HR Lens: Oprah’s Royal Interview
I am not a Brit but ever since I was 7 years old in front of my grandma’s 19” Sony (the largest TV you could get into our house) watching the spectacle of Diana Spencer becoming a princess by marrying Prince Charles, I have been aware of the Windsor royal house. I will save my views on the royal family and women and fairy tale weddings for another time.
Like 17 million other Americans, I watched Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex this week with more than a passing interest. The description of being in the royal family reflects my personal views on marriage - there is a love side and a business side. Any dysfunction to either side could cause the union to collapse. The young Duke and Duchess decided to resign from the business side to keep their marriage together.
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, stated that she came to the firm’s human resources team, asking for help with mental health issues. Further, she alleges that she was subjected to a barrage of racially charged behaviors and comments that made it difficult to do her job as a senior member of the royal family.
After the end of the two hour interview, both the Duke and Duchess believed that nothing was done to address their complaints and they were told on numerous occasions that this is just the way things have always been done. This is not shocking. This is the experience for many employees bringing complaints to their employers here in the US and around the world.
It is the job for all HR professionals to take down all the facts of any complaint brought to our attention and promptly conduct an investigation into those allegations. Personal feelings about the complaining employee cannot and must not come into play. It is the only way to conduct as fair and balanced investigation as possible. HR professionals are compelled to seek out the truth and bring a formal close to the investigation by presenting the findings to the complaining employee, along with a list of recommendations to the organization to remediate problems uncovered by complaint. Thankfully U.S. employees are under whistleblower protections that protect complainants from retaliatory behavior by their employers.
Whenever an employee complains of mental health issues, it is the best interest of employers to provide information on how access to care. A firm as well funded as the royal family surely provides one of the most basic health and welfare benefits to their staff - the employer assistance program (EAP). It is important for employers to take the moment to realize that mental health issues are difficult for employees to bring up because of the way mental health is still stigmatized in many parts of the world. In that moment, the employee is trusting the employer with information that they may not even shared with close family and friends.
There are lots of opinion polls and memes out there right now about this interview. Brits (and a lot of others!) all over are split between their support of the Duke and Duchess or the royal family. I think the ire is misplaced. There should be more attention paid to the firm’s human resources handling of Meghan and Harry’s complaints rather than focusing whether or not they were telling the truth.
Thanks for reading!