Methodology

The People’s Approach — a structured method for the messy middle of HR.

Corestride ER runs a single, end-to-end method across every case: open the matter, find the facts, decide, coach, document. The platform operationalizes this People’s Approach so HR review is the standard step, not an afterthought. Drafts are starting points — severance and release language route through employment counsel; protected-class framing and FMLA-adjacent context get a second reviewer before any employment action.

How it works

Five steps, one record.

The People’s Approach runs every matter through the same ordered sequence. The structure keeps HR review inside the flow — not bolted on after the fact.

  1. 01

    Intake

    Capture the matter in plain HR language — complainant, respondent, witnesses, jurisdiction, headcount band, industry, and the open narrative. Nothing leaves the workspace; the case is keyed to the cuid returned on submit.

  2. 02

    Fact-finding

    Sequence the witness interviews, preserve evidence, and restate the matter in neutral language. Findings of fact apply the preponderance standard; HR review happens before any employment action is taken.

  3. 03

    Decision

    A decision memo names the controlling policy, the protected-class framing to clear, and the recommended outcome. HR review log is keyed to the case URL so feedback is part of the record, not a side thread.

  4. 04

    Coaching

    Manager-led ER coaching outlines — what to say, what not to say, and where to pause for HR. The manager writes their own notes within 24 hours; HR review confirms alignment before any post-coaching action.

  5. 05

    Documentation

    Close the matter with the record intact: intake summary, draft, compliance-flag callouts, HR review log, dossier entries, and any required second-reviewer sign-off. The case URL is restricted material — share with the HR team only.

How Corestride operationalizes it

Four surfaces that hold the method together.

The People’s Approach is not a document — it is the workspace. Each surface maps to one step of the method, so HR review is the standard path, not the exception.

Investigation Mode
A structurally-completed intake flow for formal or informal investigations: complainant, respondent, witnesses, allegations, and timeline, all captured against the same investigation-aware schema.
Open investigation intake
Case dossier
The per-case workspace at /cases/<id> — the case dossier panel — keeps out-of-band notes, decisions, open questions, and coaching prompts alongside the draft. HR review notes live in the same record.
Regulatory updates
The case workspace surfaces the most recent regulatory update relevant to the matter’s jurisdiction. Compliance-flag callouts on the draft reference the same regulatory feed so HR review can verify the framing in one place.
Anonymized benchmarking
GET /api/benchmark returns anonymized aggregates over cases (counts by jurisdiction, distribution of triage severity, k-anonymity-suppressed cells). Narrative, stakeholder, and reviewer columns never appear in the response.

Drafts are starting points for HR. Severance and release language route through employment counsel; protected-class framing and FMLA-adjacent context get a second reviewer before any employment action.