Dealing with Grievances in a Social World

I’m Alan Wild … Welcome to the Wild side podcast Managing international employee relations in modern times … 10 minutes at a time.

As promised, we’re going to move away from “old school” labor relations with the first of two episodes dealing with the impact of social networks on employee relations.  The first deals with individual employee grievances that escape the confines of the grievance procedure and explode outside the company. The second looks at collective action organized on social networks.  In splitting the topic in this way it’s important to note the way unresolved individual issues develop.  Many collective issues start with an individual problem … that problem gains traction with either or both of internal or external audiences … and escalates internally into a collective dispute or externally on social media in viral fashion.   Sometimes the person who originates the original complaint, post or video did not intend to raise a formal grievance or for the issue to cause the damage that it eventually did … we’ve called these individuals “unintended activists”.

More of that in a moment …   … as you know, I’m Alan Wild, senior adviser on global employee relations for the HR Policy association … the leading voice of CHROs today.

With the advent of online shopping and ratings sites like open table, sophisticated social network driven feedback processes have emerged. Who has not taken the occasional look at Glassdoor. People have got used to very different ways of exercising “voice”. … positive and negative. Of course, the on-line retail model is built on encouraging people to speak out publicly and in large numbers … and people have taken to it in a big way.  We have become obsessed with star ratings and net promoter scores. Most people would never use a restaurant or hotel without checking out its reviews.

 In contrast, take a look at your current grievance procedure … did you put it together with the aim of voice maximisation and transparency … I didn’t think so.  In fact, internal grievance procedures exist to keep problems inside the organization, focus on resolution, control escalation and eventually end in courts of law. The nature of social media complaints is that are played out in the public domain, are immediately external and out of control, and are judged in the court of public opinion long before, if ever, they are heard in court.  If we try to nail down “when did this change in a quantifiable way in the workplace” … it may well be  #metoo. 

#Metoo arose out of a particularly high-profile issue that caught a wave – the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment allegations encouraged women to come out on incidents where they had previously not been prepared to take them up inside their company. Individual #metoo posters were joining a movement and deliberately seeking an outcome ... recognition, revenge, change, getting something out of their system … whatever.   Other significant cases have not been similarly organized and their impact not planned. One of the early “unintended activists” was Susan Fowler … I discussed the case in the last podcast.

What this all means is that the internal grievance processes we have relied upon for years have become unfit for purpose today … and their failure has become the source of a new enterprise risk. I’m going to talk about how to fix that toward the end of the podcast.

Two events closer to home got me thinking about this.  The first occurred during a family meal restaurant in Old Greenwich Connecticut … where my son was at High School.  I ordered a bottle of wine, and the waiter served it while my wife and I were having a beer.  I said … “just leave it on the table …we’ll get to it.”   Later as I poured it I could smell that kind of musty “not quite right” odor and I asked my wife what she thought about it.  My 17 year-old son said … “look, stop right there. You’re going to call the waitress, she’s going to fetch the manager … everyone will be looking at us …. and Monday I’ll get to school and my buddies will ask me if my sandwiches are “corked”.  Don’t you see, you’re just humiliating everyone.   … if the wine isn’t right just suck it up and leave a bad review on Open Table.  The manager will phone you, and you’ll get a free meal … that’s how you complain”.   My son is right … no one would dream today of booking a restaurant without looking at its scores, so owners and managers see my complaint as bigger than something easily settled between us on the night.  I was a regular … but the one-time visitor who would retaliate by simply never visiting again can now be as damaging as the most loyal customer. 

The second was in discussion at the outset of the #metoo escalation and my boss asked me why, if she ordered something online from Amazon, within minutes she knew where it was and when it would be delivered.  And yet, If she complained about harassment by her boss it would drop into a black box, she would hear nothing other than a case number for week or months, and when the outcome was delivered it was likely not the product she had ordered.
 
So, if HR people think this matters, it seems they are not alone.   In 2019 the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills asked CEOs in a number of countries what they viewed as their most significant reputational risk … coming third, after cyber security and a global recession … came workforce activism … above supply chain, increasing regulation and the environment.  Today we can all see employee activism and the environment joining forces in a powerful way.

