Feature

Dealing with employee complaints

Sudipta Dev on why organizations need to have a well-structured system in place for redressal of employee grievances.

It is a rare employee who can claim to be happy with everything his place of work offers in terms of the working culture, the facilities or career opportunities. While most would voice their grievances during the exit interviews, organizations today understand that to retain talent they need to redress most of the issues at the earliest. For this, it is necessary to have a process in place that encourages employees to voice all their big and small concerns that they feel need immediate attention within the organization. It is a feedback process that helps the company take stock of the existing loopholes and rectify the situation before it is too late.

When an employee feels free to voice his complaints and knows that whether his problem is solved or not at least he can get an answer, it opens channels of communications within the organization, which is healthy for its work culture. It stems unwanted rumors and doubts from floating around, and can be extremely harmful for the company in the long run. Most complaints centre around certain basic issues, and can range from facilities provided by the organization to hygiene factors to appraisal issues. Natesh Babu, Director, Techweb Technologies, points out that most employee complaints fall into one of three categories:

• Complaints about other employees
• Complaints about the quality of the product or service of the organization
• Complaints about pay (designation), working hours, transport, etc.

Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI, believes that discontentment or politics with one’s manager or peers is the most common complaint in an organization. “Nepotism and favoritism are the two most common words to be found in most complaints. Other issues that prevail have to do with clarity of role or requirement of resources. It is also observed that cause for grievances occurs during appraisals of employees wherein the feeling is that the rewards are not commensurate with the amount of work put in by the individual,” says Mohnot, adding that this problem can be reduced if the appraisal systems are made transparent and the employees know the parameters on which they are to be judged. If the parameters are communicated properly then the employees can also do a self appraisal and compare the same with the external appraisal. He or she will then have a reasonable cause for complaint if the two assessments differ.

Strategy for complaints

Organizations that have evolved HR systems understand the significance of having channels in place that make it easy for employees to communicate their complaints. It is however necessary to make them understand the gravity of the problems and register only serious grievances, not frivolous issues. Mohnot points out that while only genuine problems should be taken up, the fact remains that ‘genuine’ is a subjective term, so the employees should be given every opportunity for airing their grievances and steps should be taken to address these. The efforts made to find a solution should be intimated to them as this will act as a confidence builder in the system in place.

“While many organizations have put processes, it is observed that these are confined to the paper and are really not functional. So it is also important to see that there is a proper process which is functional and actually addresses the problem at hand. Resolving the discontent would lead to an optimized working environment for all employees and result in better faith in the management,” states Mohnot.

Patni employees can lodge their complaints on the Intranet through ‘E-Care’—the grievance resolution system. Employees lodge their grievances if it is not resolved through the normal channels. The complaints centre around three areas—HR, facilities and project-related. “The response to the complaint should be made within four working days failing which it is auto escalated to the next level—from the process owner to the function head to the management council,” says Kalpana Jaishankar, Vice-president, People Development & HR Operations, Patni. A report on how many queries have been registered is circulated amongst the top management. Jaishankar points out that serious and sensitive issues are rarely lodged through the system as employees prefer to go through their project managers/immediate supervisor.

Corrective steps

Corrective steps are necessary to nip a problem in the beginning and prevent it from getting out of hand and snowballing into a bigger issue. It should be a transparent process giving regular updates to the complainer about the progress.

“We need to carefully listen and determine exactly what the grievance is and be honest with our employees—make them understand that we are concerned about the issue he or she is bringing to our attention and that will investigate it further (probably speak with other employees who might have additional insights),” states Natesh Babu. He asserts that most of the times these complaints are manageable and can be solved by:

• Working with the employee to pinpoint and define the complaint
• Pushing the employee to help come up with ideas to move the issue from a complaint to something more constructive
• After coming up with a solution, implementing it immediately

The corrective measures should be prompt and be consistent with the policies of the organization. “It should be seen that nepotism is nipped in the bud while favoritism is not allowed to flourish in the company. Steps should be also taken to see that if the employees are not satisfied with the redressal then the reasons should be explained to them. The management should also be approachable. The internal environment must be conducive for the employee to be able to actually approach the top level,” adds Mohnot.

It is also true that all problems cannot be solved immediately, in such cases the organization should be honest with the employee and communicate to him accordingly.

Constant complainers

Then there are those employees who are extremely difficult to please. They are the constant complainers, who make it a point to bring into limelight some issue or the other. While this category of employees are indeed less, an organization cannot completely ignore them all the time. Experts suggest two divergent approaches in dealing with such people.

“The policy should be to deal with them firmly and tell them that frivolous complaints cannot be entertained and if they do not refrain from such activities then the organization will have no option but to let the people go. Also, to avoid a fear psychosis, every time an employee leaves it should be made mandatory for the immediate boss of the leaving employee to communicate to other staff members the actual reason for the quitting,” asserts Mohnot. This will prevent any rumor mongering and ensure a healthy work environment.

Jaishankar believes in having a positive approach towards such people as apart from complaining, the truth is that they have something to suggest. “Some of them can be converted to employee champions. Instead of looking at them as a pain, it should be capitalized that they are taking so much of interest in the organization,” she adds. This positive approach evidently needs to come right from the top management. For Patni, E-Care is an important channel of employee feedback as it is improvement related.

It is a valuable tool that can predict problems that are likely to emerge in the not so distant future. Albeit, the whole system of handling the complaints involves a lot of sensitivity on the part of the management and the HR department. It is important for the redressal system to be constantly evolving and requires regular improvements.