Building Confidence and Integrity in HR
Unless you’ve been under a rock the past couple weeks, you’ve seen the internet explode over Astronomergate, the fiasco where the CEO and CHRO of tech company Astronomer were found in adulterous embrace on the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.
The Astonomer situation has brought the ethics of the HR function into the spotlight, particularly as it relates to the role HR plays in impartiality and accountability of themselves and executive leadership. The broad perception of the HR function from the outside is that it cannot be trusted. Some of the most common reasons cited for this mistrust are perceived loyalty to leadership, not to employees; lack of transparency in decisions; selective policy enforcement; poor confidentiality practices; and failure to take action on complaints. Indeed, I have experienced all of these personally over my career (and many of them at a single company), and the chances are that you’ve experienced at least one or two, too.
There are gray areas, as there are in any job function. Yes, one of HR’s roles is to protect the company, but that needn’t come at the expense of commitment to an employee’s success; often, these two missions are out of balance. Selective policy enforcement can also be frustrating as seen from the perspective of the employee, but what’s often not seen are the legal strictures that dictate HR’s capabilities in certain circumstances. In my opinion, there are no excuses for poor confidentiality practices; a failure to keep confidences can not only violate any number of laws, but suggests a lack of professional maturity and competence.
In this post, I’m going to discuss common sources of mistrust of the HR function, and how HR leaders can use a framework to build trust and confidence in their organizations.
Perception of HR as Aligned Only with Leadership
Problem: This is one of the top complaints of HR, and seeing it personified by the Astronomer execs hit people hard. Employees may perceive HR as loyal solely to executives, especially when intimate or compromised relationships exist between them. As I mentioned above, there is an expectation that the HR function support the organization’s strategies and goals, so don’t lambast your friendly (or not-so-friendly) human resources business partner if you feel slighted - they’re probably doing what’s expected of them professionally and ethically. What tends to happen, though, when the balance between employee support and employer protection is skewed toward the employer, is that employees feel (or legitimately are) gaslit, ignored, or mischaracterized, and HR is seen as an arm of management, not a neutral party. I’ve experienced this myself and I know how frustrating it is, and it’s largely a consequence of an unskilled HRBP, or the culture an HR leader has built. The thoughtful HRBP will work to support the employee in service of the organization’s strategy, and while the outcome may not be exactly what the employee envisioned, it often results in positive outcomes.
Solution: The establishment of independent reporting structures, like designating a Chief Ethics or Chief Compliance Officer to oversee HR conduct and decisions, can help improve the perceptions and procedural/informational practices of HR. The implementation of confidential employee feedback channels, and publicly sharing aggregated data on concerns raised and addressed will help show that HR is actively participating in its own improvement and engender a strong sense of trust.
Lack of Procedural Fairness
Problem: Employees may feel policies aren’t applied equitably or are manipulated to protect leadership. In some HR organizations that don’t value transparency it can appear as though policies are applied inequitably. To play the advocatus diaboli, what could be happening is different policies are applied at different levels or locales within the organization due to any number of cofactors, and to an employee it may seem as if the policy that applies to them isn’t being applied elsewhere. Of course, it is also conceivable, and unfortunately often occurs, that informational justice (the fair and transparent communication of information, emphasizing the need for accurate, sufficient, and timely explanations about decisions and actions), procedural justice (fairness in the processes that resolve disputes and allocate resources), distributive justice (the socially just allocation of resources, goods, or opportunity), and interpersonal justice (the extent to which individuals are treated with politeness, dignity, and respect by authorities and third parties involved in executing procedures or determining outcomes) are indeed applied unevenly or counter to written policy within an organization. Selective enforcement also erodes confidence in HR’s neutrality, particularly with regards to investigations.
Solution: Adopt procedural justice frameworks. Organizations should honor both the letter and the spirit of applicable policies, and ensure documented, auditable, and transparent application of discipline, investigations, and promotions.
Confidentiality Breaches
Problem: Gossip and the inability to keep confidences disintegrates trust in the HR function, encourages employees withholding information, and can cause serious risk or harm to the business if laws are violated. Social contagion is a phenomenon where information, particularly negative information, is spread among a population, and gossip is a potent substrate for social contagion; people just can’t seem to help themselves. I’ve experienced, more than once, information told in confidence to HR that circled back to me from people outside of HR who should never have been informed. It is extremely disappointing, and very damaging.
Solution: Ethics training should be mandated, and confidentiality agreements drafted, with enforcement metrics. A company-wide “no exceptions” policy for confidentiality should be implemented and socialized, and violators should be penalized uniformly, including executive-level offenders.
Favoritism and Nepotism
Problem: This is one of the problems that hit people hard when they saw the CEO and CHRO of Astronomer. HR’s involvement in advancing the careers, causes, or interests of romantic partners, friends, or favored individuals undermines credibility, and nepotism and favoritism are direct and serious consequences of a romantic relationship. They can inflict long-term damage organizational trust, legal compliance, and employee engagement.
Solution: Immediate conflict of interest disclosures should be driven by policy, as should reassignment of key duties and recusal of one party from any involvement in decisions affecting the other. Independent third-party reviews of promotions, pay, and performance assessments should be requited, and cultural remediations like ethics training and pulse surveys can be used to assess and repair damage.
