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Our blog offers important resources, helpful articles, and practical ideas on the human resources topics that matter to you.
Home / Media / Blog / How To Prevent and Mitigate “Fires” at Work
Business leaders know that workplace conflict prevention within their organization is a top skill they must learn and maintain. Fortunately, the best business leaders understand that this is a major part of their job, and they strive hard to ensure that would-be “fires” within the organization aren’t allowed to continue to burn. The entire organization can look up to its leaders to see which steps they should take to improve the circumstances they find themselves in and stay on course with the company’s mission.
Any time a group of individuals is brought together to work on a common goal, there is always the possibility of tension developing. Let’s take a look at some of the pressure points that are common in various workplaces.
When individuals with different perspectives, personalities, and work styles are brought together, they are challenged to learn to complement each other and get along. That doesn’t always go as planned. Friction between co-workers can mean that employees get so distracted by their in-fighting that they cannot do the assigned work. Consider taking the following steps:
There are a multitude of disasters and emergencies that could strike a business at any time. Not having a solid plan ready to address those potential emergencies is unacceptable. Just think about the estimated 700,000 small businesses closed in the second quarter of 2020 alone due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They had not prepared themselves for the emergency that COVID-19 ultimately became for them. Their lack of emergency preparedness harmed them significantly. On top of that, 64% of businesses experience web-based cyber attacks. Again, this is an emergency that companies can and should prepare for.
One of the most challenging types of fires is potential issues with clients. A company suffering from client issues needs to work on resolving them as rapidly as possible. Otherwise, they risk losing business and turning off clients who could have otherwise provided them with additional income streams in the future.
Getting to the bottom of the client’s issue means researching why they are upset in the first place. It is easy to assume that clients are frustrated and taking it out on you, but that is probably untrue. There are legitimate reasons why they are complaining, and you should research why that is the case. Remember that you are forming a relationship with them, and listening to their complaints is part of the process.
Once you have determined why they are complaining, develop an action plan for how to resolve their issue. Then, communicate that plan back to the client. They need to know that you are working on it, and they will appreciate you taking the time to explain your steps to resolve their concerns.
It is essential to have a core foundation of HR policies that every company should have to make it easier to put out fires and create the kind of workplace we all strive for. A few of those policies include:
Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policies
The workplace must be safe for all employees to work in. Not only that, but it is necessary for your company to remain in compliance with local, state, and federal laws related to discrimination. Besides that, it is also morally right to ensure that no one feels discriminated against when they work for you. Constructing this kind of policy will allow you to point to it if an incident crops up. Consider adding an employee hotline that they can contact anonymously to report any harassment issues. You need a clear policy for
employees and management to refer to when addressing any potential violations of one’s rights or psychological safety at work.
Billions of people log on to their social media accounts daily and post virtually anything they want. However, when those individuals work for your company, the risks to your reputation you face when posting anything they want to are enormous. Your social media
policy should address when employees are prohibited from being on their personal social media accounts (typically when they are on the clock), and it should also detail what employees are and are not allowed to post about when they log on to their accounts. Although you cannot infringe on an employee’s First Amendment right to free speech, you can have a policy regarding topics that employees will be terminated for if they post about, such as:
These are the types of things that keep business managers up at night. Make sure you have policies in place before a social media incident occurs to aide you in your workplace conflict prevention efforts.
It is virtually guaranteed that your employees will have access to confidential information within the company that the outside public does not. Keeping that information within the company must be a top priority. Employees should be made to sign a confidentiality policy that prohibits them from speaking about private information deemed confidential to the company. This protects the company legally from someone who might speak out of turn and release information they should never have released. This policy will keep your confidential information under wraps where it belongs.
There are certain documents that every business should have in place to mitigate or address workplace conflict. Such documentation will set clear and written expectations for employees so they can self-manage. When things go wrong, they can provide a paper trail of actions taken by the company and why they opted to make the decisions they made. Keep these documents readily available:
Ensure your HR department is prepared with all these workplace conflict prevention documents and anything else that lends consistency and credibility to your business. If you take all these steps, you can keep your company moving in the right direction.
Interested in other current employment trends? Click the link to view the recent blog: Labor Laws for August 2024 or check back for more on human resources, payroll, insurance, and benefits.
This article does not constitute legal advice, and there are subtle variations in employment law as it pertains to these topics, depending on where your business operates. It is strongly suggested that you seek consultation or legal counsel before making decisions about policies.
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