An effective Organizational Ombuds performs very different but complimentary work to that of the organization’s legal and human resources departments. They create an important, cost-effective, confidential and impartial complaint mechanism for the company’s stakeholders and workforce.

Medium-sized and large-sized organizations should have Organizational Ombuds that promote a healthy and inclusive workplace culture with a focus on conflict prevention, conflict de-escalation, workplace investigations and complaint resolution.

Ombuds work in parallel to, in consultation with, and in support of an organization’s Human Resources (“HR”) and Legal Departments (“Legal”).  Ombuds help organizations, and more specifically their HR and Legal departments, by investigating and responding to complaints and preventing conflict escalation. They help to reduce the amount of workplace conflict that occurs by identifying possible systemic organizational shortcomings or problems, by addressing “embers” that may be burning in organizations (such as systematic racism or toxic leadership) and by being the body to investigate complaints.

Directives and Mandates of Successful Organizational Ombuds

Ombuds roles are multi-disciplinary and both proactive and reactive in nature. They address and investigate both interpersonal and more systemic complaints and organization-wide issues.

In being proactive, Ombuds often survey the workforce (and management) to identify underlying problems and compile data and analyze complaint trends.  They work towards organizational strategic goals and assess how their organization compares to other similar organizations.

Ombuds can use the data that they have collected from the company’s workforce in conjunction with broader workplace trends in the province and country to create custom training and professional development opportunities that often require the specialized knowledge (often legal) that the Ombuds brings to the role.  Ombuds may develop and deliver important responsive training on topics including updates on the organization’s current approaches to important issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace and/or cultural sensitivity to minority groups.

Ombuds, in being reactive to conflict, provide a structured formal complaint intake mechanism for the organization, early resolution services, restorative workplace facilitation, full workplace investigation and reports, and may make referrals to Legal or external providers.

On an executive level, the Ombuds is the individual whom, via an Annual Report, will report on how the Ombuds office has and will support the company’s strategic vision, as well as on the work performed and trends identified.  The Ombuds leads initiatives and is in the position to make valuable recommendations regarding workplace culture, as it relates to conflict, and to psychological safety in the workplace, for example.

The Difference between the Ombuds, HR and Legal

The unique functional ability of an Ombuds office, versus that of HR or Legal, is in their focus on independent, impartial, confidential complaint investigation and the focus on early resolution and conflict prevention.

An Ombuds, not being from the Legal or HR departments, can maintain a confidential, independent role and perform impartial investigations, not investigating colleagues or creating conflicts of interest, as may be the case when the role is usurped by HR or Legal.

If an organization funds their Ombuds, how can the Ombuds be perceived as neutral?  Ombuds must not have any consulting or interim reporting requirement with any level of the organization and should only report to the highest executive level of the organization. 

An Ombuds Could Have Helped

In September of 2020, CTV news reported on broad scale complaints by employees of a “toxic workplace” within the City of Winnipeg.[1]  Complaints included racism, bullying and harassment.  In the report, Gord Delibridge of CUPE 500, the union representing the City’s employees tells CTV that, “it’s just gotten to a point of a level of frustration where it is not being handled in a manner that is fair to the individuals that are being impacted by these human rights violations and workplace complaints.”

Although I do not claim to know the complexities of this particular issue first-hand, it would appear that a more pro-active approach to keeping a finger on the pulse of what was going on for and with employees could have uncovered underlying issues, or “burning embers,” that could have been addressed.  Yes, this became a public relations embarrassment for the City of Winnipeg, but more so, the complaints allege terrible treatment and culture that employees had to endure.

Cost-Effectiveness of an Ombuds

Ombuds are a financially savvy investment for organizations in that they help save organizations large sums of money and provide tremendous return on investment for what they cost an organization.  They save organizations money and provide value in three main ways.

Workplace Investigations.  When complaints are made about a manager, a company policy or the way an employee or employees are treated, an effective Ombuds replaces the need to hire outside, expensive private workplace investigation firms.  An Ombuds who intakes that complaint, performs the investigation and drafts a Final Investigation Report, often including resolution recommendations, saves the organization the expense of $450 per hour, per complaint, in contracting workplace investigation fees.[2]

For a claim of workplace harassment in Ontario, for example, both sections 25(2)(h) and 32.0.7(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and section 5(2) of the Ontario Human Rights Code, may require the complaint be investigated by an impartial investigator.

Litigation Expenses.  The saved investigation costs are one major company savings, but what about the early resolution work that Ombuds do?  The workplace facilitation, conflict coaching, mediation, restorative and other early resolution work that heads off litigation also adds increased value for organizations.  Every case that an Ombuds prevents from going to litigation, can save the organization between $15,000-$40,000 in litigation expenses.[3]

 Training and Education.  Ombuds can proactively develop and train the workforce, or specific teams, on cultural and problematic potential legal issues that help to head-off interpersonal conflicts. If executed by HR, training can be a strain on HR departments who may already be stretched thin and lack the legal expertise to conduct certain types of training.  The average corporate training firm offering bias training, for example, charges $2,000 to $6,000 US dollars, per day, for groups no larger than fifty people.[4]

[1] Danton Unger, “Union alleges ‘toxic workplace’ for City of Winnipeg employees facing racism, bullying and harassment”(11 September 2020), online: < https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/union-alleges-toxic-workplace-for-city-of-winnipeg-employees-facing-racism-bullying-and-harassment-1.5101895 >.

[2] “Balancing Cost and Risk in Workplace Investigations” (retrieved 8 January 2023), online: < Balancing Cost and Risk in Workplace Investigations (caseiq.com)>.

[3] Millard & Co., “Why Do Most Human Rights Claims Settle? (10 March 2020), online: < Why do most human rights claims settle? | Millard Legal Professional Corporation o/a Millard & Company (millardco.ca)>.

[4] David Miller, “Tech companies spend big money on bias training – but it hasn’t improved diversity numbers” (retrieved 9 January 2023), online: < Tech companies spend big money on bias training – but it hasn’t improved diversity numbers (theconversation.com)>.

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Jennifer R. Ansell is a Toronto based civil, employment, personal injury, human rights and community mediator.  She is a trained workplace investigator, licensed paralegal, adjudicator with the City of Toronto’s, Administrative Penalty Tribunal and professor, teaching Paralegal Education at Humber College and Negotiation for Business under the Honours Bachelor of Business at the University of Guelph-Humber.  Jennifer has over 350 hours of specialized conflict training and received her Master of Laws (LLM) from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.