Grievances At Work
Grievances in the Workplace
Grievances at work can be time consuming.
There are two approaches that may be used to handle grievances in the workplace.
- Prevent grievances from happening, by eliminating their causes.
- When grievances do occur, handle them effectively.
Let us look at the two approaches and build two methods.
Prevention is better than cure.
Grievances are usually caused by one of four things.
- What someone did.
- What someone failed to do, or
- What someone said.
- What someone failed to say.
If you can improve the quality of the performance, and especially the language, of the key members of your management and leadership team, then the incidents of grievances will be reduced.
If there are certain people whose behaviour or language tends to generate problems, then you may want to train them.
Train them on personal effectiveness skills and ask them to stop doing the things that cause the problems, (which is often the way they communicate to colleagues).
If you want to prevent the grievances, then send your managers on our two-day leadership programme.
What if you cannot prevent it and you have an existing grievance?
Six-Step Method to Handling Grievances
These six steps will help you handle grievances effectively:
- Listen without interruption.
- Empathise (without implying agreement).
- Question to get the facts (apart from the feelings).
- Answer: Logically evaluate the facts and formulate your answer.
- Confirm: Ensure they understand your answer.
- Close the conversation or change the subject, when understanding has been reached.
Summary: How to handle grievances in the workplace
If you want to learn more about how to effectively handle grievances at work, please take a look are our Conflict Management training course.
It is worth memorising this list and remember the method, next time you need to handle a grievance.
- Listen.
- Reflect.
- Question.
- Answer.
- Confirm.
- Close.
Blogs by Email
Do you want to receive an email whenever we post a new blog? The blogs contain article 5-10 minutes long - ideal for reading during your coffee break!
Further Reading in Conflict Management and Handling Difficult People
-
How to deal with a smelly person at work
If you have the task of telling a colleague that they smell, these are the steps you need to take.
Read Article > -
Conflict Resolution Training - How to Manage Conflict
Conflict is inevitable since we all have our own ideas about what is true, fair and good. How we handle conflict is important.
Read Article > -
Top Ten Conflict Management Techniques
Your organisation needs people to cooperate. However, inevitably people disagree, which can lead to conflict situations. It is important to learn conflict management techniques, since conflicts are costly and disruptive.
Read Article > -
How to deal with a bully at work
Do you have a problem with a bully at work? Would you like to have the confidence to fight back? Follow these six simple steps to take control of the situation and defeat the bully.
Read Article > -
How to give feedback
Feedback is a crucial concept, in the development of every person. We all need feedback on our performance.
Read Article >
Looking for Conflict Management Training?
If you're looking to develop your Conflict Management and Handling Difficult People Skills, you may find this Conflict Management Training Course beneficial:
Open Training Course Pricing and Availability
Next Open Course Starts in 6 days, Online - Teams, places available