Grievance handling process

Figure 1 : Grievance Handling (Roebuck, 2019).

Grievance handling process

The management of employee complaints, such as those about pay cutbacks, harassment at work, or favoritism, is known as grievance handling. The company creates a secure place for staff to voice their concerns by developing official grievance management processes. Provide a conduit for the justification of business policies, choices, or actions. To keep the workplace peaceful and motivated, employee issues must be handled carefully and properly. An employee's position, a quarrel with another employee, etc., may be the subject of a grievance. Whatever the cause, resolving complaints should be efficient and speedy. According to some experts, organizations with better-educated personnel have fewer conflict-related complaints. Employee complaints, notably those involving conflict, are not totally taken into consideration by the professionalism and education component. Employee differences in work ideologies, personalities, and methods of tackling tasks and issues are additional sources of workplace complaints. Unexpectedly, the nature of employment might affect employee complaints. However, employers are obliged to comprehend the causes of employee complaints and maintain grievance records as a way of dealing with them in an effort to limit the grievance rate. However, in an effort to control the grievance rate, employers are expected to understand the reasons for employee grievances and keep grievance records as a means of dealing with grievance cases (Steve, 2019).

Types of grievances

Communication Workers America claims that there are three general categories of complaints that may be made to organizations all around the world. Those are:

• Individual Grievances : When an individual employee grieves against a management action like demotion based on bias, nonpayment of salary, workplace harassment etc.

• Group Grievances : This type of grievance is when a team or a group collectively grieves against the management for example when none of the team members receive the promised overtime bonus as mentioned in the policy.

• Union Grievances : This is rare, especially in a corporate setup where unions do not often exist. However, in this type of a grievance, the entire union complains against the management generally over contract misinterpretation (Personio, 2023).

Grievance handling procedure

A change in the terms and conditions of employment, bullying or harassment at work, pay, and discrimination are just a few of the situations and reasons for which an employee could file a grievance. Employers should have solid procedures in place to handle complaints. All employers are urged to abide by the legislative guidelines provided by the ACAS Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance Procedures with regard to the grievance procedure. Employees typically do not decide to file a formal complaint without good cause, so they do not usually take this option lightly. There should be a well-established, transparent process in place that has been shared with all workers for handling employee concerns. Although the grievance process employed by various companies may vary significantly, if it follows the ACAS Code guidelines, it is likely to be a five-step process (Castle Associate, 2019).

• Informal approach
• A formal meeting with the employee 
• Grievance investigation 
• Grievance outcome 
• Grievance appeal

Objectives of the grievance handling procedure

The grievance procedure's objectives may be summed up as follows (Stride, 2023).

• To provide an avenue for communication between management and the employee
• To guarantee that management efficiently handles concerns.
• To stop conflicts from developing at work.
• To make disciplinary actions tolerable given that employees have the ability to criticize management behavior.
• To raise awareness of the issues or issues with employees that management has to solve. 

Benefits of Grievance Handling Procedure

• Benefits that accrue to both the employer and employees are as follows:
• It encourages staff to voice issues without worrying about negative consequences.
• It offers a quick and fair method of resolving disputes.
• It stops minor disagreements from turning into bigger fights.
• It provides an outlet for the resentment and dissatisfaction of the workforce.
• Employers save time and money when solutions to workplace issues are identified.
• It helps create an environment of transparency and trust in the workplace.

Conclusion

A grievance management procedure is the process that a formal complaint follows and is outlined by a preset set of regulations. The ways that each firm handles complaints vary. The majority of these processes are documented in writing. Either their contracts or employee handbooks provide information concerning them for the employees. In essence, businesses are expected to fully examine every complaint. However, more often than not, not even its staff treat these complaints seriously enough. When a worker files a grievance and management does not resolve it satisfactorily, the employee may use the document as evidence in a lawsuit against the company or the person they have filed the grievance against.

Video : Grievance in work place (By Stephens Scown, Ellie Hibberd - Partner and Head of HRExpress)

References

Castle Associate (2019) The five-step grievance handling procedure [Online] Available at: https://castleassociates.org.uk/blog/the-five-step-grievance-handling-procedure [Accessed 20 April 2023].

Drawinbox (2023) Drawinbox [Online]
Available at: https://explore.darwinbox.com/hr-glossary/grievance
[Accessed 23 April 2023].

Lamture, U., (2022). Drawin Box. [Online]

Available at: https://blog.darwinbox.com/grievance-handling-procedure
[Accessed 20 April 2023].

Roebuck , S. (2019) Are You Grieving Over Workplace Grievances [Online]
Available at: https://employsure.com.au/blog/are-you-grieving-over-workplace-grievances/
[Accessed 22 April 2023].

Steve, (2019). SBS: What are the leading causes of employee grievances? [Online] Available at: http://sebackground.com/what-are-the-leading-causes-of-employee-grievances/ [Accessed 20 April 2023].

Stride (2023) What are the leading causes of employee grievances [Online] Available at: https://peritumagri.com/stride/mod/page/view.php?id=1793 [Accessed 20 April 2023].

Stephens Scown (2017) Ellie Hibberd - Partner and Head of HRExpress [Onlice Video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBVzQ9U4g_s  [Accessed 20 April 2023].

By: S. Satheesh