I'm in Illinois and would like to know if there is a confidentiality law/protocol that human resource personnel must abide by when dealing with termination of an employee and who knows what when? The issue at hand is this: an employee was termed on Thursday, but prior to employee's termination, other department heads knew of the termination prior to the employee knowing. The only way these department heads could have known about this termination was through the HR Manager.

Law? No. However, there are legal issues regarding privacy. If the information that was released is not factual, the company and the individuals repeating it may be held liable for defamation. Even if the information is factual, it may be costly as the company and the persons repeating information may have to defend themselves.

Aside from the legal aspects, HR persons must be held to a higher standard. This is so that they maintain credibility with the managers and the staff AND in order to remain trusted. An HR person who is not trusted is often ineffectual.

A peer or someone close to the HR person should let him/her know that the belief of indiscretion exists. It may not be true but the HR person can then take steps to ensure that credibility continues to exist.

Let me know if you have any other questions.