GRIEVANCE MANAGEMENT

A grievance is defined as any dispute that arises between an employer and employee, which relates to the implied or explicit terms of the employment agreement. Employee grievance can also be considered as a formal notice of employee dissatisfaction related to his/her amount of pay, the current work conditions, or other aspects of their employees (Anastasia, 2017). Up to how long a grievance could last depends on if there is or not a reason for such complaint. Some of the most common complaints by employees include unfair treatment by the employer, employment agreement being broken, and employer communication. The most common employers’ complaints are absenteeism, misconduct, not performing as required, and violation of safety and health. The employer must follow certain guidelines if they expect grievance management to be effective. The employer can use penalties such as warnings and suspensions. (Hunter, 2009)

Employers must act in a manner that does not break the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence between them and their employees. Grievances are concerns, problems or complaints raised by an employee about workplace issues such as their work, workload given to them, where they work or who they work with.  Dealing with these grievances informally at an early stage is the best, but the HR must be prepared to handle employee grievances that cannot be resolved informally using a special formal procedure.

Resolving employee grievance is usually not an easy task at all. In order to handle grievances effectively, it should be approached systematically, and that is through following the employee grievance process.

Here are a few things that can do to ensure grievances of employees are properly managed and resolved

1. Listen, and listen we

2. Respond quickly

3. Keep an open mind

4. Come up with alternative courses of actions

5. Keep all communication lines open

6. Document every step of the grievance process

7. Establish and implement good policies on handling employee grievance (Anastasia, 2017)

 Today, times have changed in favor of these employees and workers. Worker rights have certainly gained more recognition, and one indication is how complaints are now given more attention and actually taken seriously.

References

Anastasia (2017) Effective Ways Of Handling Employee Grievance. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cleverism.com
[Accessed: 30 june 2018].

Hunter, S. (2009) Effective grievance handling procedures. [Online]
Available at: https://www.emeraldinsight.com
[Accessed: 30 june 2018].

McConnell, A.(2014) The importance of handling grievances properly. [Online]
Available at: https://www.personneltoday.com
[Accessed: 30 06 2018].