Resolving Employee Disputes

Often times, when employees have conflicts with each other there is an avoidance factor that comes into play that makes for an uncomfortable work environment for all of the employees under your supervision.  Pretending that problems don’t exist makes things worse.

I tend to address problems like this by initially meeting with the employees one-on-one to get both sides of the story and then share the feedback with each of the individuals separately.  I try to be as transparent as possible by giving the steps I’m taking to each of the individuals in the dispute.  After meeting with each of them separately and hearing both sides of the story, we all meet up and get these issues out in the open.

In this group meeting, I try to emphasize the idea of communicating how each person feels without getting angry or feeling restful towards the other person.  Place importance on the fact that they’re resolving disputes themselves, not for your sake.  After they voice their concerns to each other, I let them know they’re accountable for their behavior after this point and further intervention will call for more stringent and harsh penalties.

I feel like resolving issue in the steps described above will help to bring out the best in my employees and hopefully provide a mutual respect to all those involved.