It is inevitable that at some point as a business owner or manager, managing conflict in the workplace will fall to you. People will, inevitably, not always get along, and you will be called upon to resolve your workplace conflict. But where do you start? Managing conflict in the workplace can be a complex business and one that comes with risks if you get it wrong. If you’re lucky enough to have an HR team or managers that are trained in managing conflict in the workplace then it will fall to those trained professionals to take control and manage the situation.
If you don’t have that resource to turn to for assistance then it will fall to you. What you shouldn’t or can’t do is nothing. Remember that employment law gives employees significant rights that could result in legal action and potentially financial payouts. But before anything reaches those levels, managing conflict in the workplace so that your working environment is a positive experience will help you to retain staff and have a knock-on effect on your productivity.
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Managing conflict in the modern workplace
There are complexities in the modern workplace, more so now that hybrid working has become the norm during Covid. Your team may be a blend of homeworkers, people working on site, and people who might do a bit of both. And there will inevitably be some conflicts among people in your different teams. Why can’t I work from home? for example. As the business owner or manager, it’s your job to ensure that members of your team are communicated with, hear and understood and that they are included as much as possible.
Remember also that people have significant rights. Quite rightly, and those rights must be protected. So how do you go about managing conflict in the workplace?
For the purposes of this blog, we’re not going to go into some of the technical aspects of HR. That’s for an HR professional. What we are going to look at are some of the steps that you can take and the ways of managing conflict in the workplace that utilise softer skills so that you can begin a process with your team members. You may have to escalate to an HR specialist, but if you do, you will have the information that you need to inform them of the actual events that have taken place.
First of all, your communication skills are critical. Take a look back at our blog where we looked at communicating as a leader to refresh yourself on what you need to know
Four steps to managing interpersonal conflict in the workplace
Communicate
In any conflict communication is key. Communication from you about your expectations of your staff, your professional opinions, and the hope that any conflict can be resolved are just some of the things that you may want to communicate. But it’s not about you. So encourage your staff members to communicate how they feel, what’s affected them, what they think a resolution could be, and so on. There are no guarantees at this stage, just an acknowledgment by all parties and your encouragement to take part in the communications.
Active Listening
One of the key drivers to successfully managing conflict in the workplace is the ability to listen. Not just that, but demonstrably so. How would you feel if you thought someone wasn’t really listening to you? Now consider how someone would feel who is in conflict, probably feeling vulnerable and possibly fearful of what the outcome could be for them. Active listening means not just listening, but acknowledging that you are listening. Your body language, verbal response, and eye contact will all contribute to how someone perceives your interest in what they have to say.
Review all of the Options
During your discussions with your team members, you may have talked through some possible resolutions. Reviewing all of those options yourself, and then talking through them with your team could help you narrow the field. Your review may mean that you can begin to reach a consensus on what may work. It will certainly allow you to exclude what won’t work. And that in itself is a positive step. Can you reduce the possible options to just a few?
End with a resolution
Once you’ve reviewed all possible options you could be in a position to intervene by making your own suggestion based on the nature of the conflict, the people involved, and their own opinions on what a good resolution could be. This is where some HR advice could come in useful so that your final resolution is accepted and implemented fairly. But the point is that you and your team members reach a shared resolution so that it is fair and practical within your particular working environment.
Common causes of conflict in the Workplace
Misunderstandings, negative attitudes or closed-mindedness, and aggressive or passive-aggressive behaviour can all cause conflict. Managing conflict in the workplace can be especially challenging when dealing with behaviour of this nature. Whilst you can utilise our four steps to managing conflict in the workplace as an initial attempt, and even as a triage to assess the situation, the challenge may be significant enough to mean that the best approach is to take advice from an HR specialist.
There are endless possibilities that it would be impossible to name them all. But others could include conflicting styles of working, communicating, roles, and differing personal values. And you may face conflicts around leadership style, personality, discrimination, or even disagreements over creative ideas and project delivery. So managing conflict in the workplace is a challenge, but one that if not met could have an impact on your business that affecting staff retention, productivity, and employee wellbeing. Not to mention impacting customer retention if it becomes apparent that there are unresolved issues within your business.
The results of NOT Managing Conflict in the Workplace
We’ve mentioned some of the outcomes of not managing conflict in the workplace like a fall in productivity and possible legal consequences, but there are a number of others to consider. First of all, disruptions to working patterns can happen when, for example, people refuse to work together, or won’t co-operate fully. As not properly managing conflict in the workplace continues, you will almost certainly see a drop in productivity, and later on a reduction in profitability.
You could experience staff taking sick leave and increased rates of absenteeism as a result, with an increased staff turnover. Not just the people directly involved, but you may lose other staff in the worst cases. Ultimately you might see projects fail, or sales lost as people fail to carry out their jobs fully.
But looking after staff isn’t something that just small businesses should do. Richard Branson has famously been quoted as saying “Take Care Of Your Employees And They’ll Take Care Of Your Business”
So putting in place the right policies, strategies and building relationships in your teams is key. And involving your staff in the process could be as valuable as managing conflict in the workplace after something happens.
We hope that our article looking at managing conflict in the workplace is a useful piece for your business. If you want to find out more about the services that Identity Resources offers to businesses read our blog that describes what we do, or get in touch to discuss your challenges and we can discuss how we can help.
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