Employment issues
Tools & Resources
Key learnings
- When running a business, you may experience issues with staff, customers and management.
- While some grievances may seem trivial, it’s important that all are dealt with quickly and appropriately to avoid any further actions that could be damaging to your business and the people within it.
- Mediation is a common way to settle workplace disputes, where an impartial third party helps resolve the issue by working together with those who the problem concerns.
When you’re running a business and employing staff, you may find that from time to time you come across some issues. Whether these concern staff members, customers or management, it’s important that, as an employer, you handle the issue in the appropriate way. Regardless of the scale of an issue, it must be treated with care and consideration. This article will look at how employers should deal with employment issues.
The types of issues employers might come across when employing staff could relate to:
- Workplace discrimination
- Bullying
- Harassment
- Equal pay
- Workplace gossip
- Personal issues
- Performance concerns
- Dismissal
Some of the above can start out small, but if they aren’t properly addressed, they could gain momentum and become significant problems for your business and its people.
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How to deal with employment issues
Even if a staff member raises a problem with you impersonally, you should always take it seriously. If you fail to do so, the problem may be raised as a formal grievance further down the line. If a formal grievance isn’t resolved, it could result in an employment tribunal, which could affect your business’s reputation as well as costing valuable time.
Taking issues seriously as soon as you’re made aware of them can help maintain good relationships between employers and their employees.
If you’re made aware of an existing issue or problem, it’s worth arranging an informal chat with the employee where they can discuss the situation in confidence.
Always allow the employee to bring a colleague, trade union representative or another relevant person along to the meeting.
It’s important that, as an employer, you listen to your employee and allow them to explain the situation and any solutions they suggest. However, this should be a two-way process, with the employee listening to you equally.
Even informal conversations should be documented. If the problem gets worse, the document will provide proof that the situation was being dealt with. If the problem results in the termination of an employee’s contract, documentation offers a degree of legal protection for you and your business.
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Mediation
Mediation involves a neutral, independent third-party person working with both sides to find a solution and can be used at any stage of the grievance procedure.
Mediators can be someone from inside or outside of your organisation. If they are external, there is a chance you will have to provide payment.
Both parties involved in a dispute must agree to mediation for it to be used.
You can find more information from Acas about introducing mediation to your workplace, and the mediation services they can provide.
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Professional advice
If you find yourself in a situation where you have to deal with an employment problem, it’s recommended you seek professional advice. This can come from:
- An HR adviser
- Acas
- An employment lawyer
You can search for law firms by specialism and location using The Legal 500 directory.
Next steps...
- Put together a policy on dealing with employment issues so your staff members know what to do if one arises.
- Develop procedures for both informal and formal complaints to make sure everyone follows the legal requirements.
- Keep documentation of any conversations you have regarding an employment issue.
- For more information about dealing with grievances in the workplace, go to Acas.
- To work out your potential loss should you dismiss an employee unfairly, use Croner's Unfair Dismissal Calculator.