Let’s look more seriously at this.  There are good reasons why our grievance procedures were designed the way they were … in the day.   Benchmarking tells us … with exception of a couple of ahead of the curve companies … grievance procedures closely follow the variety of legal guidelines available and look very much the same. We stick to them because of their predictability … and company control is at the centre of the process.  Just think in modern terms about the language … grievance procedures … the words themselves are pretty loaded …. not feedback but a complaint or a strong feeling that you have been treated unfairly. 
Let’s look at how the typical grievance or complaints process works.
 

• There are defined complaints processes … usually split between anonymous whistleblowing and internal grievances. They often set out what can and what can’t be complained about;
• The process is internal to company and is often confidential;
• The process is based on gradual escalation … see your boss, see your boss’ boss, file a complaint, wait for an answer, appeal … and maybe end in arbitration or court;
• The pace of escalation is controlled by the company;
• The investigation is company directed and solution focused … with opportunity at the various stages to offer and agree solutions;
• The process ends in predefined outcomes … perhaps in a court of law based on fact-based formal hearings at the end of the day;
• There are few surprises … big issues can be spotted early and resolved after consideration.

Socially driven complaints don’t work the same way.  They put the employee in control … at least initially … and the company out of control.  Their key feature is unpredictability.
 

• The employee chooses when, where and how to complain … no restrictions … no time limits;
• The employee also chooses what to complain about … not just employment related but about, for example company products and who those products are sold to;
• The issue is immediately external … through “friends, and “friends of friends” … and anyone tracking your company … for good or bad reason;
• Viral escalation is driven through exponential amplification and picked up by mainstream media who actively source stories on-line;
• The complaint is protest focused and based on “facts” as seen from one side only;
• Judgment is fast and delivered in courts of public opinion … companies have no time investigate, contemplate and make balanced decisions;
• Finally … company reputation is damaged whilst employees often have fun.

Companies can respond by starting to make their dusty and dry procedures look as attractive as the complaints procedures they experience in other parts of their life.  Just how inviting is the front end of your process?  Complaints may never be so transparent as an online order … but companies can certainly find ways to help employees find out where their issue is, and the likely timescales involved. You will want to stick with some kind of process as it shows, maybe in a court, that you dealt with the case seriously.   For this reason as much as any, I don’t think that internal complaints processes will never resemble open table, nor will companies be able to respond to an online complaint at “viral escalation” warp speed. Where competition on speed fails … trust must be the answer.

It reminds me of the story by the late Douglas Adams … author of the “Hitch-Hikers Guide to Galaxy” series of books, radio shows and films.  Adams explains the invention of a spaceship able to travel faster than the speed of light fuelled by bad news … because nothing travels faster than bad news. In the book this has alarming consequences … but you’ll have to read it.

Sure, we can get better … and a lot better … at dealing with formal complaints. Being more reactive to formal complaints is a way to mitigate loss, but it is not a way to get ahead of the game.

Getting ahead means you need to be a better listener and predict where, when and what issues are most likely to come up … and deal with the underlying causes.  How many of us can look at an issue and genuinely say “I didn’t see that coming”.  Here are ten tips on listening and responding fast …
 

1. Use analytics … get your text and sentiment analysis tools working on all of those write in comments in engagement surveys and on public blog posts;
2. Find new ways to listen … take random pulse surveys more frequently and invite comments on policies and programs on your intranet;
3. Look what is trending outside …  someone else’s hot issue may be coming your way;
4. Make the tools you have fast, accessible and trusted … offer a place for employees “just to talk” about a concern before they leap to social networks;
5. Encourage bystanders to let you know if they see something happen to someone else that they didn’t feel comfortable with to let you know;
6. Be open to feedback … it comes from many sources and not just complaints;
7. Report regularly on what’s happening and where … inside and out;
8. Build a system of investigating by walking about in places where issues appear to “spike”;
9. Put together a standing “swat team” .. a senior trusted group with the authority to act quickly if an issue goes viral. Train them on other people’s issues … ask what would we have done?
10. Finally … the best defense to viral negative comment is a strong company reputation.  If people’s first thoughts are “surely not at XXX company” then you are in good shape.

So there we have thoughts on individual complaints and social networks.  Watch out for the next episode dealing with social networks and new style collectivism.  
If you want to learn more about what we do or participate in one of our formal programs you can get me on awild@chro.org or on Linked In.

I’m Alan Wild and you have been listening to “a walk on the wild side”.