Disintegration of Organizational Ethics
Problem: When HR - indeed, when leadership at large - fails to model or promote ethical behavior, it creates a permissive culture for misconduct. It is a death knell for trust within an organization when HR is perceived as morally compromised or politically entangled; HR is supposed to be the ethical compass of the company, guiding executive behavior just as much as anyone else’s behavior (even their own) and holding leaders accountable. There are very few HR leaders I’ve come across in my career that take this mandate to heart, and they are the very best of HR: they are willing to speak truth to power to maintain accountability and champion the culture. As it relates to the Astronomer relationship, a romantic relationship between the CHRO and CEO creates a clear breach of ethical neutrality. Breaches of ethics could impact how others in the organization report (or don’t report) issues, and risks the integrity of investigations or risk reports, especially those involving leaders who may have close relationships with HR (see above). Ethical breaches signals that rules don’t apply (particularly at the top), and they undermine trust in ethical frameworks, DEI, reporting channels, promotions, and transparency.
Solution: Establish a transformative ethics model internally, which blends a commitment to relationships, ethical duties, individual rights, and moral principles to focus on dignity, justice, care, and honesty within the organization. Ethics councils can be established, and ethical climate surveys can be developed. Ethical behaviors (rooted in an organization’s values) can also be used in performance assessments to tie ethical practices to organizational, team, and individual performance.
Retaliation
Problem: Retaliation is one of the biggest fears of employees in ethically and culturally compromised organizations, and affects employee reporting of unethical behavior for fear that HR may retaliate or remain passive; they may breach confidentiality as a form of retaliation; or they may even downplay serious complaints to avoid legal exposure or executive fallout. The impact is that employees remain silent, and a culture of self-protection over accountability develops. Employees frequently disengage in this type of environment, quit, or escalate externally via methods like lawsuits or going to social media or the press.
Solution: Robust whistleblower protections and methods for anonymous reporting are critical, and are more impactful when trust is developed with HR (a complaint I’ve heard is that anonymous reporting platforms like AllVoices can’t be trusted not because the platform is insecure, but because reports ultimately go to HR, who can’t be trusted). So, an external ombudsperson can be introduced to manage high-risk cases, and reporting can be introduced for transparency.
Minimal Engagement and Visibility
Problem: HR has an important function as an ethical and cultural barometer and champion within an organization, and when these functions are not attended to, it is very visible to employees. A lack of visibility can also send a clear message of not being there for employees unless something goes wrong. As mentioned in other sections, when HR doesn’t hold people (especially leaders) accountable, or when the organization’s culture is at risk, and HR is absent, it is felt. HR’s strong presence and guidance is needed in these areas, and the impact of this dereliction of duty is that HR risks being viewed as disconnected from day-to-day culture, trust doesn’t have an opportunity to be built (or rebuilt), and, at worst, they can be seen as irrelevant. Minimal engagement or visibility could happen for legitimate - though no less unfortunate - reasons, like understaffing or an organizational design that has them siloed. Another really unfortunate happenstance is that HR is often seen, thus often associated with, layoffs, performance and policy reviews, or hiring, and the rest of the hard work they do is behind-the-scenes. But lest we forget: those of us fortunate enough to be employed can thank HR for our healthcare and other work benefits, keeping our companies (and our jobs) in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements that are no fault of their own, and for even having jobs in the first place. (And yes, there is the downside of really bad candidate experiences for those who are, and have been, on the job hunt for a long time. I don’t discount that at all. It’s real, and it’s terrible.)
Solution: HR should radically reposition itself from a reactive administrative silo to an active, trusted partner embedded in daily work culture. Shifting from broadcast to dialog by creating feedback loops, inviting employees into policy co-creation (especially around DEI, benefits, and remote work), and creating open forums can help build psychological safety and shows HR is not top-down, but instead it’s participatory. Employees tend to trust people they see regularly, so HRBPs should ask to attend team meetings - not to police, but to listen and support. These strategies help HR becomes a familiar face, not a feared institution. There’s a fine line between authenticity and being performative, but sincere and earnest attempts to reframe HR as a trusted partner go a very long way.
No Mechanism for Feedback or Accountability
Problem: When HR becomes the auditor of organizational performance, but is not subject to the same accountability through mechanisms like public scorecards or not publishing trust surveys (or worse, not having them), HR is seen as an unaccountable “black box.” Employees feel they have no voice in HR policy or reform, HR employees themselves begin to feel disempowered, and reform and improvement never happen.
Solution: What gets measured gets improved - and trusted. The implementation and transparent sharing of trust and performance scorecards and ethical culture dashboards using data from pulse surveys, turnover audits, exit interviews, and grievance metrics demonstrates HR’s commitment to holding itself to ethical standards and review, improving trust and generating goodwill. When HR demonstrates accountability and invites feedback, organizational engagement increases, which has a demonstrable effect on organizational performance. Town halls or company all hands are excellent ways to demonstrate openness to feedback and accountability - but they should include the opportunity for employees to ask hard questions without fear of retribution, because these types of meetings without hard questions feel curated and insincere, and measurably increase negative social contagion.
