Employee Grievance: Meaning, Definition, & Examples

An organization is comprised of multiple teams that should coordinate with each other to undertake tasks efficiently. These teams consist of employees who work together to fulfil their objectives and ensure the accomplishment of organizational goals.

However, when you have diverse individuals from multiple walks of life working together, there are bound to be differences due to various factors. Similarly, a few employees could find issues with your workspace facilities or company policies. Multiple such issues arise in the workplace and these issues are collectively termed as ‘employee grievances’ and handling them is a part of the employee management process.

Hence, we will be understanding employee grievance meaning, and its types in this blog. We will also be looking at how to handle it through a well-defined process, as well as understanding the benefits of employee grievance policies. Additionally, you will also understand the best practices for handling employee grievances with this blog.

What is Employee Grievance?

Employee Grievance is a formal complaint by an employee against their employer. It can arise due to multiple factors such as unfair practices, bad behaviour, fraud, HR policy violations, etc.

Employee grievances should be addressed at the earliest since they can lead to employee dissatisfaction and eventual loss of talented staff members. Hence, it is essential to have a well-defined employee grievance policy in place that covers all aspects of employee grievances in HRM, as well as ensure that everyone is aware of the same and that it is followed in your workplace.

What is Employee Grievance Policy?

An employee grievance policy is a formal process using which employees can file their complaints related to their employment. This policy helps employees raise their concerns against issues they are facing in their workplace using formal channels.

Types of Employee Grievances

Employees can share their grievances related to various aspects of their employment in your organization. It can range from individual issues with a faulty resource to HR policy violations happening in your company.

Hence, we are sharing a few employee grievances examples and classifying them into multiple categories based on which aspect of employment it affects:

1. Work Conditions

The right work conditions are extremely vital for employees to fulfil their tasks and stay productive. Hence, grievances related to work conditions should be resolved at the earliest, since it is completely under the control of the company and the management.

Some of the major grievances employees have about their work conditions are:

• Health & Safety Issues: Health and safety are top priorities for any employee; hence, they will raise their voice if you have poor working conditions.
• Workspace Problems: Similarly, they will raise their voice if you compromise their comfort and privacy.
• Equipment Inadequacy: They will share their grievance if the equipment they have been provided with is inadequate to accomplish their tasks, hampering their productivity.
• Daily Commute Issues: Additionally, you may have employees who face issues with their daily commute, especially if it is arranged by your company.

2. Salary & Benefits

Since salary is one of the prime reasons why employees work, any issues related to salary and benefits should be resolved at the earliest. There are various issues related to salary and benefits that can arise when an employee is working in your organization.

Some of the common salary and benefits issues are:

• Salary Issues: Salary issues occur when an employee is not compensated adequately according to the time they have worked with your company. It can also arise if an employee feels that they are not compensated according to their daily responsibilities.
• Bonus Disputes: Similarly, bonus disputes can occur if you fail to disburse their bonus and incentives on time. Issues can also occur if the criteria for being eligible for bonuses are not clearly defined.
• Benefits Issues: Issues related to benefits often arise due to inadequate amounts. It can also occur in cases where an employee believes foul play or unfair disbursals.
• Pay Parity Problems: Unequal pay is another major complaint, as it leads to distrust among your staff.

3. Discrimination & Harassment

Discrimination and harassment are major issues as they have the potential to damage the reputation of your organization, as an employer, and as a company providing goods or services. Hence, these issues should be prioritized over every other issue in your organization.

Some of the major issues that can be classified under this category are:

• Verbal Harassment: Verbal harassment refers to inappropriate remarks or offensive comments made against an employee. The perpetrators of such behaviour can be either colleagues or supervisors and in both cases, they should be promptly dealt with.
• Cyberbullying: cyberbullying is the act of bullying someone through digital media such as emails, instant messengers, social media, etc. Due to the rising popularity of such media, it needs to be curbed at the earliest.
• Discrimination: Similarly, your employees should never feel discriminated against, as it will lead to dissatisfaction and disengagement. Hence, strict action should be taken against anyone found to discriminate against an employee based on any of their characteristics.
• Sexual Harassment: Sexual misconduct, as well as sexual harassment, are grave offences as it does against the dignity of an individual. Hence, companies should have POSH committees that can investigate and take necessary action independent of the management.

4. Workload & Responsibilities

When employees start working for an organization, their expectations are set by the performance management system in terms of their workload and daily responsibilities. If the employee agrees to fulfil their duties, they are employed with the organization. However, these expectations could be overthrown by someone trying to malign your reputation.

