On a daily basis we’re talking with organisations about their employee issues, and one particular HR concern crops up time and again: Based on the annual number of formal grievances and complaints alone, the business could believe it has relatively low levels of conflict, while the staff engagement survey results indicate high levels of reported bullying and harassment. The apparent mismatch between the two metrics understandably makes it difficult to gain an accurate picture of conflict, the consequences of which can be very costly.
Letting ‘ground level’ conflict fester - which can easily happen when HR are often the last to hear about such situations and therefore can’t help diffuse it any earlier - can result in hotspots of tensions and resentments between two or more employees that can impact productivity and engagement within whole teams if left unaddressed. And at the other end of the scale, having to resort to more overt and formal measures such as mediation and investigations also require a financial investment that can get out of hand.
The key to minimising the cost of conflict and the disruption it brings lies in:
a) Getting a full and accurate picture of your conflict in all forms at at all levels, and;
b) Educating everyone in the business about how conflict is caused, how to avoid it in the first place, and how to handle it sensitively and effectively if it does occur.
In a previous post we talk about ‘nipping conflict in the bud’ with training that helps individuals recognise their own and others’ social style and encourages healthy, positive working relationships. We firmly believe that getting a genuine handle on conflict requires a cultural commitment to understanding conflict and being accountable for keeping it to a minimum by all members of staff.
We recently ran a Group Conflict webinar related to the themes in this post – click here for the presentation slides.
