Conflict at work costs employers 450 days management time every year

Managing conflict at work, including disciplinary and grievance cases and preparing for employment tribunals, costs the average employer nearly 450 days of management time every year ñ equivalent to the time of two managers full time. These are the findings of new research by people management experts the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Survey responses were received from nearly 1,200 employers working in organisations employing a combined total of nearly 4 million employees.

The figure of 447.9 days of management time does not take into account the significant associated costs of mismanaged conflict at work, including lost productivity, sickness absence and higher than expected turnover of employees.

The survey is published on the eve of new Dispute Resolution Regulations that will mean that all employers and employees must follow a minimum three-step disciplinary and grievance procedure in the event of a workplace dispute.

The research reveals that employers are optimistic that the new regulations, which come into force tomorrow (1 October), will help reduce the burden on the employment tribunal system.

40% of respondents believe the new regulations will reduce the number of employment tribunals.

However, employers are fairly evenly split on whether the new regulations will make tribunal hearings more (13%) or less (15%) complex.

Imogen Haslam, CIPD professional adviser and co-author of the report, said: ìConflict costs employers hundreds of hours of management time each year. It is encouraging that employers think the new regulations will cut the number of employment tribunals. However, our survey shows that employers need to invest more in resolving disputes at the earliest possible stage before they can escalate and become subject to formal disciplinary and grievance procedures.î

The survey shows that employers need to improve the way that they manage conflict in the workplace and reveals the huge extra workload for management created by such disputes.

Employers report a net 5% increase in employment applications in the last 12 months, meaning each employer has had to handle an average of three tribunal applications over the past year.

Employers have to manage on average 30 formal disciplinary cases a year and nine grievance cases.

Respondents report that disciplinary and grievance cases take up 10.5 days in management, HR staff and in-house lawyers time per case.

Preparing for a tribunal hearing takes up 12.8 days in human resource, line management and in-house lawyers time.

ìToo many employers are still relying on HR to manage conflict at work. To make a real difference, these workplace problems must be nipped in the bud before they have to be dealt with using formal procedures. That means involving line managers much more. Training in conflict management and mediation is essential if line managers are to become more competent and confident in managing conflict. Only then will the waste of management time be reduced and more harmonious, more productive relationships at work develop,î says Haslam.

The survey also reveals a lack of skills among line managers in resolving disputes as well as a lack of training and an over reliance on HR departments.

More than half of respondents rate their line managers as average in the key area of resolving workplace disputes informally.

Only 62% train any employees in conflict management skills and nearly a third amongst these do not train their line managers.

Training in mediation skills is only carried out by one quarter of employees, with HR managers significantly more likely to be trained than their line management colleagues.

Those employers that provide mediation training for staff are likely to have significantly less disciplinary cases, averaging 22 cases per year compared to 49 cases per year among organisations that donít provide such training.

More than 60% of employers have increased the extent to which they use their HR departments to manage individual employment disputes.