Workplace Restoration in Ontario Workplaces: Five Conditions For Success

Ontario's recently enacted Bill 168 provides both an opportunity and a challenge for employers:

• An opportunity to expand the parameters of a workplace free from discrimination and harassment to include personal harassment.


• A challenge to help employees differentiate between personal harassment and the exercise of legitimate managerial responsibility to manage performance, conflict and communication.

This challenge is, in effect, another opportunity: the opportunity to create a healthy, respectful, productive workplace.

Workplace Restoration can be an effective way to create just such a workplace following a complaint of discrimination or harassment. It is an opportunity to further positive relationships both between managers and staff and amongst staff.

1. It is critical to be clear on what Restoration can and cannot be expected to achieve. Workplace Restoration will not resolve performance problems or cure problem employees. In order to address performance problems, managers must either possess or be open to learning strong leadership and management competencies. Restoration can involve intervention to coach managers to enhance their leadership and management skills.


2. Parties to a complaint must be amenable to moving beyond blame and resolving the issue. Restoration requires a willingness to engage the issues, participate in dialogue and contribute to the solution. Usually, outside assistance is required to facilitate meaningful Restoration discussions.


3. All key stakeholders should be included. Including union reps in the process, for example, can promote a successful outcome. Careful consultation can help determine who should be involved.


4. Work teams without a strong management presence are unlikely by themselves to restore damaged workplace relationships. It may necessary to place managers on site for periods of time in order to restore and monitor a post-complaint workplace where a self-directed team had been working.


5. Workplace Restoration has to be well timed. Left to fester for years, some workplace problems that led to complaint may be too broken for Restoration. At some point, people and their positions may become entrenched beyond repair.

Workplace Restoration, when it begins with effective assessment, provides an excellent opportunity for going beyond the immediate situation and envisioning what an excellent workplace could be. Assessment which points to a new vision for a damaged workplace enhances the opportunity for effective Workplace Restoration.