It is a natural fact of life that there are bound to dispute that spring up at one point or another, especially if you employ a large number of people. How these are dealt with can make all the difference to staff satisfaction levels and overall morale. Not only this, but proper conflict resolution can also help to ensure that you do not get into any type of legal hot water. So, here are just a few of the main ways of dealing with employee disputes effectively.
Ensure People Know Where to Come
First of all, you need to ensure that people know where to come to solve their grievances. This means ensuring that you have someone who is delegated to this area. It is often the case that it will be the HR team, but you need to make sure that it is clear who will be able to resolve the dispute effectively. If people don’t know where they can turn to resolve their conflict, this can lead to all sorts of other issues.
Determine How Severe the Situation is
Once the dispute has been raised, it then needs to be made clear exactly how severe the situation is. In some cases, it can be sorted through a tough conversation with a couple of members of staff – or a manager and the person being managed. However, in more serious situations, it could be that some legal support is needed from a top attorney like Baird Quinn. Knowing the difference between these two situations and who to be involved is certainly important.
Ensure Everything is Properly Recorded
You need to make sure that everything has been properly recorded in writing. Otherwise, you can easily end up in a situation where there are people who are on different pages, and you don’t know what action has been taken and what hasn’t. If the grievance happens again further down the line, it will be difficult to work out its history of it. At the same time, this could be important if any legal ramifications occur as a direct result of the grievance.
Refer Back to Your Policy Document
First of all, you certainly need to make sure that you have some clear policies in place for dealing with different types of employment disputes. At the same time, these may need to be updated from time to time, so don’t assume that they can provide you will all of the answers at this stage. Ultimately, as your company grows and develops, the number of disputes that occur is likely to increase, so you need to be properly aware of them all.
All of these are amongst the different ways of dealing with employee disputes in a way that is properly above board. Ultimately, this is one of your most important responsibilities as an employer, and you will need to make sure that you are getting it right. If there are problems, you should work on them.