Industrial Relations / HR Issues

Turning around a Customer Complaint

A growing number of government departments are approaching Workplace Conferencing over customer complaint facilitation.

The concept of case conferences are quite common in social work or health situations, with all the professionals involved getting together to discuss the issues. Workplace Conferencing has been approached in several instances recently, by departments that want to address a backlog of customer issues.

Fiona Landon, principal of Workplace Conferencing, says: “The use of Workplace Conferencing is a useful tool for organizations. Managers can use our process when responding to complaints that have been notified to frontline staff.

She said organizations that don’t use this process need to follow restrictive departmental complaints procedure protocols, which often involves lengthy one-on-one meetings with the client.

“The use of an independent body to deal with pre conference issues, before bringing parties together to look for ways forward, is a very time and cost-effective approach. It doesn't use the typical adversarial approach, so the organisation is enhancing its corporate reputation at the same time.”

She said workplace conferencing is a useful tool for organizations to use in responding to complaints that would need to follow complaints procedure protocols.

The types of organizations that could utilize this process are professional bodies and organizations that provide services to clients such as government agencies, mental health providers, community organizations, health service providers.

Fiona says that the process is particularly useful for dealing with stress and issues those customers or staff might have, often caused by the nature of their work, or by interactions with other government departments, customers and staff.

Stress problems are an increasing consequence of the limitations of government agencies and their resources. Clients feel frustrated and angry, which in turn causes many social problems. Some clients call on counselling agencies to deal with their feelings, while others go to the government agency to complain.

Miles Briggs, a counselor with Home & Family Society, says a growing number of clients require counseling over the powerlessness and stress caused by dealing with some of the larger government departments.

On the other hand, Fiona reports a very high level of satisfaction over outcomes for those using RJ processes - 75% of those who have participated. Participants have expressed a sense of satisfaction with the outcomes, healing and closure on tough emotional issues...

The types of organizations that could utilize this process are professional bodies and organizations that provide services to clients. These could be anything from government agencies, mental health providers and community organizations through to health service providers.

Corporate Bullying: A Way Forward

A brief business leadership thought from Workplace Conferencing
Based on recent business experience.

Several HR stories recently have talked about bosses who bully. The articles show how the manager isn’t an effective leader for their team, as they tend to use negative reinforcement and demanding behaviour to get their desired results.

Such bosses often use their position, or their management title, to hold back talented employees. They do this for various reasons, perhaps because they are insecure and feel their employees might threaten the boss’s position.

People who attempt to power over others often do so because they feel powerless within themselves. Their behaviour is one way that they attempt to feel powerful and in control.

Workers who confront the behaviour publicly are often spared the bullying, whereas those who put up with it and keep quiet are often victimized by the behaviour.

The outcomes of the bully’s behaviour are varied, but can include confrontations behind closed doors, ill-founded accusations (talking behind their back) and seeding their upper level managers with stories of just how bad the employee’s performance is.

This behaviour often interferes with internal communication channels, with the bully manager trying to control the flow of information between those below and those above them in the corporate structure.

Work places that put up with bullying behaviour are often described as being dysfunctional and unhealthy. In a way, it’s a sick workplace syndrome.

A company with dysfunctional culture is can’t perform at its best. In fact a company that harbours a bullying boss will most likely be running well below its potential. Bullying is less likely to survive in a culture of good senior leadership.

While there’s been lots of coverage of victimized employees and their views, little constructive solutions have been proposed.

Workplace Conferencing is well placed to assist organizations to confront bullying behaviours and cultures. The process allows the victimized employee voice to be heard and assist them to heal and move on from the experience. Outcomes include setting boundaries in place that enable continuing behaviour to be confronted,

The behaviours are identified, the effects acknowledged and a strategy is set in place to weed out any employees who aren’t willing to change their behaviour.

Recent media stories have given the employees’ view. Understandably it is the employee who appears to be the victim not the boss. It would be helpful if we could encourage conversations processes to deal with bullying in our work places.

We need to look at the problem from every angle, not just from the employee or the manager’s viewpoint. Through an independent assessment by Workplace Conferencing, an organisation is able to embark on a positive strategy for dealing with issues that would normally be swept under the carpet.

Fiona observes: “The workplace conferencing process allows people to confront issues once the situation has been analysed. This is better than just considering the ‘victim’ employee’s viewpoint
or the ‘ogre’ boss’s ideas. Once an independent person has interviewed staff to get the bigger picture, the organisation is then well placed to start to deal with the issues. It is able to take a balanced view on the scenario, based on facts. Most staff have observed or been affected by the bullying behaviour, either directly or indirectly, so it’s good to widen the circle of knowledge. This helps all feel part of the positive solution that is negotiated, and it confronts and exposes issues that might otherwise be overlooked.”

For more information on how a workplace conference could help your organisation, call us on
09 299 6108 or mob 0274 376 995


Military Justice uses Restorative Components

A recent article in the Te Ara Whakatika newsletter (outlining developments in the court-referred restorative justice pilot project) featured an article on expressions of interest by NZ Armed Forces in the application of Restorative Justice.

The NZ Defence Force military justice review project officer Lieutenant Commander Chris Griggs has written a paper on the issue which included new restorative components of the Victim Rights Act and its impact on the military justice system. He mentioned in this article that RJ might be more relevant to the armed forces due to the high likelihood that you know the person who has offended and might serve with them.

This important consideration is relevant in other workplace situations where issues of conflict are not dealt with. Ongoing close working relationships can fester and create a range of problems for employers such as increased absenteeism, malfunctioning teams, increased risk of stress related disorders and absences, increased down time wasted on harmful and destructive gossip.