Here are the commonly asked questions about employee relations and employee engagement answered and explained:


1. How to lodge an incident report? What is the first thing to do?


2. Can incident reports be withdrawn?

  •  Yes, incident reports can be withdrawn with the guarantee that the department head or team leader provides a justification as to why there is a need for the incident report to be withdrawn. The one to assess whether the incident report should proceed as planned is the HR department. 


3. What is the difference between a light case and a heavy case with regards to the disciplinary procedures?

  • In regards to disciplinary actions, light cases are incidents which can be warded off with warnings, be it verbal or written. The offense happened only once and is categorized as a minor breach. Heavy cases, however, are incidents in which there is a need for administrative hearings which can result into dismissals. The offense is considered a major breach to be considered a heavy case.


4. When do administrative hearings happen?

  • Like what was previously being said, administrative hearings happen when the incident is categorized as a major breach or offense as in reference to the code of conduct. The need for administrative hearings often happen when the offense may result to a dismissal.


5. Do the consequences differ from offense to offense?

  • Yes, there are categories for an offense and the consequences it may face. Refer to the table below for the categories and what will be the actions to be taken:


6. Besides Freshdesk, is there any way the employees can lodge problems and have their problems be answered?

  • There is. Every ticket lodged on Freshdesk can also be lodged through emails. The employee who needs assistance can contact the HR in-charge directly via email and the HR in-charge will do the assisting. They can also voice out their concerns via chatting through MS Teams. Chats and emails are entertained but it is suggested that the employees use Freshdesk for Freshdesk is recorded and is easier to track and maneuver. 


7. If Freshdesk is down or does not work, what does the HR department do?

  • The employee has a choice to either do it via chat through MS Teams or email through Outlook. Every single ticket lodged in Freshdesk can also be found on the HR email lists or Outlook. Therefore, they can still respond to problems and queries when Freshdesk is down.


8. What happens when a ticket is overdue and no one has responded to it yet?

  • Overdue tickets are still reflected to the HR in-charge's or basically HR's account. The overdue ticket keeps appearing on their account when no one has responded to it yet. What they do is when they know they have the right answers, they still find time to resolve overdue tickets.


9. Can you still respond to overdue/closed tickets?

  • Yes, the HR department/HR in-charge can still respond to both overdue and closed tickets. However, this is a case to case basis. Some tickets, when closed, cannot be responded anymore. When you wish to reply to a closed ticket, the tickets are considered open again. Responding auto-opens the tickets. When some HR member automatically closes a ticket and the customer is not satisfied with the answer given to them, there is a choice to still respond until the best answer comes into fruition.


10. Why is the license to Freshdesk only accessible to the HR department, team leaders, and department heads only?

  • It is because the HR department is responsible for responding to ticket queries and provide sensible solutions to said problems. As for the team leaders and the department heads, they have access to Freshdesk in lieu of the employees under their department or team members to avoid the lodging of a lot of tickets that creates traffic to the site and ultimately hinders the HR department from answering all the tickets since there are so many to cater.


11. Is there a timeframe in which each ticket should be answered? What about a quota for the number of tickets answered daily?

  • The HR department are given at least 2 hours to answer tickets. After 2 hours, the ticket is considered due whether it has been answered or not. There is no quota for the number of ticket received and answered daily, only the response time, the amount of due tickets, received tickets daily, closed tickets, and pending tickets.


12. Is it a prerequisite that all employees must answer the surveys given?

  •  Yes, it is. Surveys are given with a purpose. Surveys are for employee development that's why it needs to be answered by every employee. Right now, the HR department is currently finding ways for everyone to be able to answer surveys. The current practice is that it is mandatory for employees to answer surveys. If they fail to answer, their department heads or team leaders are informed and are held accountable for the participation rate of the surveys. When not everyone has answered the survey but the deadline already has come, the HR department closes the form but informs the department heads or team leaders as to how many of their members have answered since names in surveys are optional and for confidentiality purposes also.


13. Can other employees, besides HR, propose employee engagement activities?

  •  Yes, during activities, when an employee has suggestions, the HR department takes note of it and applies it on the next activity. Like for example, for the tree planting activity, instead of providing t-shirts for the participants, the employees suggested that the money be used for food instead. If the majority agrees then it will be implemented.


  • How they can suggest is that they can do it via email through Outlook or chat through MS Teams. After all, the HR department is always open for suggestions for improvement and betterment.


14.Is part of the employee relations changing and revising policies?

  • Yes, it is part to their job scopes to check policies and update them when there is a need to update.