Complaints are a natural part of any workplace that has two or more individuals operating within the business entity. There will be personal clashes, there will be arguments and differences will arise. It’s human nature and absolutely normal.
All Human Resources departments should be equipped in handling such a situation, or at least know how to properly mitigate the situation while it’s being handled by an unbiased third party.
Nature of complaints
Complaints are usually seen as employee(s) complaining about their employer (working conditions, behavior of supervisor, etc.) or their peers (bullying, harassment, etc.).
But that’s not all that complaints are for. Complaints are also a rich well of information for Human Resources departments to dip into to get a better understanding of and feeling for what kind of an organizational culture is being formed and nurtured in the business as a whole, within departments, or even teams.
Culture vs. incident
Most complaints center on a single incident, or set of similar incidents. It is easy while reading through a complaint to see it as a singular occurrence, and scoff it off as being “a sensitive employee”, “a nuisance” or even “difficult employee”.
Human Resources departments that handle complaints in such a way, are incidentally showing it’s own immaturity and incompetence for the task that is their responsibility to handle.
Every single complaint – no matter how insignificant – indicates problems both between individuals, as well as within the business’ culture.
Anonymity
An employer that allows for collection of anonymous complaints, where complaints are actively used to rectify problems with culture or possible detrimental behavior that is being shown from one or more individual within the workforce, is an employer that is trying to signal trust to their employees.
Anonymity also allows for employees to send in complaints regarding issues that don’t pertain to themselves as individuals, setting up a culture where all detrimental behavior and mishandling can be easily identified as employees don’t fear retaliation from filing a complaint.
Anonymity in complaints does pose some issues, however if the employer – and the Human Resources department – is properly working on the business’ culture, any such issues should be eradicated with little effort.
Importance of complaints
Unfortunately, complaints are too often handled as a one off incident, and the whistleblower is often even labelled as “the issue”.
Hence it is important for all employees to understand complaints, how complaints are filed and investigated by their employers, and where they themselves stand should they be named a person of interest within a complaint (either as a complainant, supposed target or culprit, or even as a witness).
A full understanding on all policies and processes followed for complaints are good indicators on how the employer actively works towards a healthy workplace culture for all, information that is often accessible on the employer’s website and therefore useful for prospective employees.
Likewise, making sure that all policies and processes regarding complaints are actively used to promote a healthy workplace culture, is imperative for all employers who want their operation to be seen as an “employer of choice”.