The Myth of Body Language as a Credibility Assessor
Devan Corrigan, 2020
Workplace investigators and human resource professionals should be cautious of relying on the body language of a witness to evaluate their credibility during an investigation.
Fact-finding investigations, especially in cases of harassment, at times turn into an evaluation of one person’s version of events versus another’s, or as some call it, the “he said, she said” dilemma. In these cases, assessing the credibility of the two parties may be the easiest way the investigator can come to any defensible determination relative to credibility. When making a judgement on credibility, evaluating a person’s body language can be tempting and is often supported by many human resource professionals and workplace investigators in Canada. However, the empirical research shows that relying on body language is not a helpful method for evaluating credibility.
To clarify, body language, in the context of this article, includes both verbal cues (speech hesitations, stuttering, voice pitch, and inflections) and non-verbal cues (no eye contact or eye movement in certain directions, fidgeting, and overall nervousness).
New Facilitators for our Strategic Workforce Planning Program
We have two new facilitators for our Strategic Workforce Planning program running on Sept 30 – Oct 2. Ian Cullwick and Stephen Diotte are taking over the program, which will run virtually this fall.
While the learning objectives remain the same, the course will be structured a bit differently. The first module will cover an introduction to strategic workforce planning, the link to HR strategy, and strategic workforce planning frameworks. The second module will cover workforce segmentation and focus on tools and templates. The third will focus on applications (succession, HIPO management, performance management, etc.), and in the fourth module, we will focus on “making it happen”… how do you get started and sustain the effort?
For more information, or to check out the bios for our new facilitators please visit our website.
We are excited to announce a new 1-day virtual negotiation skills workshop.
It will provide an overview of collective bargaining for new participants, and offer a refresher for anyone who is expecting to head into bargaining in the next few months.
Date: October 22, 2020 (10 am-5pm EST) Facilitators and coaches: Gary Furlong, Debbie Cooper, Al Loyst and Mike Lumb Fee: $995 Special offer: If you register for this 1-day session, we will give you $500 off our April 25-30, 2021 Negotiation Skills program. (If it doesn’t run in person, we are committed to running it virtually.)
Reminder: An Inquiry into the State of Labour Relations in Canada in 2020
Queen’s IRC is currently conducting a survey on the State of Labour Relations in Canada. We invite anyone who works in a labour relations role (union or management) to share your insights with us before October 15, 2020.
The survey asks demographic questions to understand the varied roles and responsibilities of people working in labour relations roles, as well as your perspectives on labour relations in Canada in 2020. For your participation, you'll have a chance to win a $50 coffee card (ie: Tim Hortons or Starbucks).
These are behind the scenes shots of Anne Grant facilitating our virtual Labour Relations Foundations program from the IRC office/studio this week – it's a first for our flagship program! We have participants and other speakers joining remotely.
While all of our programs will be delivered virtually this fall, only a few will run from the IRC office.
Upcoming Programs
Register for a Virtual Program:
We are delivering synchronous virtual learning this fall, where all participants attend the program live as it happens. In addition to the live sessions, there may be some homework or offline work to complete before the next session.
Workplace investigators and human resource professionals should be cautious of relying on the body language of a witness to evaluate their credibility during an investigation. 
We are excited to announce a new 1-day virtual negotiation skills workshop.
Queen’s IRC is currently conducting a survey on the 
