When was the last time your organization revisited its employee grievance policy? Any business, regardless of the industry or size of operation, must have a clear and efficient workplace grievance procedure in place to ensure that workers can report their concerns at once, and that efficient action can be taken to address them.
Just as employers expect employees to maintain a certain standard of professionalism and rigor at work, every employee has the right to expect that a certain standard be maintained within workplace operations. Similarly, employees are also afforded the right to file a complaint if their expectations are not met, even if their concerns are ultimately unfounded. Having a well-defined employee grievance policy makes it easy to ensure that each employee has equal access to these workplace provisions, and it also helps to address and close complaints in a formal manner, without allowing any issues to fall through the cracks.
Grievance procedures are key to ensuring that employee rights are respected in the workplace, and that any violations are corrected at once. (Image: Pexels)
What Is an Employee Grievance Policy and Why Is It a Key Workplace Consideration?
A grievance is defined as a formal complaint made by one or more employees when they believe that their rights, as established by the organization, governing laws, or collective bargaining agreements, are being violated or encroached upon by the employer, the organization, or policies introduced within operations. According to the ILO, a grievance is more specifically about an employee’s existing rights than it is about meeting their interests. This means that the grievance process is used to hold employers accountable to set standards, and not for seeking changes and improvements to the standards overall.
Additionally, the Department of Labor states that “a grievance can be raised by a third party, including a community member, governmental organization, or NGO,” which makes it a more elaborate process than an employee merely reporting their complaints. While grievance procedures get more attention in unionized workplaces, they can be critical to operations regardless of such contracts. Having a grievance mechanism can ensure that these concerns are approached seriously, without delay. This prevents problems from escalating into more consequential issues and legal battles, and allows corrections to be made to workplace practices.
Employee grievances can center around any issues they have with workplace operations that they wish to escalate to the attention of the employer. This can look like employee complaints of discrimination, pay disparity, overwork, or a general lack of adherence to pre-set guidelines or contract terms.
Benefits of a Clear-Cut Workplace Grievance Process
A workplace grievance policy can help organizations get to employee concerns quickly and effectively, diving straight to the heart of the matter to seek out a potential resolution. There are many benefits to formalizing such a policy:
- Create an easy-to-follow structure so employees can share their concerns with ease
- Addresses concerns early on before they grow into a more pressing problem
- Allows employees to know what to expect, right from filing the grievance to the investigation that comes after
- Holds employers and employees both accountable for their actions, as it creates an official record of the complaint and responses
- Encourages a culture of fairness, transparency, and mutual respect
- Repeated grievances filed on similar issues alert organizations to pervasive problems within the workplace
- Shows employees that their opinions will be taken seriously and addressed with the necessary sense of urgency
- Promotes well-being and ensures that employees feel comfortable enough to be present, active members of the organization
Handling Employee Grievances Can Be Tricky Without a Stable Process
A structured and efficient grievance process can be transformative, but when the workplace grievance policy isn’t well-designed, it can complicate matters. Overly complicated workplace grievance procedures can cause workers to lose interest halfway, choosing to handle the matter themselves or letting problems worsen. Employers also need to make sure that they have a fixed process to address the complaints and not just collect them, as a half-hearted process will have employees feeling additionally snubbed.
Documentation is also an essential part of the process as these records create a paper trail depicting the company’s responses and the efforts made towards resolution. Improper record keeping can prove costly, exposing both faults in the organization and its approach to problem-solving. Employers may occasionally grow frustrated with employees filing grievances for false issues or problems that don’t necessarily require such extensive investigation, but being cautious is better than regretting inaction at a later date.
Tips for Establishing an Employee Grievance Policy
Handling employee grievances isn’t as simple as asking employees to report issues to HR. For it to be a comprehensive and effective process, more detailed procedures are necessary. Some things to keep in mind:
- Create a team that will be in charge of addressing grievances and ensure employees can talk to them before filing their grievance
- Structure what counts as a grievance, then determine where and how employees will report them
- Provide simple but effective forms to help make it easier to register the complaint
- Determine timelines, for example, the duration employees have to record a grievance, the response time employees can expect to have their grievance addressed, etc.
- Detail the entire policy in the employee handbook or at another location that is easy to access
- Conduct a formal investigation into the grievance or employ an external body to do so, recording the findings carefully
- Ensure confidentiality is maintained around grievances to protect the employees and encourage them to file reports when needed
- Regularly analyze the grievances filed during the preceding period to understand common issues, resolution rates, etc.
Workplace grievance procedures in relation to collective bargaining agreements will require negotiations with the local union chapter or with the governmental regulatory bodies if matters remain unresolved. This means that employers must have the resources and expertise in place to navigate such conversations. Designing a workplace grievance policy with the assistance of experts and legal advisors is always best practice, ensuring that the business establishes procedures that are comprehensive but not so complex that it discourages employees from using the mechanisms at their disposal.
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