Employer awareness kit
When it opens, your employees learn about your intake page from you. Copy the text below into your own materials.
Before you use it
- Replace every bracketed item. [Link] is your intake link, from the email that opened your account. [Company] is your name as employees know it. [Policy] is your anti-retaliation or open-door policy. [HR contact] answers questions about how you handle concerns.
- You issue these in your own name. The passages about Wiser Workplace describe its Terms; update them if the Terms change.
- You may describe Wiser Workplace in your handbook as a voluntary option alongside your own procedure. Do not make it a condition of employment. The Terms make it voluntary (Section 5) and bar using it to undermine employment-law protections (Section 16). Do not require it before an employee goes to an agency or a court.
- The handbook insert marks two passages "Keep as written": who sees the employee's name, and deadlines. You may add to them, but do not soften them. Keep a deadline sentence in each piece you use.
- The platform requires no reply and promises none. What the law requires of you when an employee complains is separate. Do not promise a reply or an outcome in the platform's name.
- Employees under 18 cannot use it, so they will need another way to raise a concern.
- Employees who live outside California cannot use it either, so they will need another way to raise a concern.
- Wiser Workplace is in English only.
- If your intake page closes, take the link out of your handbook, intranet and posters.
1. Handbook insert
Raising a workplace concern through Wiser Workplace
[Company] uses Wiser Workplace. You can use it to raise a workplace concern with [Company] in writing. Using it is voluntary, and [Company]'s other complaint procedures stay open. You must be 18 or older and live in California to use it.
How it works. Open [Link] and describe your concern. Nothing goes to [Company] until you send it, and you see what it will get first.
Who sees your name. [Company] gets what you wrote, as the preview shows it. Wiser Workplace does not give [Company] your name or contact details unless the law or a court order requires it. What you write may identify you. If mediation is open and you both choose it, the mediator gets your name and contact details when they accept. Mediation is not anonymous, so [Company] will know who you are. [Company] may ask through the platform whether you will share your name. Sharing it is your choice, and the concern stays open either way. [Keep this passage as written.]
What happens next. Your concern goes to [Company] when you send it. If it cannot be sent then, it goes with the next notice, and your portal shows when it was sent. No one at Wiser Workplace reads it before [Company] gets it. [Company] may acknowledge it or reply in writing. The platform does not require [Company] to reply, and Wiser Workplace does not promise a reply.
Emergencies. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Wiser Workplace is not an emergency service, and [Company] may not read your concern right away.
What it is not. Wiser Workplace is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Do not count on this to stop or pause any deadline. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running. [Keep the two deadline sentences as written.]
[Company]'s policies. [Policy] applies to concerns raised through Wiser Workplace as it applies to any other complaint. [Your own statement.]
2. Onboarding paragraph
For the new-hire packet.
[Company] uses Wiser Workplace. You can use it to raise a workplace concern with [Company] in writing. Using it is voluntary, and [Company]'s other complaint procedures stay open. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running. The handbook, under "Raising a workplace concern", says who sees what. The link is [Link]. Keep a copy of your own, so you have it if you leave.
3. Announcement to staff
Send it in [Company]'s name, signed by the HR lead or the owner.
Subject: A new way to raise a workplace concern in writing
You can now raise a workplace concern with [Company] in writing, through Wiser Workplace, at [Link]. Using it is voluntary, and [Company]'s other complaint procedures stay open. The handbook, under "Raising a workplace concern", says who sees what.
Wiser Workplace is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Do not count on this to stop or pause any deadline. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running.
Questions about how [Company] handles concerns go to [HR contact]. Questions about the platform go to support@wiserworkplace.com.
4. One-minute script for a team meeting
"One more item. We now subscribe to Wiser Workplace. If you have a workplace concern, you can put it in writing there, and we can reply in writing. You see what we will get before you send it. It is voluntary. Everything we already have for raising a complaint stays in place. The handbook says who sees what. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running. The link is in the handbook and on the poster in [staff area]. Any questions, see me."
5. Poster
Add a QR code made from your intake link. Post the code in staff areas only. Anyone with the link can use it.
Have a workplace concern? You can raise it in writing.
[Company] uses Wiser Workplace. Open [Link] to put a concern in writing. Nothing goes to [Company] until you send it, and you see what it will get first. Using it is voluntary.
Wiser Workplace is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. Do not count on this to stop or pause any deadline. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running.
[Link] [QR code]
The link is for current and former [Company] employees.
6. Line for separation papers
For the papers an employee gets on leaving.
You can use a former employer's intake page if it still subscribes and the page is open. [Company]'s is at [Link]. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running.
7. Employee questions and answers
For your intranet, or for HR when employees ask.
Who sees my name?
[Company] gets what you wrote, as the preview shows it. Wiser Workplace does not give [Company] your name or contact details unless the law or a court order requires it. What you write may identify you. If mediation is open and you both choose it, the mediator gets your name and contact details when they accept. Mediation is not anonymous, so [Company] will know who you are. [Company] may ask through the platform whether you will share your name. Sharing it is your choice, and the concern stays open either way.
Does this replace HR?
No. [Company]'s other complaint procedures stay open.
Can I use it after I leave?
Yes. You can use a former employer's intake page if it still subscribes and the page is open.
Can I count on it to stop or pause a deadline?
No. Deadlines to file with an agency or in court can keep running.
What does it cost me?
Employees never pay Wiser Workplace. If you mediate through the platform, [Company] pays the mediator's fee in full.
Is it confidential?
Partly. Section 7 of the Terms limits what either side may share with others. Its exceptions include talking with coworkers or a union, a government agency, and your own lawyer. Either side may use what is written on the platform in a later proceeding, subject to Section 7.7 of the Terms and the rules of evidence. [Company] can share it as the Terms allow. You can also share it for your own support, such as with family, a doctor or counselor, or an interpreter.
A subpoena or court order can require Wiser Workplace to hand over what it holds about a concern. Wiser Workplace tells you first, unless the law forbids it. It may also withhold notice if it believes notice would endanger someone else or interfere with a law enforcement investigation.
What does mediation mean here?
If mediation is open and both sides choose it, each ranks every mediator on a short list drawn at random from listed mediators who match the concern. The platform chooses the mediator from both rankings, so neither side picks alone. Mediation is voluntary. Either side can leave, and it may end without an agreement.
What if I am retaliated against?
[[Company]'s own statement under [Policy].] Wiser Workplace cannot protect you from retaliation.