No-one wants bullying in their workplace.
Most of us would have worked with someone at some stage in our career who would be classified as a bully. We all know how destructive and demoralising bullying can be.
It is right to take bullying seriously and take a firm line with it at work.
But what about when that line gets blurred?
Over the past several years we have seen a marked increase in workplace bullying complaints.
In many of the cases, after a thorough investigation, the threshold for bullying has NOT been reached.
There may have been a frustrated comment, some relationship issues or a misunderstanding. All of which could have been solved in a quicker, more effective manner than lodging a complaint.
So how do you get this right? How do you make sure you encourage your team to come forward when bullying is occurring without encouraging complaints for every little comment they don’t like coming their way?
Education and prevention are key!
- Education annually
Most businesses will have a bullying and harassment policy in place, which is a great starting point. But does that mean your team actually read and understand it?
Do they know the difference between bullying and the legitimate managing of performance? Or bullying and a one-off frustrated vent?
Once someone formally raises a concern as bullying you do have to investigate. This is usually very time consuming, costly and can result in counter complaints if the original complaint isn’t upheld. It can get messy.
Holding annual training sessions around bullying and harassment can result in people correcting their own behaviour and it can also help your team to understand what bullying is, and equally important, what bullying isn’t.
- Bullying Complaint checklist
Having a checklist your team can use to make a formal complaint also helps them to process what it is that is worrying them and reflect on it as part of the complaint process.
Answering questions like: “the behaviour is repeated because…” or “the behaviour is endangering my health and safety because…” can help your team to understand if bullying has occurred or not. It also helps you to triage any complaints you do receive, as some behaviours may not align with your values or breach your code of conduct, but do not reach the threshold of bullying.
This helps provide you with a proper understanding of exactly what you are dealing with and approach it accordingly.
- Mediation skills
Using education to empower your team with the skills to solve their own relationship problems at work is helpful to catch things before they escalate too far.
Utilising a clear feedback model that focuses on the behaviour or action, the impact it has had and the change they would like to see can keep the conversations constructive, stop them from becoming too personal and solve problems early.
Encouraging your team to listen and take feedback on board is equally important.
In 90% of workplace relationship issues, team members don’t want to make someone else feel bad, they are just not aware of the negative impact their behaviour is having. If you arm your team with the skills to manage these situations themselves it makes for a happier, more connected team.
In any workplace conflict will arise. Different personalities, values, experiences and stress levels converge.
Managing through this can be challenging, so education and early intervention is key!
Positive People have over 30 years’ experience helping manage workplace conflict and bullying and educating teams. Call us now on 0800 00 00 49 or email us at info@positivepeople.co.nz to help you successfully navigate bullying complaints.