Broken HR advice #7: 'I have an open-door policy'

60-Second Summary

Open-door policies place the cost of disclosure on the lowest-power person in the relationship — predictable result: nobody walks through the door.
Replacement: a structured escalation path with a named alternative to the line manager, an SLA, and confidentiality boundaries documented in writing.
Companies that announce open-door and nothing else have 3–4x more issues surface in exit interviews than at the time of incident.

Almost every workplace investigation begins with someone saying 'I didn't feel I could raise it earlier.' Almost every leader in that workplace earlier said 'my door is always open.' Those two facts are the same fact.

Why the door stays shut

Power asymmetry: the person who needs to escalate is already the less powerful party.
No SLA: 'walk in any time' translates as 'no scheduled commitment.'
No named alternative: if the manager IS the problem, the door must lead somewhere else, and rarely does.
No confidentiality contract: employees correctly assume informal disclosures may be repeated.

What to build instead

Structured escalation, in writing

1
Two named paths
Line manager AND a designated alternative (HR partner, skip-level, or external ombud).
2
Written SLA
Initial response inside 48 hours, intake meeting inside 5 working days.
3
Confidentiality boundaries
Spell out what HR will and will not disclose, before the first conversation.
4
Anonymous channel
A real one — third-party platform, not 'an email to HR.'

Why the door stays shut

What to build instead

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