Grievance - seeking an informal resolution

3. Grievance - seeking an informal resolution

16.1. Process

Where an employee raises an issue with their manager, every effort should be made to
resolve their complaint as soon as possible, through day-to-day management and without
recourse to the formal procedure. 

Resolving issues as soon as possible avoids them escalating to the formal process.  It is much harder to re-establish good working relationships when the issues escalate to the formal process as positions can become entrenched.  Particularly in cases involving employees who work together, the sooner the issues are resolved the sooner the working relationship can begin to improve.

Whilst the aim would be to resolve issues informally, there may be circumstances where an issue raised as an informal complaint has to be addressed by a manager formally.  This may result in other procedures being invoked e.g. where there are misconduct issues.

When a line manager becomes aware that a member of their staff has a potential complaint, they should organise a one-to-one meeting as soon as practically possible with the employee.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the employee’s concerns and to attempt to resolve the issues with minimum conflict.

The manager should be mindful that:

• the employee may be in an emotional state before coming to the meeting and should therefore endeavour to put them at their ease at an early stage
• the manager most approach the situation sensitively, when dealing with employee’s concerns, particularly in harassment cases
• the employee should be given the time to fully explain their cause for complaint
• employee’s concerns should be carefully listened to in order to ascertain the actual cause for complaint.  It may be necessary to gently probe and try to identify the real issue
• it is essential to obtain all the relevant facts
• the manager should try to avoid making any assumptions. Where these are made, the manager will need to check these out.

In some circumstances the employee may wish to bring along their trade union representative to the informal meeting.  The manager does not have to agree to this but in the spirit of early resolution to issues the presence of a trade representative or work colleague may assist in establishing the actual complaint and how it might be resolved.  In this situation it should be made very clear that the meeting is informal.

If appropriate, the manager should encourage the employee to personally approach the person causing the offence, on their own, to discuss the perceived behaviour that is causing offence.  The purpose is to make them aware that they object to the behaviour and ask them to stop. 

It may be that the employee being complained about is unaware that their behaviour has caused offence to the employee.  It may be that on being made aware of the issue, the employee complained about changes their behaviour, etc and/or in some cases a simple apology may be enough to resolve the issues.  The Manager should assist the employees involved to resolve the issues which gave rise to the complaint.

If the employee feels unable to approach the person causing offence, where it is appropriate, the manager may encourage them to consider writing a letter/email to the person making it clear what it is they object to in their behaviour.  The employee should be advised to keep copies of the letter/email and any reply received.

The manager may undertake some preliminary enquiries e.g. whether the complaint is against an employees from their own or another department/organisation; whether the complaint is related to a council procedure or process; whether more than one employee may be affected by the resolution sought; whether they have the authority to grant the resolution sought, etc.

If applicable, the manager may consider seeking a confidential interview with other parties referred to, having first discussed this with the employee. The employee may object to other individuals being spoken to at this stage, however, in some circumstances it may be necessary and the manager should advise the employee of this.

The manager and employee should observe confidentiality and sensitivity towards the employees concerned and the content of the discussions taken place.

The manager should discuss the support mechanisms available to the employee making the complaint, i.e. Occupational Health, the Council’s Employee Assistance Programme, and Trade Unions etc. 

The manager should confirm the outcome of their informal discussion, in writing, to the employee.  No formal record should be kept on the personal file, however, the employee should be advised that an audit trail of the discussion might be necessary in order for the discussion to be cited if in the event the complaint escalated into the formal procedure.