It should be treated as far as possible that there are no work complaints within a company. But if they do occur, a solution must be sought that benefits both the affected party and the company
If something bothers us, causes us pain or attacks us, the most common thing is that we complain. If we suffer an accident, we regret what happened, or if we enter a commercial establishment and we are very poorly attended, we raise a protest about what happened. These examples serve as a preamble to develop a topic that should not be left aside in the study of human resources: employee complaints.
In a company, there must always be a good treatment towards the workers. If at any time there is a problem in which an employee is unfairly harmed, he can file a complaint which we will understand as any factor referring to working conditions, wages, hours, etc., that is used to accuse a business.
Many times we hear from someone who is bored at work because the conditions are not the best, the treatment of their bosses is not correct or the clauses of the signed employment contract are not respected; or someone who was removed from the company without just cause. Those people therefore carry out a grievance procedure where management and the company union (if any) determine whether the employment contract was violated.
As is normal, there are some complaints that do not merit being reported, either because some terms were misinterpreted or a problem was overstated. Those that are justified must follow a procedure whose first step is to take the complaint to the supervisor of the department where the affected person works. Subsequently, a response to the complaint raised must be awaited
If the answer satisfies the "attacked" person, the problem ends, otherwise the decision is appealed to the immediate boss of the supervisor who gave the answer. If there is still no solution, the procedure is taken to the general manager and he will determine the faults that may have been committed and restore order.
It is important to clarify that most complaints end in the first or second step and there are very few that have to go through the general manager and much less those that must be taken to external arbitration (judicial courts), where they have to involving representatives of both the employee who filed the complaint and the company that is being accused of the abuse.
It is not good for a problem to get bigger. For this reason, complaints should be remedied in a good way before the supervisor of the department where they originated.
Likewise, there are rules for handling complaints. As a first measure, an adequate work environment must be developed where problems are avoided and some causes of dissatisfaction that may arise at a certain time are recognized, diagnosed and corrected, before they become true factors that warrant a complaint as such.
Second, a manager must follow guidelines that will keep problems from getting bigger and out of hand. You must accept each formal complaint as if it were going to reach an external arbitration, investigating and managing causes and consequences in detail and you must speak with the abused employee, allowing him a reasonable time so that he can express himself in the best way possible.
You must also demand that you be shown those points where the employment contract was violated; visit the job site where the problem originated; determine if there were witnesses and hear their version; examine the history of the complainant; review in detail the previous complaints; conduct the discussions that arise, in private and report everything that happened to your immediate superior.
All of the above are characteristics that a good manager must meet and should not fall into the trap of making inconsistent arrangements with the employee, ignoring the mistake that may have been made, not respecting the clauses of the employment contract or negotiating around items not covered by this. These features should never be present, as existing rules are being violated and many more problems are created.
To avoid the proliferation of complaints, there must be discipline, commitment and good treatment of all workers towards their co-workers. Let us remember that a good business environment will make work better and achieve the objectives of an organization faster and more efficiently.
