Conflict in the workplace and staff retention

NB Lawyers is seeing a general upward trend of employee resignations due to workplace conflict.NB Lawyers provides practical workplace relations and employment law legal advice to Employers.

NB Lawyers Special Counsel, Jonathan Mamaril says that the trend can be mostly attributed to three issues:

Inadequate policies and procedures being implemented and enforced;
Ineffective training on appropriate conduct in the workplace such as Workplace bullying and Sexual Harassment; and
Inability to manage expectations of employees.

“It is becoming increasingly obvious that as growth and profitability occurs, the internal structures dealing with standards, conditions and expectations are left behind.”

“Inevitability this will lead to resignations, unfair dismissal complaints and workplace bullying complaints which may lead to protracted litigation let alone the negative publicity that would predictably follow.” Mr Mamaril said.

Mr Mamaril says that a practical solution is to engage employees in appropriate conduct training and implement policies to reinforce this, whether that is in relation to Workplace Bullying, Sexual Harassment or Discrimination. However, this needs to be tailored to the particular business or the organisation.

“The focus on tensions in the workplace will differ depending on the industry and workplace culture, sometimes more training will be required in relation to appropriate language in Manufacturing and possibly gossip or backbiting in the Office environment.” Mr Mamaril concluded.

Written by
Jonathan Mamaril
Principal & Director, NB Lawyers – Employment Lawyers
07 3876 5111
[email protected]