Tips for Managing Employee Interpersonal Conflicts

– Christopher Butler, Esq.

 

Every successful business owner strives for a harmonious workplace, where employees can work in unity toward common goals and improve the company’s bottom line. Unfortunately, no matter how well-established a business might be, due to differing communication styles, political opinions, or just a general lack of emotional maturity, some form of workplace conflict is inevitable. But, how do smart companies effectively deal with interpersonal conflicts? Ideally, management steps in to ensure that disputes are promptly and amicably addressed, the parties continue to work together peacefully, and the company remains free from added conflict, disruption, or even litigation. Achieving all three objectives isn’t always possible, but there are some best practices that vastly improve a company’s chances of quickly defusing workplace conflicts, which we’ll discuss below.

 

Set Up Effective Conflict Management Procedures

 

Among other duties, an employer is responsible for providing a safe and harassment-free work environment. Aside from prevailing legal obligations, facilitating a welcoming and congenial workplace yields both practical and financial benefits, but it requires some real investment to establish a workable protocol. More often than not, open communication and informal conflict management early into the process are most effective at identifying underlying issues and coming to a mutually beneficial conclusion. And, management should seek out those opportunities on the front end. Moreover, as we’ve mentioned before, no matter how many workers are on the payroll, an employer should create and maintain written policies and procedures (ideally, an employee handbook) outlining acceptable conduct and performance expectations, and expressly prohibiting workplace behaviors such as harassment, discrimination, bullying, and the like. 

 

Among those policies and procedures should be a complaint reporting and conflict resolution procedure – an open-door policy, if you will – whereby employees may freely voice concerns, bring complaints, and report interpersonal conflicts (that cannot be informally resolved between themselves) to a designated company representative. That representative, who may or may not be an HR team member, may act as a “mediator” or “ombudsman” and attempt to work out a mutual solution between the parties. And, when a solution cannot be reached, the matter may be escalated to upper-level management for further involvement. Whereas many interpersonal conflicts tend to gravitate toward the petty and don’t normally require management intervention, with an open forum to bring complaints, employees should feel encouraged to bring conflicts out in the open rather than allow them to stew and compound, which ultimately leads to angry outbursts (sometimes physical altercations), work stoppages, missed deadlines, and lost productivity and profits.

 

Even with a conflict management procedure in place, when encountering with interpersonal conflicts in the workplace, management must resist the urge to avoid or simply ignore the dispute, and instead, should proactively pursue a resolution on their own accord. Otherwise, unresolved conflicts are likely to pave the way for low employee morale, resentment, further disputes, and ultimately a dysfunctional working environment. Ignorance isn’t bliss. In other words, if you see something, do something – the added burden of proactively making conflict resolution a part of the growing list of supervisory responsibilities, can readily outweigh the consequences of not doing so. 

 

Documentation is Key

 

The Society for Human Resources Management provides some excellent suggestions for improving workplace morale and setting up a framework for successful conflict resolution. But, in addition to having a robust complaint reporting mechanism, management and HR must commit themselves to maintaining regular, consistent, and concise documentation. Indeed, all employee complaints should be promptly investigated and documented, even if they at first may seem trivial or relatively insignificant. We know that neglecting to investigate employee complaints easily leads to decreased morale and worsened conflicts. But, likewise, the failure to document all workplace complaints, investigations, and resolution efforts robs the company of a key defense in employment litigation – namely, that it takes workplace complaints seriously and it takes prompt corrective action to remedy workplace misconduct.  

 

In many instances, workplace complaints and associated investigations eventually result in some form of disciplinary action against the wrongdoer. In such case, the salient details and conclusions need to be clearly documented, and that includes, where appropriate, having all complaining parties, responding parties, and witnesses provide written and signed statements to memorialize the substance of their complaints, observations, and verbal statements. And, bear in mind that when management or HR fails to acquire and maintain supporting documentation, disgruntled employees may just as well be in the process of collecting their own documentation to support a pending EEOC charge or lawsuit (and they probably are). So, take the initiative now or pay (a lot) later. 

 

The Takeaway

As we’ve shown, workplace conflicts are not entirely avoidable, but they’re certainly manageable. Toward those efforts, we recommend a written complaint reporting and conflict resolution procedure alongside robust note-taking and documentation. These two items alone pay dividends and are worth their weight in platinum. We have decades of experience helping employers and HR professionals resolve employee disputes, and defending the company and its management when those disputes result in legal action. Further, we create written policies/handbooks and provide training to companies to help them safeguard against workplace legal risks and liabilities. If your company necessitates assistance in resolving a workplace dispute, or simply wants to position itself to better avoid them in the future, we can help – contact Chris Butler with Agenzia.