Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association

Employers have access to more information about their workplace and their employees than ever before. An expanding suite of software, apps, and AI-powered tools allow employers to track and analyse any metric they desire. However, data that illuminates can also obscure if the employers don’t understand the employees behind the numbers. It is essential that employers go beyond the objective data and consider the subjective views of their employees, especially when it comes to preventing workplace conflict.

Workplace conflict seldom occurs without warning, though it may appear that way because the warnings are missed. Tension between employees and managers, disagreements among peers, or feelings of disrespect or unfairness, can subsist unobserved and overlooked until they manifest in incidents that can’t be ignored. Employers should periodically ask their employees about their workplace to catch these conflict catalysts before it is too late. As an aside, if you’ve reached the point of calling in the lawyers, its already too late. Areas of inquiry can be tailored to the workplace and industry, but the following categories are often insightful:

• Workplace Environment: Ask employees to describe their work environment in general. While a broad scope can result in a multitude of answers, often patterns will emerge, with employees sometimes even unknowingly using the same words to describe their workplace. Furthermore, a general query will lead employees to raise those issues which they feel are most pressing.
• Communication: Poor communication stymies productivity and promulgates conflict. This category can survey communication in a variety of forms, including management to employees, peer to peer, or between divisions or groups within a company. This is also an opportunity to discern whether messaging is failing because of its content, because of how its being communicated, or because it simply isn’t reaching its audience.
• Training and Support: Shortcomings in training will be reflected in performance. They can also create resentment from employees who feel they are given goals that they aren’t equipped to achieve. Ask employees about the quality of their training to identify opportunities to eliminate the ineffective and to emphasize the essential. Furthermore, proper training can reduce conflict by improving communication and understanding. It can also empower employees to resolve conflicts when they do arise.
• Power Dynamics: Employees’ understanding of power dynamics will often not accord with the org chart. Employees can identify cliques or apparent management favourites who they feel wield disproportionate influence. It is important to remember that conflicts are driven by perception as much they are by reality. Understanding employees’ view of the workplace hierarchy can provide opportunities to address misconceptions.
• Reporting Misconduct: Workplace harassment and discrimination will persist if unreported. There can be several reasons why employees don’t report workplace misconduct, including fear of reprisal. However, misconduct can also go unreported because employees don’t know to whom their supposed to report or because they don’t understand their reporting responsibilities. Employers must be confident that when incidents do occur, they will be escalated and addressed promptly.

These check-ins can take a variety of forms depending on the level of insight desired, from short anonymous surveys to interviews led by third parties. The exact questions will depend on the scope of the check-in and the employer’s goals, but questions should be open-ended, so as not to suggest or discourage answers.

Including participants from all levels of the employment hierarchy provides the most complete view of the workplace. This will identify disconnects between managers and their team members, who will often have very different opinions about the necessity of that weekly huddle. The goal is understanding. With so many tools available to summarize employees’ answers, employers shouldn’t worry about gathering too much information.

Check-ins enhance the utility of employer metrics and the two should inform each other. Employers should monitor their data for signs that a check-in with employees may be necessary. For example, higher than usual employee turnover or sudden drops in performance can indicate a problem deserving closer scrutiny. These exercises can also identify successes, including gestures or initiatives that employers may not even realize that their employees appreciate. Ultimately, what employees believe to be true, is true to them. Therefore, employers must remember that data only shows part of the picture.