What Is Grievance Handling
Grievance handling is the management of employee dissatisfaction or complaints (e.g. favouritism, workplace harassment, or wage cuts). By establishing formal grievance handling procedures, you provide a safe environment for your employees to raise their concerns. You also create a channel to explain your policies and rationale for actions or decisions.
Why It Matters
As an employer, it is best to handle grievances in an amicable and supportive way to avoid unnecessary escalation and negative feelings. Grievance handling procedures also allow you to identify and address unacceptable or unlawful practices quickly.
What You Must Do to Be Fair
- Handle all complaints of discrimination seriously.
- Conduct proper investigations into complaints.
- Respond to the affected person promptly and proactively.
- Record and file grievances confidentially.
- Treat both complainant and respondent fairly.
- Involve unions in the process for unionized companies.
- Conduct training for all managers and supervisors involved in handling grievances.
Why grievance handling important?
A formal grievance procedure should support employees to raise concerns relating to a safe working environment without the fear of any negative repercussions. The knowledge that any concerns will be taken seriously and handled fairly will help to bolster staff morale and maintain levels of productivity
The Acas Code of Practice on Discipline and grievance handling procedure:
Step 1 – Informal approach
Wherever possible an employer should make an initial attempt to resolve a grievance informally. This can include speaking to the employee who has made the complaint in order to understand how they would like the matter to be resolved. The aim of the informal approach is to try to prevent the matter from escalating and to settle the problem early on.
It is important during this stage to listen and take account of what the employee has to say, to reassure them that the complaint is being taken seriously and that it will be addressed. If an informal approach is not appropriate or it does not address the grievance then the employer will revert to the formal process.
Step 2 – A formal meeting with the employee
This will involve holding a grievance hearing with an employee. The employee has a statutory right to be accompanied at a grievance hearing by a trade union representative or work colleague
The meeting is an opportunity for the employee to explain the grievance and provide details, information or evidence to support the complaint. The employer should aim to establish the facts such as who, what, where, when, why and how the issue came to being. After the employee has fully explained their grievance it may sometimes be possible at this stage, depending on the nature of the complaint, to resolve it.
Step 3 – Grievance investigation
If there is a need to conduct a grievance investigation it will include speaking to witnesses and any individuals implicated in the matter. This will help to shed light on the grievance and to establish the facts of the case.
Step 4 - Grievance outcome
Once the investigation has concluded and all of the facts established and considered a decision will then be made about whether to uphold all or part of the grievance or if to reject it. The decision should be communicated to the employee.
If the grievance is upheld, it may be resolved at this stage. However, if it is part upheld or rejected or the employee remains aggrieved, the process may move on to the next stage.
Step 5 – Grievance appeal
The grievance outcome should notify the individual of their right to appeal. The appeal hearing chair should then establish why the employee is appealing the decision and what resolution the employee is seeking.
The case should be reviewed, the grounds for appeal investigated and fairly considered before an appeal outcome is reached. The appeal is usually the final stage of the grievance process.
Grievance Handling: Definition, Features Causes, and Effects!
Introduction and Definition
A grievance is any dissatisfaction or feeling of injustice having connection with one’s employment situation which is brought to the attention of management. Speaking broadly, a grievance is any dissatisfaction that adversely affects organizational relations and productivity.
To understand what a grievance is, it is necessary to distinguish between dissatisfaction, complaint, and grievance.
- Dissatisfaction is anything that disturbs an employee, whether or not the unrest is expressed in words.
- Complaint is a spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the attention of the supervisor or the shop steward.
- Grievance is a complaint that has been formally presented to a management representative or to a union official.
According to Michael Jucious, ‘Grievance is any discontent or dissatisfaction whether expressed or not, whether valid or not, arising out of anything connected with the company which an employee thinks, believes or even feels to be unfair, unjust or inequitable’.
In short, grievance is a state of dissatisfaction, expressed or unexpressed, written or unwritten, justified or unjustified, having connection with employment situation.
Features of Grievance:
- A grievance refers to any form of discontent or dissatisfaction with any aspect of the organization.
- The dissatisfaction must arise out of employment and not due to personal or family problems.
- The discontent can arise out of real or imaginary reasons. When employees feel that injustice has been done to them, they have a grievance. The reason for such a feeling may be valid or invalid, legitimate or irrational, justifiable or ridiculous.