If you’re on an HR team struggling with earning the trust and partnership of your organization, the following framework and 100-day implementation plan can help address the issues I’ve outlined above in a transparent, accountable way that can help build improve engagement, and ultimately performance.
A Framework for Trust, Ethics, and Compliance
Strategic Objectives
| Objective | Description |
|---|---|
| Internal trust in HR | Build and enhance credibility, neutrality, and integrity of HR operations. |
| Institutionalize ethical decision-making | Establish a culture of ethics with formal enforcement mechanisms. |
| Prevent conflicts of interest | Implement guardrails to identify, manage, and mitigate risks. |
| Democratize HR voice | Embed employee voice and visibility into HR policy and enforcement. |
| Monitor, measure, and report progress | Use data and transparent metrics to show reform progress and accountability. |
2. Governance and Oversight Structure
Install a Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer (CECO) who reports to the Board of Directors (not the CEO), and oversees all HR ethics violations, confidential complaints, and executive conduct reviews.
Create an Ethics Council composed of a diverse group of employees, external advisor, legal counsel, and an HR business partner. The Council should conduct quarterly reviews of the organizational ethics climate, policy alignment, whistleblower actions, and overall HR performance.
Create an independent ombudsperson program to act as a third-party escalation path for ethical violations involving leadership or HR, using an anonymous submission platform purpose-built for confidential complaints.
3. HR Policy Reform Modules
A. Conflict of Interest Safeguards
| Policy | Action |
|---|---|
| Disclosure form | Annual conflict of interest declarations signed by all HR and executive staff. |
| Relationship reporting | Mandatory disclosure of workplace relationships with power imbalances. |
| Recusal rules | Automatic removal from performance decisions involving personal relationships. |
B. Confidentiality Protocol
Define levels of information access.
Safeguard sensitive case files.
Train managers and HR staff in codes of ethics, e.g., the SHRM Code of Ethics confidentiality standard.
C. Discipline and Performance Transparency
Publish policy guidebook outlining progressive discipline.
Include executives in performance review protocols (360-feedback and compliance metrics).
Make aggregated discipline outcomes visible (e.g., % warnings by level).
4. Employee Voice and Empowerment
| Initiative | Features |
|---|---|
| "Trust Barometers" pulse surveys | Monthly trust check-ins measuring psychological safety, ethics perceptions, and fairness ratings. |
| HR open forums | Bi-monthly live Q&A sessions with HR and/or the CECO. |
| Policy co-creation labs | Invite employees to contribute to policy redesigns like DEI, grievance, and remote work. |
| Whistleblower protection tracker | Dashboard of anonymous cases filed, substantiated, and resolved (anonymized, of course). |
5. Training and Culture Rebuilding
Transformative ethics workshops to discuss dignity, moral courage, power and privilege, and HR’s convenantal obligations.
Annual mandatory executive integrity training for the CEO and direct reports, including legal risk scenarios, board oversight simulations, and relationship boundary case studies.
New manager certification training including modules on procedural justice and unbiased decision-making, ethical decision frameworks, and how to receive and escalate employee complaints.
6. Metrics, Audits, and Accountability
| Metric | Description | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Trust score (1 - 10) | Derived from employee surveys and focus groups. | Quarterly |
| Whistleblower resolution rate | % of cases resolved within SLA. | Monthly |
| Conflict of interest incidents logged | Number and resolution status. | Ongoing |
| Ethics climate index | Composite index: fairness, inclusion, transparency, accountability. | Bi-annual |
| HR NPS | "Would you recommend HR to a colleague for help?" | Quarterly |
7. Communications and Transparency
Launch an Ethics & Trust Hub in the internal knowledge base that includes policies, conflict of interest forms, ethics dashboards, and FAQs.
Publish quarterly “Trust Progress Reports.”
Launch #help-ethics Slack channel for questions and support. There are third-party Slackbots that can facilitate anonymous communications in Slack channels (this feature is not available natively in Slack).
8. Legal Compliance Sync
Ensure all reforms are cross-referenced against:
Title VII (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
OSHA whistleblower protections
SHRM Code of Ethics
SEC disclosure rules (if a public company)
GDPR/CCPA, and other regulations for data confidentiality
9. 100-Day Implementation Timeline
| Week | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Announce Ethics Council and/or CECO role. |
| 3-4 | Launch trust survey + anonymous "hotline." |
| 5-6 | Roll out conflict of interest policy and training. |
| 7-10 | Host two transformative ethics sessions |
| 11-12 | Launch policy co-creation labs |
| 13 | Publish baseline trust score and goals |
| 14 | First HR focum and live Q&A |
Final Thoughts
One of my recent focuses in my professional and academic life and a deep personal interest of mine is how to reframe the crucial HR function as a trusted and valued partner in the organization. HR teams that are struggling with earning and keeping the trust of the organizations they serve must repositions themselves as listeners, not just speakers; as builders, not just enforcers; as a visible human presence, not as distant authorities; and as co-creators, champions, and protectors of culture, not just custodians.
