HR confidentiality?

[user950236]

If I email HR is it confidential or will they tell my manager?

Depends what you say, whether they need to and whether you ask them not to I guess. We'll need more info.

Ongoing issue with manager regarding reasonable adjustments more than one member of staff complaining, so he wouldn't know which one of us has gone to HR.

This depends on your company and on the situation. HR are just a business function, not some sort of official legal body.

If it's an issue involving the manager then yes, I would say they'll have to speak to the manager.

Can you have a call and ask about confidentiality? I recently needed some advice from hr but didn't want my manager to know yet. I asked if I can ask about procedure etc confidentially and this does not go elsewhere. He said yes, and have me some space to figure things out.

Probably not, as they need to speak to the manager to sort your problem out, otherwise what's the point of telling them?

If you raise a grievance I believe they have a right to know.

If you want something done about, i.e. a grievance then they will have to. If you ask to speak confidentially or it is a Whistleblowing situation then they will not say anything unless you are at risk.

Just to be clear - the advice above is not correct. I will always where possible respect confidentiality but ultimately I work for the business - so if what is said is something that will cause it harm / disrepute/ is a serious breach of policy then that will be taken further even if the employee doesn’t want it to be - it does not have to be a safeguarding issue as for example with a doctor.

Clearly I try not to get to that point but I do think there’s a misconception about the role of HR sometimes in this sense.

HR is there to protect the business and will try to avoid employment tribunals as much as possible so depends on what your complaint is.

As apples and oranges said, we wont agree in advance to keep a conversation confidential, as we have no idea what you are going to tell us.

If it's something like not wanting your line manager to know all the details of your sickness, no problem. Pretty much anything else, we are not priests, we can't keep secrets for you, even if you ask us to. We have to do what is right for the business.

If you have an issue about reasonable adjustments, what is it you are expecting HR to do that won't involve them talking to the manager?