By Olivia Perry
It’s a fact that conflict in the workplace creates stress, reduces confidence and motivation, and can lead to more absenteeism and higher rates of employee turnover – either by choice or dismissal. 30 per cent of Australians rated their working environment as either cynical or toxic in the latest Snapshot of the Australian Workplace survey.
Workplace disputes are far more common than you might realise, but it’s how employers handle them that makes all the difference. In this article, we share eight best-practice steps to help you dot every I and cross every T when it comes to workplace disputes:
1. Understand the nature of the conflict
Before you schedule a meeting with the concerned parties, you need to ensure you’ve conducted a thorough and fair investigation. Make sure you’re across the conflict and have responses from both sides. Understanding the nature of the dispute and its complexities will help you navigate this situation without any hiccups. Noting confidentiality is key in these early stages also.
2. Encourage the employees to manage and conflict resolute
Depending on how serious the nature of the complaint is, encouraging them to come to some sort of middle ground or mutual understanding is a good mediation tool. This can also help combat an escalation to a serious issue.
3. Manage ASAP
It’s best practice to deal with the issue when it first comes to your attention, keeping the issue front and centre will ensure you manage it correctly and deal with it in a timely and fair manner. Handling complaints immediately will also signal to your employees that you take these matters seriously and will always conduct the process justly.
4. Listen to both sides – use neutral language
You want to make sure there’s no bias, that you’re not giving the impression of favouring an employee over another in the situation. You need to remain impartial and judge solely on the facts uncovered from your investigation and presented to you by the complainants. You’re playing the part of mediator and your goal will always be conflict resolution.
5. Find the cause of the tension
Everything has a cause and effect, disputes don’t just materialise out of thin air, something has had to happen. Finding the cause of the tension will help you mediate effectively and hopefully find a mutually beneficially resolution to the conflict.
6. Teach how to communicate effectively
This process is important, and it can look like just sitting there and actively listening or even intervening at some point but doing this is ensuring you’re a calming agent for the discussion. Keeping the meeting on track and within acceptable boundaries will keep everyone involved focused on finding a resolution rather than looking for a fight.
7. Focus on the future
There’s always going to be an element of agree to disagree because conflicts in the workplace will always occur regardless of the setting. Putting forward questions like “what’s the best outcome?” or “what do you want this resolution to look like?” will help you not only empathise with all sides but also make the concerned parties work together to find a mutual agreement.
8. Lead by example
No two disagreements are the same but, when mediating them you should ensure there are elements of compromise and that everyone feels supported throughout the process. Consistency in how you manage disputes will help you lead by example in your workplace in more ways than just your role.
How HR Assured can help?
To help you with any workplace compliance questions you might have, we’d like to offer you a FREE HR Health Check for your business. Our experts will complete a thorough evaluation of your HR that’ll help uncover any hidden risks before they become problems.
Equipping your employees with the right tools to respond to and manage conflict is half the battle in managing conflict in the workplace. If any of the information in this article has raised any questions for you about conflict management, please reach out to our workplace relations experts via our 24/7 Telephone Advisory Service.
Olivia Perry is a qualified Workplace Relations Consultant at FCB Group (our parent company) and HR Assured. She regularly provides advice to a large range of clients in relation to workplace laws and management of complex workplace matters.