- The discontent may be voiced or unvoiced, but it must find expression in some form. However, discontent per se is not a grievance. Initially, the employee may complain orally or in writing. If this is not looked into promptly, the employee feels a sense of lack of justice. Now, the discontent grows and takes the shape of a grievance.
Broadly speaking, thus, a grievance is traceable to be perceived as non-fulfilment of one’s expectations from the organization.
Causes of Grievances:
Grievances may occur due to a number of reasons:
1. Economic:
Employees may demand for individual wage adjustments. They may feel that they are paid less when compared to others. For example, late bonus, payments, adjustments to overtime pay, perceived inequalities in treatment, claims for equal pay, and appeals against performance- related pay awards.
2. Work environment:
It may be undesirable or unsatisfactory conditions of work. For example, light, space, heat, or poor physical conditions of workplace, defective tools and equipment, poor quality of material, unfair rules, and lack of recognition.
3. Supervision:
It may be objections to the general methods of supervision related to the attitudes of the supervisor towards the employee such as perceived notions of bias, favouritism, nepotism, caste affiliations and regional feelings.
4. Organizational change:
Any change in the organizational policies can result in grievances. For example, the implementation of revised company policies or new working practices.
5. Employee relations:
Employees are unable to adjust with their colleagues, suffer from feelings of neglect and victimization and become an object of ridicule and humiliation, or other inter- employee disputes.
6. Miscellaneous:
These may be issues relating to certain violations in respect of promotions, safety methods, transfer, disciplinary rules, fines, granting leaves, medical facilities, etc.
Effects of Grievance:
Grievances, if not identified and redressed, may adversely affect workers, managers, and the organization.
The effects are the following:
1. On the production:
a. Low quality of production
b. Low productivity
c. Increase in the wastage of material, spoilage/leakage of machinery
d. Increase in the cost of production per unit
2. On the employees:
a. Increase in the rate of absenteeism and turnover
b. Reduction in the level of commitment, sincerity and punctuality
c. Increase in the incidence of accidents
d. Reduction in the level of employee morale.
3. On the managers:
a. Strained superior-subordinate relations.
b. Increase in the degree of supervision and control.
c. Increase in indiscipline cases
d. Increase in unrest and thereby machinery to maintain industrial peace
Need for a Formal Procedure to Handle Grievances:
A grievance handling system serves as an outlet for employee frustrations, discontents, and gripes like a pressure release value on a steam boiler. Employees do not have to keep their frustrations bottled up until eventually discontent causes explosion.
The existence of an effective grievance procedure reduces the need of arbitrary action by supervisors because supervisors know that the employees are able to protect such behavior and make protests to be heard by higher management. The very fact that employees have a right to be heard and are actually heard helps to improve morale. In view of all these, every organization should have a clear-cut procedure for grievance handling.
8 Steps to Handle Employee Grievances at the Workplace
As an HR professional, it must be a daily business for you to deal with employee grievances. The grievances may be genuine or sometimes illusory to the employees who feel a certain dissatisfaction regarding their job or the management.
If not resolved on time, it can lower employee morale; create inefficiency and increase absenteeism among the employees. In short, your ability in handling grievances of employees can have a direct impact on overall productivity at work.
Defining Employee Grievances
Employee grievance can be simply defined as the discontentment caused by the gap between what your employees expect and what they fail to get. It may or may not be justified but needs to be tackled very carefully. A considerable amount of time must be invested by the HR person to talk to the employees to understand their grievances.
Identifying employees’ grievances can be a challenge in personnel management. However, there are certain ways that can help you in this job.
You can consider the following points to know that the employees are not happy:
1.Changed Behaviour
Human behaviour reflects a lot about how they are feeling. Every good HR manager should have the considerable emotional intelligence to handle a grievance. A routine direct observation can be a great problem solver. Periodic one on one conversation, group meetings, collective bargaining, and employee counseling sessions are the best occasions when direct observation can be the highest effective.
2.Suggestion boxes
For anonymous complaints; it can be placed in different accessible locations within the office. The fear of adverse managerial actions can be avoided through this method.
3.Open-door policy
It is one of the best employee empowerment techniques in the workplace. Open door policy refers to open communication and transparency that allows them to be in touch with the senior management, to get their grievances addressed.
