Supporting our client through a collective grievance
Introduction
A new client engaged Albany HR to support the management of a complex grievance involving a member of the Executive Team. This was the first time a collective grievance had been raised in their organisation. The client did not have an existing procedure to deal with collective grievances, therefore our expert HR consultant developed a process, aligned with ACAS guidance and best practice. After a thorough investigation, they complied a report of their findings with recommendations for the client. This enabled the Board member nominated to be the decision maker to decide on an appropriate outcome.
Background
Our client was a charity and as with many organisations coming out of the pandemic, was engaged in refocussing their strategic direction. However, due to a number of issues related to the changes, there was a level of unhappiness and discontent among a small number of employees, and they raised a collective grievance against the organisation’s CEO. The Board decided to nominate one of the Board Members to serve as the collective grievance Chair and determined that an external consultant would provide appropriate governance, challenge and an independent view of the employees’ complaints.
Client Needs
As experts in grievance procedures and having supported many clients with similar issues, our experienced Senior Consultant was able to support the client with determining a procedure to follow in the absence of a policy on how to do this. Then they advised on the process to nominate an employee representative.
Once this representative had been appointed, our consultant undertook a detailed investigation starting with a grievance hearing, followed by interviews with relevant witnesses from the organisation. Finally, they prepared a detailed report, with findings, and recommendations, to enable the appointed Board member to make an informed decision on an outcome to be delivered to the employees who had raised the collective grievance.
Conclusion
Our client was highly satisfied with the dedicated support and advice provided by our consultant. We supported our client in successfully resolving the collective grievance, allowing the Leadership Team and Board to move forward. As a result, the charity continues to support the community and has successfully implemented the organisational changes they initially planned.
We were further able to support the organisation, by preparing a separate report of key findings to the Board, to enable strategic decision making and provide challenge to internal processes and determine more effective ways of working.
If you are concerned about tensions between colleagues, we recommend that you consider addressing the issue through mediation before it escalates and potentially results in a grievance. We invite you to review our case study on successful mediation conducted for another client.
If you need support managing a grievance, please Get in touch.
We can also help you prevent conflict at work by partnering with you to augment employee voice, employee engagement, and enable effective 2-way communication between Senior Leadership and employees though line manager training.
We’d love to help. Letstalk@albanyhr.com, 0131 364 4186.
