Grievances at work

Grievances at work are concerns, problems or complaints that employees raise with you as their employer.

Most grievances at work are likely to be things that are within your control as the employer to resolve, although do check that what you are dealing with is a grievance and not a whistle-blowing allegation which needs to be handled differently. All grievances should be treated in the same way regardless of the subject matter.

The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures sets out the basic procedure that you should have in place for dealing with grievances at work. Your procedure should be

• written down
• make it clear what process the employee should follow
• should contain an informal and a formal route to address any concerns, and
• identify how the organisation will respond.

It is in everyone’s interests that grievances are resolved quickly, fairly and efficiently to maintain staff morale within the workplace. Hopefully most grievances will be resolved informally but if they can’t be your formal procedure should guide how you are to respond.

If you, the employer, don’t handle grievances effectively they can very quickly escalate and lead to costly compensation claims. Expert advice can be invaluable at times like this. If you get no advice or the wrong advice it will cost your business time, money and reputation. Call Metis HR now on 01706 565332. Your initial confidential consultation is at no charge to you.

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Metis HR is a professional HR Consultancy based in the North West of England supporting clients across the country. We specialise in providing outsourced HR services to small and medium-sized businesses. Call us now on 01706 565332 to discuss how we may help you.