There will be times when an employee presents a complaint regarding some workplace conduct. Depending on the nature of the complaint, the process that should be used in handling such employee complaints should not be overly complicated.
Once the complaint is received, the appropriate management personnel must be notified to undertake the proper procedures to investigate and remedy the complaint so that there is consistency for the benefit of the employees and the company.
All too often supervisors and managers receive complaints from employees and either:
- Do not take them seriously
- Do not do anything about them on a timely basis and/or
- Do not notify proper upper management personnel (human resources or other Sr. level management) of the issue.
When this occurs, the matter remains unresolved, the employee does not feel “heard” or that their concerns matter to the company and there is a good likelihood that the situation will escalate and may end up in litigation.
In most situations, a complaint procedure can be reduced to a few basic procedures to be handled timely and within legal guidelines.
First, meet with the employee and discuss the concern. Ask some basic questions. Once these questions are asked and answered then an appropriate remedial plan of action can be implemented:
Sample Questions:
1. What is the problem/complaint/concern?
Ask the employee to provide a complete and detailed explanation of the situation. Require that the employee provide specific facts. Ask:
- Who is involved.
- Dates of when the issues arose.
- How long has this been an on-going issue.
- Where did the incident take place.
- Are there any witnesses to the incident.
- Has the employee told any other employee about the issue.
Do not require that the employee put the complaint in writing. A verbal complaint should be accepted as legitimate and then it is up to management to document the complaint and discussion.
2. To whom has the employee reported the problem?
The problem could be one of misunderstanding or mis-communication that can be resolved quickly. Has the employee raised the problem through the appropriate channels?
3. If the employee previously reported the concern, what, if anything, happened?
• Was a neutral thorough investigation conducted at that time?
• What were the findings of the investigation?
• Was the situation resolved?
• Was the matter addressed and if not by whom?
4. How would the employee like the matter to be resolved?
Without guaranteeing any result, find out what the employee wants. It may turn out that the employee’s suggestions for resolution are less severe than what the company might anticipate being required to be undertaken to resolve the problem.
The employers course of action should then include:
1. Conduct an investigation into the situation. The extent and nature of the investigation will depend on the severity and nature of the complaint. Complaints of harassment, discrimination, and/or retaliation require a formal plan including interviews, review of files, procedures and processes. Less severe complaints may not require as detailed of an investigation to determine the validity of the employee’s complaint.
2. Evaluate whether the employee has an ulterior motive for the complaint (such as a dislike for another employee, seeking to sabotage someone’s promotion or because the employee simply wants a transfer to a different shift).
3. Implement a Remedy: After having evaluated all the facts and circumstances, finding out what the employee would want to be done to resolve the issue, management must implement a plan of action to resolve the issue.
4. Meet again with the employee to advise them of the remedial course of action so that they know something is being done. Remind the employee if the issue persists, they are to report it immediately.
Even if the employee is unhappy with the ultimate resolution, the action taken by the company can limit the scope of the controversy and prevent expansion of the problem by creative lawyers.
4. Document, Document, Document: It is imperative that every step of the process be documented in a detailed manner including names of persons interviewed, who were present at the interviews, dates and times of the interviews, management discussions on resolution and implementation of the remedial plan of action.