Startup employee retention: Preventing & Resolving Disputes

While many companies struggle with resolving disputes between management teams and employees or between employees and their colleagues, disputes within expansion stage companies are even more magnified. I came across an article on Workforce.com today which offers some great insights to help managers keep their teams working together effectively. These positive changes will also result in employee retention.

Tips for Managers to Prevent and Resolve Disputes:

• Explain why. If you are asking your employees to perform an action, explain why, and if you can’t, you should not ask them to complete the task in the first place. This line of thinking forces managers to think, plan, and communicate more effectively.
• Show that you care. Create a more trusting and respectful environment in your office by showing your employees you care about their success and professional development.
• Listen before you speak. If employees are involved in a dispute, ask them what they think, ask follow-up questions, and listen carefully for truths or inconsistencies within their answers. Once you find the answers that work, thank and praise those who participated in the dialogue.
• Say what you mean and mean what you say. Companies need to stand for accuracy, honesty, openness, and transparency. This raises the bar on the management team’s behaviors and employee’s expectations, and ultimately it changes everyone’s behavior. If employees believe that everyone around them is acting honestly, trust will grow, and people who trust one another have fewer disputes.
• Be fair. If you are trying to resolve a dispute, listen and assess the relative value of things and seek to find consensus, and your employees will be more willing and open to discuss the issues and consider the options for resolution.
• Engage and encourage people to come up with their own solutions. If your employees can come up with ways to improve communications, decision-making and interactions, you will face fewer disputes requiring your input. Try to start this dialogue during the interview stage, continue during an employee’s onboarding, and provide classes for managers and employees. The better your managers are at facilitating open communication, the better your company will run.
• Promote this: “You have the right to disagree, but you should never be disagreeable”. Companies that promote this concept have provided safety valves to release the pressure of pent-up concerns and confusion. If people have the chance to voice their concerns, listen to others and their views, and to process both sides of an issue, they may be more accepting of decisions that are made. Once a decision is made, everyone should be encouraged to support it.

Everything is centered on communication and trust when it comes to preventing and resolving disputes. If a manager creates an environment where open and honest communication is encouraged, disputes will likely become less frequent.