Top 5 Practices To Manage Employee Grievances At Work
Employees are the greatest asset of any organization. No matter how big or small, any business enterprise fulfills its growth with its employees’ help only. Sales in the company happen when employees direct targeted consumers to the company. Every income the organization earns has its roots somewhere among its workforce. It is the company’s and the top management’s duty to ensure that the staff faces no difficulty in the workplace and make sure they feel at home.
Many businesses focus only on one thing; consumers, but they forget about the sources that brought the consumers to them-their employees. Employees bring money to the company. It is obvious that no employee can survive at work with zero complaints. Issues are bound to arise whenever there are differences in opinions or violations of company policy, etc. Management should give way to these problems since it will help them know their employees and the business’s issues.
Organizations have to make employees believe that they are heard in the company, that their voices and their opinion also matters. They can achieve this by guaranteeing an apt problem solving, viz, grievance management system. Companies must stick to their complaint handling procedure whenever an employee faces trouble with the workplace surroundings, managers, co-employees, or finance. Every worker is entitled to file a complaint against the work’s social, emotional, and physical factors.
Let us now understand the meaning of grievances and how organizations should handle them.
What Are Grievances
A grievance can be defined as an official complaint made by employees when they are not satisfied with their work environment. Employees point fingers when they fail to get what they were promised they would, and their expectations crush. The other reason employees go official is when they see the company’s policies not being followed, leading to losses. HR managers should look into it evenhandedly and ensure the workers that their needs are met with care.
The art of filing complaints has joined hands with a new technological characteristic. Gone are the days when the workforce had to file issues anonymously and drop them in the suggestion box. Employees can now directly do so with online payroll software in India that helps them file complaints virtually. This saves paper and makes the organization go green by adapting to the software solution.
The advantage of having an official grievance management procedure gives employees a chance to believe that the company listens to what they have to say, that their concerns for the organization are real, and that their opinions matter as well. It gives businesses a chance to know about their workforce and their issues and provide the best solutions. This nurtures the trust the staff has in the company.
Steps To Manage Employee Issues
Here is how companies can tackle grievances at work with ease-
Understand The Problem
HR managers should be all ears whenever an employee is facing any issues in the workplace. They should listen to what they have to say, take notes, evaluate, and understand the problem they are facing. This will lead to employees believing that they are heard. This might not be a quick solution to the problem, but the least it will do is find the worker someone he can vent to. Employees will know someone in the company has their back and are willing to go heights to provide a solution.
Usually, not all issues qualify as a grievance. This is why managers should listen intently, investigate the case with the employee’s fellow workers’ help, and confirm facts. The management should learn in detail about the conflict in order to generate an answer for it. Employees can also find answers to minor issues on their own. For example, if a worker is having trouble regarding his paycheck, he can double-check it on the web software solution. If he isn’t satisfied with the result, filing an official complaint would be his next best option. This saves the organization’s time from handling minute problems so that they can focus on difficult ones.
Make Employees Feel Heard
A positive and nurturing work environment is all an organization ever hopes for. The top management wishes a feel of happiness and satisfaction among the workforce. In order to achieve that, businesses should handle conflict resolution aptly. They should listen to every complaint put before them, even if it is brought up casually. No matter how it is put forth, an issue should be considered a priority since the employee won’t feel happy to be at work unless it is not resolved. This is why it is crucial for HR to be a good attendant.
Being responsive is the primary step in resolving an issue. By doing so, you are giving employees a platform to vent since they will have someone from the management to talk to. This will ensure the employee that he is someone the company looks out for and that they are equally sentimental. They should treat the employee with a welcoming reassurance during such times because of the fact that he gathered the guts to go official without thinking about the consequences. The issue may escalate quickly from official to legal if employees are treated otherwise. This can give the company low prestige.
Retaliate Speedily
An organization should make sure they respond to the employees’ conflicts quickly. This should be based on when the enterprise receives the complaint and how fast they choose to react to it. When it comes to sensitive problems like these, poor time management will lead to employees losing their patience and faith in the organization’s issue tackling, which would mean them giving up and withdrawing their complaints. This shouldn’t happen. The company should not allow problems to pile up one after one because it will lead to procrastination.
If the managers don’t react to the issues on time, the employees may lose interest in solving it and lose faith in the company. He will perform rather poorly and not finish his work on time because his mind would still be filled with the clouds of his grievance and when the organization will start working on it. HR managers should come up with a final verdict and talk about it on the dot to the employee to ensure no delays.
Businesses can’t apply one solution to all of the employees’ problems. They can if they have a common problem, but not if it differs from each other. So, in order to engage in creative problem solving, companies can keep other options in mind just in case and present the best alternative to the worker in need of an answer. Management can choose from the options that save their time and money.
Active Communication
There must be constant and active communication between the management and the employees during the ongoing grievance solving period. They should make sure that there are no communication gaps so that the worker can ask for updates regarding the same. The HR should be available for the decisions corporate makes whenever employees ask them to. The problem-solving committee should act as a bridge between superiors and employees since they fill the communication gap between them.
It is safe to say that the grievance solving jury is the link that connects its one end to the other and puts efforts into pushing them together.
Policy Procedure For Grievance Management
Companies should design a policy; a procedure specially curated for grievance management. This will save the organization from going haywire. They should explain to the employees the policy, how to use it, when to use it, etc. This will guide employees towards filing a complaint in the right manner. The corporate should make sure that employees make proper use of it and that it is implemented appropriately. With the world changing so fast, everyone has started to adapt to the new technological changes. Organizations all over the world are also accepting these changes. Companies are now automating their human resources with an HR software solution.
By changing the dynamic of HR, it is essential that enterprises also bring a change in their grievance management policies. No company can ever have zero grievances. So, it is best for them to be ready for them by adopting such policies. This will show employees that the company actually cares for them and that they will resolve their issues as soon as possible.
Conclusion
No organization can go without getting zero complaints. The best they can do is reduce it to a certain number by being there for their employees, engaging in active communication, and lending them assistance whenever they need it. Handling grievances properly will lead to the staff carrying out business activities effortlessly. That is what matters in the end, both parties getting what they want from one another because providing solutions to their complaints will lead to employees believing in the company, the trust they put in it blooming and not wilting.
Author Bio:
Sweta is an experienced content strategist at FactoHR, having a keen interest in communication and the latest trends that are useful to entrepreneurs. Her passion for learning aids team members to represent new ideas that later help businesses to achieve their mission and vision.
