Resolve Workplace Disputes Fairly

03/07/07

Gracie is mad at you. She says you’ve ignored her requests to have the area around her workspace cleaned up a refusal she says interferes with her performance and is at odds with the company’s policy of ensuring a safe, healthy workplace at all times.

Some managers would tell Gracie to quit whining. Others would say, “I’ll get around to it eventually.” A minority would address her concerns immediately and promptly—the right response, assuming you want to keep your workforce motivated and happy. By putting a simple grievance policy in place, you can turn that minority into the majority.

A Policy Can Eliminate Problems
A grievance policy, which gives employees a way to air their concerns and seek satisfaction at progressively higher levels of management, offers benefits:

Employees know your goal is to deal fairly with them at all times. When you commit to a grievance policy, employees will have one less reason to organize.

Problems are dealt with quickly. They won’t simmer, harming productivity.

Problem/resolution procedures can serve as a safety valve that reduces violence.

Managers listen better. This, says the Society for Human Resource Management, is one of the major benefits of grievance policies and other forms of “alternative dispute resolution.” If managers know that employees can go over their heads, it makes them more likely to deal with problems immediately and fairly.

A good grievance system can fend off discrimination suits or serve as some protection if you do end up in court. That’s because you can show you have a fair method for employees to resolve problems without launching suits.

Grievance Policies in Action
Some simple grievance policies also called “open door” policies are remarkably short and to the point:

We value your input here at Amalgamated, and we don’t like problems to fester. If you have a concern related to your job or the workplace, you can take it to any manager in the company, including the president, without fear of retaliation.

Other organizations prefer some structure to their policy. While you can set up a program in many ways, depending on company size and your intent, most policies look something like this:

Level 1: If you have a grievance dissatisfaction with your job, workplace, or work relationships—bring it to the attention of your supervisor within three days of the event that triggered your dissatisfaction. Describe, in writing, the problem and your proposed solution. Your supervisor will make a good faith effort to resolve the issue in an informal conversation with you within five days.

Level 2: If you are not satisfied with your supervisor’s response, communicate your concern to his or her supervisor. That person will meet with you within five days to try to resolve the issue.

Level 3:If you are still not satisfied, send your complaint to the human resources director [or another high level executive]. That person will meet with you within five days, get the facts, make a recommendation, and send it to the president, who will make a final decision.

Shape your policy to your unique situation and have an attorney approve it. Most HR people experienced with grievance policies say the majority of complaints are resolved at lower levels. Supervisors either eliminate the problem or, at least, listen respectfully to employees and explain why they can’t accommodate the request. Many times, that’s all employees want a show of respect.

Not Everything Is ‘Grievable’
To keep the policy from bogging company operations down, create a list of things not open to the grievance procedure. These include things like:

Promotions not received

Company policies or practices

Salary changes

Job assignments/reassignments

Performance evaluations

Warnings

In other words, you don’t want people interfering with legitimate management decisions at every turn. Your policy exists, instead, to give people relief when they believe rules aren’t being applied consistently, when they think policies have been misinterpreted or not followed, or when they feel personality conflicts are getting in the way of work.

So while an employee can’t “grieve” the warning he just got for subpar performance, he may grieve his perception that he’s been singled out unfairly.

Note: Allow employees to grieve the things listed above if they feel an employment action, like a demotion, was the result of discrimination or harassment. And be sure to have a separate or additional channel for handling harassment complaints. You don’t want to force a harassed employee to complain first to a supervisor who may be the harasser.

Two Policy Essentials
Your grievance system will demoralize people unless:

The policy guarantees that no employee will be retaliated against for filing a grievance.

Management supports the policy fully and without fail.

Train and Communicate
Managers and supervisors at all levels need to understand the grievance policy and the philosophy behind it completely. Many my way or the highway managers, for example, will need additional training in listening and empathy skills. Everyone will need training in mediating conflicts.

Taking the time to train will not only improve the people skills of your supervisors, but it will teach them to deal fairly and quickly with problems. That takes pressure off executives at the senior level.

Publicize the grievance policy well. Put it in your handbook, hold brown bag seminars on it, and explain it to new hires. If you try to hide it, you send a message: “We don’t really want you to complain, and we don’t really care what you think.” Good training also deters peo-ple from bringing frivolous complaints.

Put up posters in key spots around the work site describing the grievance procedure, and provide names and numbers of the executives at each level. If disputes do end up in court, you can show that you did everything you could to encourage early resolution of problems.

If It Doesn’t Work…
Sometimes you have a dispute you can’t resolve internally. There are still options that can keep you out of court.