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Anytime people interact closely, there’s going to be conflict. Not everyone will see eye-to-eye on everything, and sometimes that can impede your business and hurt your company culture. While no one wants to have to get involved with conflict, avoiding it can be costly. In fact, US businesses lose $359 billion a year due to unresolved conflict.
Read on to learn more about how conflict can occur at your company and 5 conflict resolution strategies to help you create a great company culture and make your organization somewhere people want to work.
What Is Conflict Resolution?
Conflict resolution is addressing and resolving disputes with the goal of finding mutually acceptable solutions. Doing so can improve your team cohesion, reduce workplace stress, and encourage a respectful work environment. Typically, an HR department will handle conflict resolution—while a leadership team can step in when necessary.
Examples of employee conflicts
These are a couple of the conflicts that might pop up at your company:
- Personality clashes: For example, two employees could have conflicting work styles where one is highly detail-oriented and the other prefers a big picture approach. If it leads to misunderstandings and frustration, that can be a problem.
- Harassment or bullying allegations: If an employee feels they are being targeted or bullied by a coworker, that could signal a problem with conflict. This harassment could come in the form of someone repeatedly making inappropriate jokes that make another employee uncomfortable.
- Perceived unfairness: One employee believes they are carrying a heavier workload than others and complains about unfair treatment. Whether or not this is true, the situation could lead to conflict.
What Are the 5 Conflict Resolution Strategies?
To learn how to resolve employee conflict, these are 5 strategies an HR professional can use.
Communication
The first way to work through conflicts with your employees is to prioritize communication and gather as much information as you can. These are some tips that can help you communicate effectively with your employees to understand both sides of the story:
- Intervene quickly. Don’t let conflict fester and escalate into something worse. Start by jumping in as soon as you learn about the situation and begin talking with the employees and gathering information.
- Listen carefully. Give everyone a chance to tell their story before you make up your mind on the situation. Consider taking notes to make sure that you’re paying close attention to what everyone says.
- Encourage open, respectful dialogue. As you speak about the situation, model open and respectful conversation. Speaking respectfully about other employees can help encourage people to speak openly and help you maintain relationships with employees.
- Remain objective. Try not to get emotionally involved and to gather all of the information before making a decision.
Collaboration
As you work through the conflict, approach resolving conflict as a collaborative effort. Instead of viewing it as two people against each other with HR in the middle, remind the employees that you’re all on the same team. You might do this by addressing everyone’s concerns and showing that you have a deep understanding of their perspectives. This kind of discussion can help you find the root cause of concern.
To help everyone view themselves as teammates, find common ground, no matter how small. That can then help your employees better understand each other and help all of you work toward a mutually beneficial solution.
Compromise
For many situations, you’ll need to compromise to find a solution. In some cases, there are cut and dry answers—like with sexual harassment or discrimination. However, with personality clashes, misunderstandings, or differing viewpoints, you’ll work with the employees to find middle ground and some kind of solution that satisfies multiple parties. To do this, consider having a meeting with all of the parties involved and mediate. Let them propose some solutions as well and give everyone time to speak and be heard.
Clarity
Once you work out a solution with the people involved, help everyone stay on the same page. Define roles and responsibilities going forward. Consider writing up a document with all of the information on it and sending it to everyone involved, so it’s always available for reference.
Consistency
Afterwards, follow up and monitor how the situation is resolving. When necessary, apply rules and policies as necessary. For example, if the issue involves something against company policy, enforce consequences consistently.
In addition, determine what will be done if conflict is not resolved. That might involve another meeting or further action.
Real World Applications of the 5C Principles
To help illustrate how the 5C principles work, consider these two hypothetical applications:
Conflict 1: Miscommunication Leading to Tension
Situation: Emma and David work on the same project team, but their communication styles differ. Emma prefers detailed emails with step-by-step instructions, while David prefers quick, informal Slack messages. One day, Emma sends a long email outlining the project timeline, but David skims through it and misses an important deadline. Emma gets frustrated and accuses David of being careless, while David believes Emma is overcomplicating things.
HR intervenes and facilitates a conversation where both can express their concerns. To resolve the issue, they agree on a compromise where Emma will provide key takeaways and David will make an effort to read messages more thoroughly—with a 15 minute check-in each week.
Conflict 2: Unequal Workload Distribution
Situation: Sophia and Mark work in the same department. Sophia feels that she is doing most of the heavy lifting on a shared project, while Mark takes longer breaks and contributes less. Over time, Sophia becomes resentful and starts avoiding working with Mark. The tension escalates when Sophia confronts Mark in a team meeting, leading to a heated exchange.
The HR team steps in and arranges a private meeting with both employees. During the discussion, Mark explains that he has been struggling with personal issues, which have affected his focus and performance. Sophia learns about this and agrees to be more understanding. Mark agrees to communicate if he needs additional support. They’ll use a project management tool to maintain clarity.
How Does HR Play a Role in Conflict Resolution?
If you work in HR or are looking for HR support from CPS HR, this is the role you can expect them to play in conflict resolution:
- Act as mediator
- Enforce policy
- Implement employee conflict resolution training
- Act as a support system
- Offer counseling resources or employee assistance programs (EAPs)
- Play a preventive role and establish expectations