Managers should not underestimate potential dangers

Apr 17 2008 By The Journal

COMPANIES, and indeed employees, need to be more aware than ever of the positive and negative effects that the current dispute resolution legislation can have on managers, staff and organisations.

In a recent case with which Elphaba became involved one simple query regarding personal use of the ICT system resulted in – on the negative side – the dismissal of an employee and another one resigning; a catastrophic breakdown of communication among pockets of staff and resultant shock waves that could be felt throughout the whole company.

However – on the positive side – it also became apparent that existing policies were at best ambiguous, had not been communicated or applied and management had allowed lax practices to occur unchecked for some time.

Although initiated by a fairly innocuous observation from a new employee, a full and increasingly complicated investigation ensued which not only resolved the initial dispute but also highlighted other issues that would have come out in the future.

The result was a successful outcome for the company in a pending employment tribunal claim, an overview of policies in place, an awareness that procedures needed to be tightened and adhered to with all managers given training in this area.

Disputes of any kind in the workplace are inevitably painful, often personal and time-consuming affairs to have to handle and are only complicated if there are no clear policies to refer to and provide guidance for acceptable behaviour.

Managers would be unwise to underestimate the potential danger of setting precedents by not adhering to the letter of such procedures and inadvertently allowing lax practice to occur unchecked.

During any thorough investigation stones will be overturned and worms will crawl out – but it is quite feasible to minimise the impact of this and turn unpleasant experiences into useful tools for improvement going forward.

www.elphaba.co.uk