Are you aware of the three basic principles around grievances in the workplace?

You must be able to address breaches of rules and standards when they occur to ensure fairness in your workplace. It's also essential to allow employees to raise issues when they arise. This ensures employees feel they have a voice and can talk freely about things that make them unhappy enough that it affects their work.

But to this efficiently, you must have a thorough understanding around grievances.

Here are the three basic principles around grievances:

#1: Resolve grievances as close to the source of the problem as possible. In addition, focus on the parties' interests and needs – what do they really want to see happen as the outcome from the grievance?

#2: Deal with grievances as quickly as possible. Your company must develop a culture of quick resolution within the stipulated deadlines.

#3: 'Have clear guidelines on how grievances should be dealt with. Managers must know how to conduct a grievance procedure so they can deal with grievances properly,' says the Practical Guide to Human Resources Management.

Underlying all of these principles is knowledge and communication.

All your employees must know that there's a grievance procedure and how to use it. It's crucial that managers are also clear on what to do when a grievance is lodged.

Understanding the basic principles around grievances will ensure you deal with grievances swiftly before they affect your bottom line.