Human Resources Department – Drop Your Complaint Here

Lets be honest… few supervisors want to hear from employees who complain. Nobody wants to neither hear negative feedback nor listen to an employee who has a beef about something.

And the truth is the majority of companies, big and small, tend to discourage employees from airing complaints. This is for sure an extremely shortsighted policy. It is very important to pay attention to employee grievant, even if you don't think they are valid. If you don't handle them you can create resentment, low morale, low productivity, and increased turnover.

Today I saw a very funny video related to this matter on Youtube. It’s from the well known CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” Let’s watch it and then I’ll share with you five strategies to clear the air of complaints. 

It’s nice to know that this company is handling complaints. But maybe they’re approaching this matter in the wrong way. Joanna L. Krotz, author of "The Guide to Intelligent Giving" gives us some strategies on the best ways to clear the air of complaints. Fallowing is a summary of them.

1. Watch your tongue. The way you react to a complaint immediately sets a tone. Forget about subtle threats or outright punishment. Employees want to be heard, so open by saying, 'I appreciate, I respect, I understand why you might feel that way.’

2. Recognize the individual. Respond to the specific employee and his particular beef. So when addressing employee issues, it's critical to tune in to those individual needs, not some generic response.

3. Direct traffic. Set up a formal process for submitting grievances that's communicated to everyone. To avoid legal pitfalls, clearly define the process and ensure that it's private and moves toward a resolution.

4. Be consistent. No employee likes secrets or surprises. The way around accusations of favoritism, pleas of ignorance, or similar unrest is by citing the policies of a formal employee handbook or manual. It's all about communication. Companies that respond to a complaint, investigate it, and don't let it go by will stop it from growing.

5. Send the right message. To truly create an atmosphere that rewards employees for coming forward, you need to make it comfortable. Lip service won't do. There are dozens of ways to achieve that, for example "town meetings" get everyone in a room and get employee buy-in. In these meetings the CEO might ask which topics employees want to address and invite them to talk to him later, privately, if something is on their mind. The best companies are places where the chain of communication goes both ways.

Obviously, all complaints aren't created equal. But ignoring them altogether can only cause damage.

What is your company doing to clear the air of complaints?