Hence, some of the common employee grievances related to their workload and responsibilities include:

• Overwhelming Workload: If your employees feel overwhelmed with their work, it can lead to stress and exhaustion, leading to poor productivity.
• Impossible Deadlines: Similarly, you must also ensure that you provide your staff members with adequate time to accomplish their tasks.
• Lack of Resources: Additionally, you should also provide your staff with sufficient resources to ensure that they can undertake their work easily. Any issues with these resources hamper their productivity, resulting in a grievance.

5. Management & Supervision

Employee grievances can also arise out of issues with management and supervision of the staff members. These issues are often hard to spot until the employee are the receiving end of the issue speaks up. However, by that time, the damage would already be irreparable, leading to poor perception of you as an employer.

Various issues can occur in a company, related to management and supervision, such as:

• Favouritism: If any supervisor treats any of their employees unfairly over others, it comes under favouritism. It can occur due to several reasons; however, it should be curbed to ensure that everyone gets equal priority.
• Micromanagement: Micromanagement is the act of minutely observing every aspect of an employee’s work and constantly staying on top of them unnecessarily to get their tasks done. It drives away autonomy from the employee, eventually, leading them away from the company.
• Bullying: Bullying is another common tactic used by bad managers to get things done. While it may provide results in the short term, nobody likes a bully and your employees are bound to look for better opportunities elsewhere.
• Misconduct: Misconduct occurs when there is an abuse of authority and supervisors start believing they can treat their staff as they wish. Such behaviour is extremely detrimental to the company culture and should be avoided at all costs.

Benefits of Employee Grievance Policy

There are various benefits of deploying a robust employee grievance policy with the most important factor being that it protects the employees from any kind of abuse. Employee grievances can occur due to a myriad number of reasons, as we discussed above. Hence, having a robust employee grievance mechanism or an employee management system in the organization helps ensure that the issues are resolved at the earliest, leading to a better company culture.

Some of the major benefits of employee grievance policies are:

➔ Enhanced Communication

Once your employees realize their company has an employee grievance policy, they will be more open to sharing their grievances. As a result, it increases the transparency within the organization, enabling you to gather their trust.

➔ Improved Employee Satisfaction

Once your employees realize that their company is taking care of their staff, they are more likely to feel satisfied with their workplace. Similarly, they will be more open to staying longer with their organization since they understand that their company values them.

➔ Fair Policies

As a result of the implementation of the employee grievance policies, favouritism will be avoided in your workplace. It leads to the prevalence of fair and equitable practices in your company, which helps improve your brand as an employer.

➔ Prevention of Litigation

The implementation of employee grievance policies also helps you safeguard your company from litigations since any issues will be resolved within the company itself. Thus, having a robust employee grievance policy also helps you avoid legal troubles.

Best Practices for Handling Employee Grievances

Following are some of the best practices for handling employee grievances in any organization:

1. Set Clear Policies

To ensure the effectiveness of employee grievance policies, it is essential to ensure that every employee is aware of these policies. A dedicated HR chatbot will be able to accomplish this task easily. Additionally, they should also be made aware of the employee grievance process, should they need to complain against any specific aspect of the organization. Hence, these policies should also be drafted using easy-to-understand language.

2. Reinforce Confidentiality

Additionally, you should also reinforce that confidentiality will be maintained throughout the investigation. Employees often refrain from complaining against their supervisors due to fear of retaliation at work. Having a clearly defined employee grievance policy will help your employees understand that they will be protected.

3. Conduct Investigations Fairly

Similarly, it is essential to conduct the investigations fairly, for any employee grievance, as even a glimpse of deception will spook your employee, stopping them from revealing the facts, resulting in the failure of the employee grievance system. Hence, you should choose the right people who would remain fair to the process, for conducting the investigations.

4. Stay Transparent in Communications

You should also communicate any findings of the investigation with the employees related to the case at hand. By having transparent means of communication, they will cooperate with the investigation. It will result in increased trust from your employees, further cementing your reputation as an employer who is genuinely concerned about their employee welfare.

5. Continuous Updates

You should also continuously update your employee grievance policies as it enables them to be more robust against any kind of malpractice within the company. By ensuring that the policy stays updated, you are also showcasing your commitment towards staying updated with the changing norms and ensuring the welfare of your staff members.

Conclusion

Handling employee grievances is a part of the employee management process, as it helps keep your employees satisfied with your organization. It enables them to appreciate their value to the organization and understand the efforts their organization takes for their welfare.

You should handle employee grievances as and when they arise they have the potential to destroy your employer brand. Hence, you should draft clear employee grievance policies and follow the best practices we discussed in this blog to ensure that your employees feel valued in your company.