We all fall out with our colleagues from time to time but if the situation gets out of hand, Louise Druce examines how HR can help resolve office conflicts and deal with the aftermath.

The odd spat between colleagues is nothing unusual in a busy office, but if it starts to get out of hand, it can have serious repercussion for the company and the rest of its employees. Usually, an informal chat with the line manager can resolve most issues but if it doesn’t, when is it time for HR to step in?

It may sound obvious but it all depends on the situation. For example, if a manager is stepping in to resolve an argument between two colleagues, they can usually deal with it informally. However, if the complaint is more serious and could involve gross misconduct or disciplinary procedures, or if the manager is implicated in the complaint, HR needs to step in from the outset.

Martin Warren, head of employment law at Eversheds, likens it to “dancing on a pin”.

“In an ideal world, if an informal complaint becomes formal you want to have a note of the meeting. However, by having a note about the meeting it can turn an informal meeting into a formal one because you tip the employee over the edge,” he explains. “If HR is there, the message you are sending out is that this is a potentially serious situation.”

The whole truth?

Of course, there are instances where an informal situation can go wrong. The most common mistakes made by managers inexperienced in HR issues, says Joanne Pitts, an employment law consultant at HR advisers Croner, is to view the complaint from the side of the person who is making it and dealing with situations inconsistently.

“What managers and HR need to remember is that there is a duty of care to both people involved, regardless of who raised the complaint and who is being accused,” she says. “You don’t want to suspend people or create stigmas. The complaint needs thorough investigation and if one person is to blame and not the other, then you can take formal action.”

When it comes to consistency, Pitts adds that if two people are having an altercation, for example, both employees also need to be handled in a similar way. “If they are both as bad as each other, both employees need to be disciplined, not just one,” she explains.

On the other hand, it also needs to be made clear to staff that if employees make complaints out of malice or some other hidden agenda, or simply because they enjoy having a good moan, they could find themselves at the end of a disciplinary for falsifying a claim.

“These cases are in the minority but you do see them, especially when an employee knows their performance is under par,” says Warren, pointing out that more unscrupulous employees might put in a claim for bullying or harassment to stall an investigation into their personal performance.

Put it in black and white

If the complaint is serious enough to risk a dismissal, the most crucial thing for employers is to ensure they have set out clear disciplinary and grievance policies, and that the procedures are followed to the letter.

“You need to make sure you’ve followed a fair process and complied with the ‘test of reasonableness’ at tribunal,” says Pitts. “This means you have thoroughly investigated, you have got the notes, you’ve spoken to everybody involved and you’ve looked at all the bad evidence as well as the good evidence that supports the way you want to go forward.

“If there is any risk you are honing in on one particular element and haven’t looked at the whole picture, it could make the action taken against the employee unfair.”

It can also prove costly in more ways than one. “If you haven’t dealt with a grievance or disciplinary procedure, there is danger of a financial uplift of up to 50% of any awards made for not following the statutory process,” Pitts adds.

You can find out more about grievance and disciplinary policies in detail here, but both Pitts and Warren agree it is vital they are kept updated, all changes are communicated to all staff and that the policies can be easily accessed by all employees at any time.

One area of contention that has had the Croner hotline buzzing recently is social networking, namely employees indiscreetly slagging off employers or colleagues in blogs or on sites such as Facebook. Pitts says if social networking tools are important to the business, it needs to be made clear in the internet or IT policy what is deemed ‘acceptable use’ and that if any confidential information is posted, or they make derogatory remarks about the company or a member of staff who is easily identifiable as working for the company, it could become a disciplinary issue – even if they’re doing it in their own time.

Warren compares the situation to occasions when staff get drunk at office parties away from the premises and start spouting off about work to clients. “The broad legal proposition is that the employer has to show a logical link between what the company does out of work, whether it’s blogging or partying, and how that impacts the employer’s business or reputation,” he explains. “If blogging was linked to the workplace and extreme enough to undermine the reputation of the business, the employer could say that effects the business.”

After care

When it comes to policies overall, however, Pitts warns that it’s not enough to simply tell a manager about a policy if they could potentially have to use a disciplinary or grievance procedure. Managers should also be trained to back it up and understand how it should work

Then there is the aftermath. If a company has been forced to take disciplinary action, it doesn’t necessarily end when action has been taken. HR also needs to be on hand to bring the employee(s) back into the fold. “You need to mediate with them and have some sort of conciliation meeting to get employee relations back on track,” she adds.

“It can be quite easy as a manager to focus on targets and business goals and forget the personnel element, which can cause problems with employee relations. HR can provide a really important balance to operational motivations and backing that up with the employee relations side as well.”