4.Opinion Surveys
These surveys can be used in understanding different employee opinions regarding workplace satisfaction. It may be conducted periodically in the form of questionnaires and self-report measures.
5.Effective Exit-Interviews
If answered honestly, exit interviews can provide constructive reflections on the impact that the company culture has on its employees. By knowing the reasons for leaving the job, employers can make the best possible changes with improved management policies.
List of leading causes of Employee Grievances:
- Undesirable working conditions in physical terms.
- Changes without prior notice.
- Poor employee relations.
- Improper wage adjustments.
- Dissatisfactory office policies in case of: Promotion, Demotion, Transfer, Discharge, Leave, Overtime.
- Violation of laws
- Inadequate safety, health ,and welfare amenities.
- Labor-management hostility.
- Incidences of workplace favoritism and nepotism.
- Lack of organizational discipline.
8 Effective Steps to Handle Employee Grievances Most Effectively
1. Create the system:
The first thing is to set up the grievance redressal system for your companies to help your employees lodge complaints and grievances so that it can be resolved.
Things that you must consider here are-
- The grievance procedure must be added to the employee handbook’s content so that it can be easily accessed by all.
- Someone must take responsibility for grievance receipts. The employees must be ensured that their complaints are placed in confidence. Generally, it should be someone from the Human Resources Department.
- The place of receiving the complaints must be within reach to all. That is, it should be located centrally. If you use a grievance box, it should be in the area of common accessibility.
- As it might involve personal matters, it is important to focus on confidentiality while dealing with employees’ grievances. Involving the least number of people prevents the matter from being widespread.
- The complaints put forwards must be followed up timely. That is, no issue should be on hold for a long time. It should follow a schedule so that the employees can expect a certain level of responsiveness within a specified time period.
2. Acknowledge the grievance:
You should listen more than you talk while dealing with employee grievance. When your employees come to you lamenting over an issue, lend them your ear.
That doesn’t mean that it should be resolved immediately but so that your employees know that their complaint is acknowledged. Let your employees know that you have received their report and are willing to do something about it.
3. Investigate:
Not all issues qualify for a hearing. Generally, it is important to review whether the grievance is valid or not. Inquire about the incidents or situations and gather any relevant information. It may not always be necessary but if the matter involves other staff, they will need to be informed and given a chance to explain themselves and put forward their own shreds of evidence. Once the investigation is over, you can arrange a formal meeting.
4. Hold the formal meeting:
The employee with the grievance and all the relevant parties should be called to be present in the formal hearing. The employee can put forward any evidence that backs up the complaint and explain how they would like the problem to be resolved. Later on, you can circulate the minutes of the meeting notes.
5. Take your decision and act accordingly:
This is the decision making phase. Once you have collected all the required information and examined the situation closely, you should make a decision.
You might decide to accept the grievance in full or part, or reject it completely. You need to let the employee know in writing about the actions that you will take. At the same time, you can advise the employee on how they should deal with similar situations.
6. Appeal process:
Your employee might not accept your decision and has the right to an appeal. Here again, your grievance policy should outline the terms and conditions of the appeal process.
It should start with an appeal letter written by the employees, informing the reasons why they want the decision to be reconsidered. To ensure impartiality, the appeal should be heard by another manager or supervisor who was not a part of the first meeting.
This should be followed by an appeal hearing with new evidence. The decision of the same should be informed to the employee in writing. If your employee is still not satisfied, it can either be mediated or escalated to the employment tribunal.
7. Review the situation:
It’s always healthy to have an objective look back at your decisions. If the employee is happy with the resolution, you were good at settling the issue. In fact, it can prove great to your company culture.
If the prevailing policy ensures justice, it can foster a sense of pride and accountability in the employees’ work. That’s the benefit of implementing a fast and effective grievance procedure.
8. Uproot the main cause of grievance:
Your aim is to go for a long-lasting solution. That is, a formal complaint should be addressed once and for all. This prevents your employees from coming back again and again with the same issue.
The key solution here lies in identifying the root cause of the problem and making sure to solve the problem completely, with the scope of adjustments, if necessary.
Conclusion
The successful operation of a grievance procedure requires the maintenance of sufficient records, experience and fair treatment to all.
However, there might arise some special circumstances when the above-mentioned process needs to be modified for better. The Human Resource Department reserves the right to revise the same as necessary and appropriate.
