5 Most Common Employee Relations Issues & How to Handle Them

Maintaining good employee relations is key to the ultimate success of your organisation

If you are a business owner or HR manager, you know that maintaining good employee relations is important to the success of your company. However, you probably also know from firsthand experience that there are many issues that can come up in the workplace. These issues can easily snowball into much larger problems.

Every business owner wants to have a safe and secure workplace that encourages communication and has a supportive culture. When you know what common issues are, you can have a plan. That plan is the key to maintaining a happy workplace that runs efficiently.

Top 5 Common Employee Relations Issues

Common employee relations issues crop up again and again. This holds true for small and large businesses alike. The following five issues are not the only ones you will see and you will likely deal with others. These are the most common and a few tips on how to manage them.

Conflict Management

Conflict can happen in any environment, and the workplace is certainly no different. Disputes between employees or a direct disagreement between an employee and business owner are situations that can occur frequently. An effective way of managing conflict is vital to the continued health of your company.

One of the biggest issues is how the two parties talk to each other, or whether they talk at all. If there is not an easy way for the two parties to communicate and have their issues heard, the conflict can turn into something much worse. This can result in poor company morale or the termination of a team member.

Consider using a system that allows for consistent, efficient communication between team members and insist that this is the way they must communicate if a conflict arises. When you make this a policy, you can avoid gossip and misunderstandings. You can also ensure that employees always feel that their issues are heard.

Hour and Wage Issues

Do you find that issues often crop up around payday? Do employees tend to dispute the number of hours they worked or insist on overtime that you don’t think is accurate? Do you or your HR time find that you have to go over time sheets or attendance records to check details?

To avoid federal wage and hour violations and to reduce the possibility that employees will dispute their paychecks, consider self-service timekeeping software that allows them to clock in and out from their smart devices. This encourages employees to keep track of and manage their own schedules by providing an efficient way to do so. It can also help with scheduling to prevent unnecessary overtime or to make sure the employees in the right pay grade perform the correct jobs.

Adequate Safety in the Workplace

It’s every business owner’s worst nightmare to have an injury or accident happen to one of their employees while they are on the job. Promoting safety in the workplace should be a top priority of every business owner. This should be true no matter what industry they are in. This includes making sure all proper safety equipment is used and that the right security measures are put in place.

A good policy should also ensure that employees are not overly fatigued due to too many overtime shifts. Having software to track schedules can help HR managers ensure that employees have plenty of rest time. This helps reduce over-scheduling to the point of creating an unsafe work environment.

Annual Leave Disputes

Do your employees know that the company’s leave policy is? Are you sure your policy is in accordance with state and federal laws? If your answer is no to either of these questions and you are not currently using leave management software, you could open the door to annual leave disputes.

Consider leave management software that helps you create a legal and transparent leave policy that leaves no room for dispute. Provide every employee with easy access to this policy. This type of software can also help your employees talk with HR managers about leave requests and adjustments.

Timekeeping and Attendance Issues

Do you require your employees to come into the home office and clock in or out every day? Do you find that many of them become lax on the issue, or that they have their co-workers ‘buddy punch’ them in when they’re running late?

Timekeeping and attendance issues are common, and you can eliminate many of them by utilizing employee self-service software. Allowing employees to keep track of their time and communicate about attendance issues right from their smart devices reduces the chances for conflict and provides them a handy benefit.

Having an effective employee relations plan in place will help you in numerous ways. You can avoid federal wage and hour violations, promote safety in the workplace, assist with schedule management, and give team members an easy way to communicate. This is an excellent way to ensure you promote an efficient and engaging work environment for your employees.