According to a survey conducted by XpertHR, employers are seeing a significant increase in the number of internal grievances.
In his latest article, Employment Solicitor Chris Dobbs outlines why grievance reporting has increased and considers how employers should handle such grievances.
‘30% of Employers reported an increase’
The outcome of the survey shows that over the last two years some 30% of employers reported an increase.
This is not necessarily surprising news. It is easy to forget that two years ago we were still in various stages of covid restrictions (they did not completely end until July 2021) and that staff returning to work were mostly just glad of the opportunity for some time afterwards.
The last two years have also proved a difficult time for many people financially with concerns over cost of living and so it no shock that a significant amount of grievances concerned pay and relationships.
What are employee grievances?
A grievance is a member of staff’s way of communicating their dissatisfaction or raising a complaint about their work environment, conditions, experiences or an issue with the workplace generally.
Employers must have a formal process for handling staff concerns and the risk of not resolving issues quickly and effectively when they arise is that the staff member becomes increasingly dissatisfied.
Morale dropping always has an impact on a workplace and ultimately the individual may look to other routes to address their concerns which might include taking legal action.
What is the most common type of grievance filed?
The same survey by XpertHR asked employers what staff were raising complaints about in the workplace. The results were:
- Bullying or harassment (in the general rather than legal sense)
- Relationships between staff and managers
- Relationships between staff and colleagues
- Pay and grading
It is very likely that this pattern would be the same if a full, national survey were to be conducted and it is no surprise that a significant number of employers reported interpersonal disputes as the basis for a majority of workplace grievances.
How to handle workplace grievances?
Most grievances are legitimate workplace concerns which should be dealt with using the employer’s internal processes.
It is often the case that a dispute between colleagues can be resolved to both parties’ satisfaction through discussion of the issues and effective management intervention.
Problems tend to arise where either the nature of the complaint is more serious or, as was suggested in the survey results, managers lack either the time or experience to resolve disputes.
Grievances about bullying or discriminatory comments may quickly escalate to disciplinary processes and poorly handled grievances can leave to morale issues, resignations, and legal claims.
Grievance handling Training
At Frettens, our specialist Employment Team offer a collection of tailored Employment & HR Training Courses; one of which being a course on handling workplace grievances.
These courses have been designed to educate & strengthen you and your staff’s knowledge of such issues.
If you’re interested in any of these courses, you can find our more here.
An Employment Solicitor’s View
Chris Dobbs, Employment Solicitor at the firm, says: “Data like this should often be taken with a pinch of salt and comparing the current timeframe to where we were two years ago is difficult.
It has been, as we are all aware, a very strange few years for everyone both in and outside of work and this spike in grievances may well have come from a variety of factors.”
Advice for employers
Chris continues: “What it does show is that workplaces need to ensure they have effective processes in place for either addressing issues before they reach grievance level and, ideally, for ensuring that grievances themselves are managed well to produce a positive outcome.
Not all employee disputes and concerns will resolve themselves in this way, but many problems can be handled internally long before they involve the Tribunals.”
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Employment & HR Solicitors
If you have any questions following this article, or would like to speak to a member of the team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our bright Employment Experts.
Call us on 01202 499255, or fill out the form at the top of this page, for a free initial chat.
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