You must acknowledge the growing importance of a structured workplace grievance process as an employer. It boasts satisfactory resolution for employees in distress because of rising issues in the company’s policy or culture.
Set up grievance redressal systems properly to gauge the cause of employee grievances. These tribunals limit the cost and shorten lengthy processes. Committees can be internal and anonymous to avoid bias and roll out an objective verdict.
The scope of the grievance process is unsurmountable. But understand it critically throughout the blog post below.
Purpose of Workplace Grievance Redressal Systems and Processes:
A grievance is a complaint formally raised by an employee in the firm. It could be against any staff/employee, policy, discrimination, mental torture, workplace harassment, or similar issues.
The issues raised by employees need to be heard and addressed formally in the company. Otherwise, it could lead to several severe issues like a bad reputation, adverse effects of word-of-mouth, breach of trust, and lower job involvement.
Internal branding suffers the most when causes of grievances are not solved timely.
There has to be a management or committee in place. These people will be independent of the management to discern and dismiss the case with clarity and conscience.
Overall, a stable workplace grievance system helps curb the issues rising between employees and management. But that’s one example of those common issues in organisations.
There could be wage wars, price issues, and collective resistance against changing cultural norms.
What matters here is how fast, intelligently, empathetically, and diligently the committee releases the verdict. Clear-cut investigations should be carried out. These can be anonymous and overt. It varies with cases in the limelight.
A robust and just employee grievance redressal system helps solve employee relations, management differences, and similar problems.
It understands the pain points of each case. Later, it breaks down each case into sections for hearings, discussions, and appeals to be held.
In the end, employers need a structured format for these systems. The employee then knows how to approach the helpdesk using the innovative uKnowva HRMS solutions. That’s again one of the examples to make the journey easy for the grieving employee.
Critical Steps in Grievance Procedure:
Each organisation identifies a grievance system differently. There can be five steps in one; eight in another. It depends on the complexity of the workplace grievance hierarchy created within.
But a few steps always remain constant to complete the grievance cycle from one end to another. These are:
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Submit your written complaint:
Employees who feel distressed or unheard must submit the complaint in writing. It would be best if the grievant attaches as many pieces of evidence as possible while raising the ticket.
The letter has to be specific. It must list all issues, time, place, and date of the incidents that occurred. To some employees, this might sound rude or hurtful. But they have to be strong and list out all the case scenarios to get the compensation for the distress.
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Forward the complaint to the manager/committee:
Organisations can set up a workplace grievance submission box in their HRMS systems. These submissions will be forwarded either to the immediate reporting manager or the committee.
The reporting managers have to vet the e-submission from every perspective. They can also approve or reject a submission before it goes to the committee.
However, employees are often suggested to directly submit their complaint letters to the committee to avoid any manipulation.
This committee on the modern HRMS systems can be anonymous or identified. It varies with the company policies.
The raised issue should get a ticket number. Employees should check its status on the platform.
Following this step assists human resources flawlessly in discerning causes of grievances without delays. Additionally, employees witness/experience a transparent system. The committee must notify the employees of the process and the hearing dates if allotted any.
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Attend the scheduled meeting or hearing:
If the cause of employee grievance is not solved remotely, meetings are conducted. Now, these could be online or offline. That happens when matters are serious and not easily solved.
The grieving employee must be present at the meeting. They have to face the person they accused. However, if the issue is about wages, cultural or policy changes, the management gets directly involved.
So, it would be a case of the employee vs. the management/employers/policymakers. There has to be a moderator in each hearing. These could be committee members acting as the jury and moderators.
The case will be heard from both perspectives. Soon after, the verdict will be rolled out. It could be in any favour of either party or no one in general. That means it could be a settlement, too, if both parties involved agree.
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Appeal the verdict:
The outcomes of these hearings might not be satisfactory to grieving employees. They must have another way to get their justice. This could be by appealing the decision from the higher court.
This could be a labour court next time if the firm’s internal committee cannot resolve the issue for the employee (s).
However, this stage of workplace grievance is unfavourable, highlighting a lousy impression of company culture to the world.
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Importance of Structured Workplace Grievance Systems:
A structured workplace grievance procedure should be objective and error-free. It has to be run by committee members unrelated to the management. Only then can employees have faith in such a committee for hearing them out without a halo effect.
The rising importance of structure is seen in how formal steps can decrease confusion and ambiguity between employees. Anyone distressed in the company can reach out to the committee without being under anyone else’s influence or pressure.
Employees want to work at a firm where their voice matters and is heard.
A structured employee grievance redressal is precisely what they need as a representative of a dignified workplace.
Conclusion:
Form a workplace grievance system in your firm when the number of employees keeps growing from 10 to 100. Or it could be more. Do not let your organisation land in human resource issues without such a system.
That is why this blog post clearly explains steps in addressing the causes of employee grievances.
When employees know your firm has such a procedure or policy, they favour your culture more. Then, they know they have an educated and valued vote in shaping the firm’s culture where they want to work more.
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