Opening an Employee Relations case

When to open a case

The ER case log captures sensitive employee-relations matters that need a paper trail:

• Disciplinary — formal warning, misconduct investigation
• Grievance — employee raises a formal complaint
• PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) — structured underperformance management
• TUPE — Transfer of Undertakings consultation
• Other — anything else needing case-managed notes + documents

Walk-through

1. Growth > Employee Relations.
2. Click New case.
3. Fill in:
   • Employee — search by name (employee can be terminated)
   • Type — pick from above
   • Status — open (default), in_progress, escalated, closed, withdrawn
   • Title — short summary (e.g. "Lateness pattern - June 2026")
   • Description — markdown, full context
   • Handled by — admin user managing the case
   • Opened on — defaults to today
4. Save.

Adding documents

ER cases have a separate document store at their own dedicated document store:

• Open the case detail page.
• Click Add document.
• Upload investigation notes, statements, emails, etc.

Documents on ER cases are scoped to the case — NOT visible in the employee's general Documents tab. Strict separation.

Privacy

Case visibility is restricted:

• Admin role — sees all cases
• Manager role — sees cases for their direct reports only
• Employee role — sees nothing (their own ER cases are intentionally hidden)
• handled_by user — sees the cases assigned to them

The audit log captures every read/edit (including who viewed the case detail).

Coming later — guided workflows

The current ER surface is a case log only — note-taking + document storage. ACAS-guided workflows (auto-generated disciplinary letters, PIP step templates, TUPE consultation timelines) are coming once legal review is complete.

When NOT to use ER

Don't use ER for routine performance feedback (use Performance > Reviews instead). Don't use it for documenting policy decisions (use a real policy document with versioning).