask questions. Details of how to report, what happens with a report once it’s been submitted, and benchmarking against similar organizations should all be included. Ethics training shouldn’t be the only approach to creating an ethical culture, but it should be a robust, regular part of the strategy.

There isn’t one right way to defend against retaliation or conduct speak up training in the QSR workplace. To find the perfect formula, experiment with different delivery methods, module lengths, and content to see what employees respond to. Effective training might be the missing link to achieving a safe and healthy work culture, which creates a safe environment for employees and protects a brand from fines, penalties, and lawsuits. When every employee feels safe and behaves ethically, both they and the company can thrive.

Shannon Walker is the executive VP of Strategy at Case IQ, a leading case management software. Shannon has a B.A. from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and an M.A. from Pepperdine University in California.

Employee Management, Outside Insights, Story