Lesson three effective complaints. And this lesson you will learn the pieces that build effective complaints. And of course, this is information that you can share with your teams to prepare them for presenting complaints professionally in the workplace. Because effective complaints can expose and or identify organizational issues that need attention. It also can bring teams closer towards solutions when they are presented appropriately. So it is in everyone's best interest to structure complaints professionally, and in a detailed manner to be well received and understood.

Let's get started. The best practice for any organization is education and awareness for their employees and education around finally effective company Planes is really no different than any other team building or job related topics. However, since filing complaints can be a sensitive topic, it is critical for you to come across in a well balanced and non authoritative manner which will help you in conveying the important message that you take all complaints seriously. And you support a culture of open communication. This will help you and building strong teams that know how to communicate effectively with each other in both the good and challenging times that they work together. To this point, we've covered illegal activity company policy violations and employee conflicts.

When When it comes to illegal activity or company policy violations, a formal complaint should definitely be reported. However, when it comes to employee conflicts, be sure to remind your employees of your open door policy and encourage them to initiate the conversation with you. It may just get resolved at that level. Many employee conflicts are not resolved through the formal channels such as HR, the company's compliance hotline or even legal. They typically need some type of leader mediation or some real time action from the leaders when the conflicts arise. Addressing employee conflict before it spirals out of control and to this big formal complaint is one of the best tests needs to keep in a positive work environment and a culture where employees are comfortable speaking up.

It is always best to resolve issues or employee conflicts before they become formal. When employees are able to address their own concerns through effective communication, and tact, or your open door policy, it can be very empowering for them and help keep the morale up on the team. I'm going to share some interesting scenarios to see if you think it should be a formal complaint filed or not. And the goal here is to ask yourself and your staff. What would you do to try and fix the problem first? The GM chopper if your co worker Ciao sunk all day driving you to distraction.

With that weren't filing a formal complaint with HR, you'll likely be more successful if you met in it to them first. And second, perhaps going to your supervisor, but you may have the most success to have a casual conversation with your co worker first. How about that main boss who keeps telling her employee to be to work on time because they're always late and only take a lot of time for lunch break? Because they always come back from lunch late as well. Does this warrant a formal complaint? My advice would be have a conversation with the supervisor.

And if there are legitimate reasons why you're coming in late or taking a long lunch break, perhaps daycare issues, but have a conversation before filing a formal complaint that your leader is harassing you, because she's telling you to come to work on time. No promotion? If your coworker got a promotion and you did not, does that weren't filing a formal complaint? It depends. If your coworker does twice the work that you do and is always going over and beyond the workload, Hmm, maybe not. However, on the other hand, if you have evidence that you are doing twice the work, and you are always going over and beyond, you may want to pursue that.

But either way, it's best to have that conversation with the supervisor to learn how that decision was made. Do you think you're being paid too low company To your coworkers? Or do you just have a feeling that you're being paid lower than they are? Does that warrant filing a formal complaint? Again, and as on all of these, it depends. However, if you do file a formal complaint, you should have some pretty good evidence before you file.

For example, if your official job description is not reflective of what you actually do, do you have information that shows that people in similar jobs, do the same work and make more money than you do? We all want other people to change instead of changing ourselves in many cases. However, if the problem isn't actually a company policy violation, or illegal activity, you will have far better luck if you come with the question. What can I do differently versus Can you make someone else's behavior change? and reflecting on those scenarios that we just reviewed, the key takeaway here is really to stop. Take a step back and look at the whole picture of your concerns or issues.

And think about what arena it falls into. Is it illegal activity, or company policy violation or an employee conflict, and then determine what your next steps will be. Remember, all employees have a responsibility to speak up. And you have a right to have an open door policy for you to do so. And last but not least, retaliation will not be tolerated. In this section, I have included a set of case study worksheets for you to print out and review, as well as share with your teams to help train them on what effective and ineffective complaints look like in the workplace.

Now, these case studies will show some of the outcomes when leaders have the proper tools to address employee relations issues and when they don't have the proper tools or resources. Take some time to review the case studies and familiarize yourself with the types of situations that can arise. I will warn you, these are real life situations that have happened multiple times over my 20 plus years of experience in employee relations. Once you review, we will come back and talk about what were some of the consequences of having the tools or not having the tools. Look forward to seeing you back reflection on case study number one, this was definitely an example of leaders not having the tools or training to address the issues or they just chose not to address them. Now this case involved a disengaged, low performing team, almost dysfunctional team.

They were wasting lots of time gossiping, backstabbing, engaged and employee disputes over minor conflicts and filing multiple complaints, thinking it would resolve the issues. Of course, it was obvious there was no leader intervention. In fact, the leaders came up short in their responsibilities to address the issues. They simply tossed it over to human resources to address with that type of leadership Yep, that behavior will continue to exist in that workplace until the leaders are properly trained to address those issues. And reflecting on case study number two, this was an example of course of leaders having the proper tools and or training to address employee issues. This leader provided a supportive and inclusive work environment by speaking with all of his employees that were involved and giving them a space to comfortably Speak up.

This leader also brought an element of trust to the team by being open and having an active communication with the team and showing that he had an interest in helping them resolve their issue. This behavior almost always helps in having engaged, cohesive and productive teams. And reflecting on case number three, this example was of employees not having the tools or training to file an effective complaint. And this case, it appeared as though the employee did not know the differences between illegal activity company policy violations or employee conflicts, which is what this was not necessarily harassment. And filing multiple complaints to resolve a conflict was an effective especially because she was unwilling to see her contribution to the conflict. Additionally, the fact that her desired outcome was to have this co worker removed from her position was unreasonable.

Would have been a better approach to request someone and helping them to resolve their conflict so that they can make that workplace a better environment to work in and where they can both be productive. And reflecting and case study number four. Again, this is another example of employees not having the tools and training to file an effective complaint. In this case, while filing anonymous complaints provide a way for employees to speak up that are reluctant to do so openly. They are oftentimes difficult to conduct a thorough investigation on because of a lack of information or evidence that is provided. It is not typically the norm for HR to interview multiple people without any specifics, which makes filing these types of complaint effective.

So when filing anonymous complaints, it's important to provide specific information so that a thorough investigation can be conducted. And reflecting on case study number five, this was definitely an example of having the tools and training to file an effective complaint. And there were a few things that made following this complaint effective. The employee took a step back to look at the whole picture, and even did some self reflection on what his contribution might be to the situation. He also had an initial discussion with his leader to get some ideas from his leader on the next steps to take and provided specific information the who, what, where, why and how, which always makes it So much easier for the leader and or HR to address and investigate in an effective manner. This was an example of an effective complaint that will get you great results.

And wrapping up lesson three, we shared many tools for you to use with your team to empower them to identify ineffective and effective complaints to help them get positive results when issues arise in the workplace. We also covered recognizing warrants filing formal complaints, which right here I must reiterate, when it is potentially illegal activity or a company policy violation. It should always be reported as a formal complaint and addressed as often More complaint. I hope you were able to take away some key points in this lesson that you can apply right away in your workplace. Congratulations, you have completed module two. In Module Three.

I'll be sharing some tips for you on conflict resolutions for you and your teams. I look forward to seeing you there.