Employee Dispute Resolution in the Office
A Simple Hands-On Approach to Handling Employee Grievances
Oct 6, 2009
Office disputes can broadly be categorized and may include conflicts, concerns, harassments and misunderstandings. It may involved two employees or more.
The successful handling of a dispute, or grievance as it is also known, comes with training, practise and experience. In terms of conducting an effective grievance handling meeting, there are proven techniques that can help to resolve each case successfully most of the time.
How to Conduct a Grievance Handling Meeting
First and foremost, the individual tasked to look into an employee grievance must be perceived to be neutral or simply not taking sides with any of the involved parties. If not, it will only aggravate the situation and nullify the attempt to resolve the issue.
It is also necessary to meet the involved employees together and not separately so that all are clear about the disagreements and conflicts arising.
Setting the ground rules:
Establishing clear ground rules to the employees at the beginning will put the supervisor-as-mediator in control of the meeting, should it get emotional later on. These rules may include:
- Emphasizing the role of the supervisor as mediator without any vested interest and that the aggrieved parties, as adults, are expected to resolve the conflict proactively. The supervisor’s role will include making a recommendation to management for action if necessary.
- Seeking commitment from the parties to constructively discuss and agree to find a solution to the conflict. Emphasize that some disagreements over an issue are perfectly acceptable. What is not acceptable are personality conflicts and clashes or threats that are affecting work operations.
- Making it clear to the involved parties that if they are non-cooperative in finding a solution, the supervisor may be forced to recommend disciplinary action that may lead to a termination of service for those concerned.
Once employees recognize that the supervisor is there to mediate and help, they can then focus on finding solutions to their dispute.
Leading the meeting:
The employee who brought up the grievance will be given the opportunity to speak first to tell what exactly the issue is or what is causing the employee distress. The rest who are involved will have their turn to speak. The following pointers may be a useful guide for supervisors leading the grievance handling meeting:
- Ask each employee involved what action he would like to see the other take and if that is a reasonable request.
- Ask what the other employee could do more of, do less of, or altogether should stop doing whatever he or she is doing, or start doing it differently among others.
- Summarize the course of action to be taken by the employees in order to make the necessary changes to resolve the dispute.
- Round up the meeting by emphasizing the need and commitment to treat each other with respect and dignity.
As grievance handling may take more than one session to resolve, note taking by the supervisor is needed. Adjourning the meeting, or convening the next meeting to check progress, may also be necessary.
Handling Employee Objections During a Grievance Handling Meeting
At some point during the grievance handling meeting, an employee or both employees may become defensive and start attacking each other verbally. To be in control, the supervisor will need to intervene and stop the interruptions.
One of the ways to reduce defensive reactions is to re-examine the comments as described earlier by each of the employees. This can be carried out by ascertaining that the information:
- Provided is not evaluative or judgmental. For example, a statement that "his report is 10 days late and because he is so slow he has yet to submit it" is a judgment. It would be a statement of fact if it is communicated that "his report was due 10 days ago and it is needed urgently by his supervisor."
- Is correctly understood by the receiving employee.
- Is useful i.e. the employee could do something with it or do something about it.
To uncover if any employee has a hidden agenda that may potentially hinder efforts to resolve the grievance, two types of questioning methods commonly used by human resources practitioners may be useful:
- Fact-finding questions are aimed at finding the facts, verifying the facts and clarifying the facts. The questions begin with a Who, What, Where, When and Why.
- Feeling-finding questions are aimed at drawing out the employee to understand why he behaves or reacts in a certain way to a situation. By empathizing with the employee and asking softening questions, the supervisor can probe deeper to understand the underlying reason for the action or motive behind. Examples of feeling-finding questions are How do you feel and How did this happen ...
When Should a Supervisor Intervene?
A dispute resolution can either be initiated by the employee or the supervisor. A supervisor should intervene when employees are unable to settle differences on their own and morale becomes lower. Other appropriate times to intervene may include:
- A situation where the conflict is starting to affect the productivity and morale of other employees.
- An escalation of the situation to a interpersonal conflict situation.
- The supervisors believe that the employees are not making an earnest effort to get the issue resolved.
- The employees in dispute are in a deadlock position.
When employees are unable to resolve disputes and grievances on their own, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to take charge and implement the appropriate action. Handling grievances successfully requires commitment.
See also: Writing an Employee Dispute Resolution Policy
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