0. Leadership Toolkit: How to Handle Conflict in the Workplace
WEBINAR
Leadership Toolkit: How to Handle Conflict in the Workplace
May 2017

1. INTRODUCTION Welcome to Leadership Toolkit.
My name is Dianna C. Hunter, SHRM-CP, PHR, and I am the Director of Human Resources for a global Law Firm, Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP. My primary job responsibilities are to strategically manage all personnel with respect to employee relations, benefits, payroll and workforce planning, to name a few. Today I will be discussing How to Handle Conflict.
Today we will review different subject matters that frequently occur in the workplace. I am also providing real life scenarios with solutions from an HR perspective.

2. Conflict in the Workplace
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Excellent Employee has tardy and excessive unplanned absences – How to create a first step dialogue to resolve
Supervisor treats an employee differently (unfairly) than other employees.
Peer to peer conflict: Two secretaries just do not get along, due to personality conflicts, not performance.

3. Scenario 1
Excellent Employee has tardy and excessive unplanned absences – How to create a first step dialogue to resolve
Run metrics based off of timesheets – Perception is not always a reality
Schedule a meeting, based off of your fact findings
Remind the employee of how valuable they are to the organization
Start by asking questions:
Has anything changed in their personal life, commuting issues, family responsibilities?
Listen.
Provide recommendations for EAP (when personal or medical concerns come up)
If these come up, the next step will be to ask the employee if they will need an accommodation or suggest changing their schedules, to accommodate whatever is necessary, only if appropriate for the business
Remember to bring up the business reasons of needing them in the office at a certain time, (i.e., the team needs you to complete projects in a timely manner, no one else covers that shift, etc.)
Always remember to be empathetic, it will go a long way.
Always document your conversation for the employee’s personnel file. I always recommend having another HR member sit in as a witness and to help with documentation.

4. Scenario 2
Supervisor treats an employee differently (unfairly) than others employees.
Employee brings to your attention that his Supervisor treats him unfairly.
Listen, document, investigate (reminding the employee that you will have to investigate to resolve, while protecting their confidentiality)
Follow up with the Supervisor, if ok.
Listen, Share with the Supervisor your concerns (based off of what the employee was feeling)
Sometimes Supervisors are unaware of unconscious biases and if this is the case, it is our job to make them aware of it. This may also be a good opportunity to offer Supervisory training.
The Supervisors manager should also be brought into the loop and should follow up with the Supervisor and HR should check in and make sure all is fair in the department.

5. Scenario 3
Peer to peer conflict: Two secretaries just do not get along, due to personality conflicts, not performance.
Sally states that she works very hard and notices that Suzie down the hall takes multiple smoke breaks and leaves early every day, which results in Sally getting multiple overflow work.
Run metrics based off of timesheets – Perception is not always a reality
Schedule a meeting based off of your fact findings with Suzie’s Supervisors
Breaks may be an issue, how is this impacting your (Supervisors) work?
When Suzie leaves early, are you approving and then if something come up, who are you going to? May want to reconsider approving multiple early departures if not for specific medical appointments, as everyone covers as a team.
Schedule a meeting with Suzie, after discussion with Supervisors
Remind her of scheduled work hours
Talk to her about perception with her absence away from the desk
Make suggestions of reaching out to team before departures and getting HR’s approval, prior to making a request to Supervisors
Remind Suzie of the negative impact on the team and the organization when she has unplanned departures
Follow up with Sally to remind her to stay within her painted lines as perception is not always a true reality. But encourage Sally, that things will start to change, as Suzie will be reaching out more to help out the team. Remind Sally to always stay focused and to be in touch with HR if this persists.

6. Takeaways: Always keep things professional
Do not discuss politics, or religion
Do not go out drinking frequently with your staff
As supervisors, you cannot discuss information regarding another employee, keep things confidential
Lead by example
Always remember to be consistent, that drives fairness across the organization and will help to gain the respect you will need to be successful

7. Takeaways: Partnering more with HR:
Always remember HR is a resource to help personnel to respond to an
Get talking points or to assist with coaching an employee to be more engaged
We have more information than you think and we typically hear everything first.
Finally, celebrate successes amongst your team!

8. When to involve HR Any discussion or accusation of:
Harassment in any form
Someone out sick for a major illness or out sick for more than 3 days
Being treated unfairly or differently
Discrimination in Age, Race, etc.
Create (Anti-Harassment, Diversity) Policies that outline and protect your organization to cover all accusations.
Create a list of who to contact when this occurs. Always HR, however, also include other high level members of the Organization (CIO, CEO, General Counsel).

9. Conclusion
Thank you everyone for listening to my presentation on How to Handle Conflict. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at
I also want to encourage all of you to listen to the other recordings in the Toolkit as they are extremely informative!

10. Have questions? )