Conflict is inevitable in most workplaces. With the pressures of work and different personalities all in one place, disagreements can arise between employees and from customers.
When conflict escalates into workplace violence such as through bullying, harassment or physical violence, both employee and customer safety can be in jeopardy and the risk of harm is significant. This guide examines the health and safety implications of workplace conflict, as well as the conflict management techniques to use for handling violence in the workplace.
Conflict management and workplace violence
When serious conflicts arise and verbal abuse, threats, physical attacks, harassment and bullying occur from colleagues or customers, the risk of serious harm to your employees is significant.
There were 688,000 incidents of violence at work in 2019/20 according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ended March 2020, with 43% of incidents classified as assault. Assaults on employees can cause a wide range of injuries, with the majority of assaults resulting in severe bruising.
An estimated 60% of workplace violence offenders were strangers to the victim, such as a retail customer or passenger on public transport. Among the 40% of incidents where the offender was known, the HSE study Violence At Work Statistics 2020 found that offenders were most likely to be clients or a member of the public known through work.
Workplace harassment and violence can:
- Be psychological, physical or sexual;
- Be between workplace colleagues or members of the public such as clients, customers, students and patients;
- Range from minor cases such as disrespect to criminal offences such as actual bodily harm;
- Range from single, one-off incidents to more sustained, systematic patterns of violent behaviour.
Deploy effective conflict management techniques for your employees with our IOSH Approved Conflict Management online course, including how to spot signs of conflict, risk reduction strategies and how to report incidents.
How to approach conflict management
A safe working environment is essential to an organisation’s success and employers have a legal duty to keep their employees safe. There are several key pieces of legislation that employers must follow in order to create a safe working environment for employees:
- Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – sets out the main legislation for employers to ensure the health and safety of employees and visitors to the workplace, including contractors, freelancers, suppliers and the public.
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – requires employers to assess risks to employees, including from physical violence, and to put in place plans to control or eliminate these risks.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) – requires employers to notify their enforcing authority of any incident of non-consensual physical violence done to a person in the workplace.
- Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and The Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 – requires employers to consult with and inform employees on all relevant health and safety matters.
While there is legislation in place to protect employees, a strategy for handling conflict and violence in the workplace is crucial. There are various techniques for conflict management but whatever approach you take, it is important that you have procedures and conflict management training in place for dealing with incidents.
Employees should be aware that their employer is prepared for managing and dealing with conflicts. For example, where incidents of violence and harassment by third parties are more likely, such as in the transport, retail, health, hospitality and leisure sectors, CCTV for monitoring incidents should be in place.
Conflict management techniques
There many different approaches for dealing with harassment and violence in the workplace, and here are some examples of different conflict management techniques organisations can use to control the risk.
1. Assess the risk
Examine any potential avenues for violence and conflict, identifying how these might occur, and the steps required to minimise, prevent and ultimately control risks. Risks may include situations where employees are working alone or at a client’s premises, or when employees travel to and from their place of work outside normal working hours such as when working overtime.
You should develop a clear action plan based on the risk assessment, and ensure you regularly review the plan and reassess risks. Identify procedures such as increasing security by recording people entering or leaving work premises to prevent unauthorised access to a workplace.
2. Involve employees
Consult with your workforce as part of any risk assessment, and get employees’ views on the actions required to control risk. Employees should feel they have a say in how policies are developed and that managers and business owners are listening to their views and experiences, especially when dealing with third-parties.
3. Create workplace policies
It’s important to write down how your organisation handles violence in the workplace with clearly accessible harassment and violence at work policies. These should be made available to all employees, and you should clearly communicate how these policies will be implemented, monitored and reviewed. Policies should be backed up with clear grievance procedures so that employees can raise concerns. You should set clear expectations as to what constitutes unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.
4. Actively communicate
There’s little point in having appropriate policies in place without employees being aware of them. Actively communicate a zero-tolerance approach to violence in the workplace, such as using public-facing signage detailing the steps your organisation will take if employees are verbally or physically abused at work. Provide employees with details on how to report workplace conflict, the conflict management training and the support available to them to help prevent and deal with the risks of harassment and violence.
5. Provide support
Organisations should actively support their workforce in the event of workplace violence. This includes advice on reporting, recording and investigating incidents, such as using the organisation’s accident and incident reporting system. Support should be extended to helping an employee return to work, including a risk assessment of their working environment. Further support, such as free access for employees to victim support helplines are often deployed in larger organisations.
6. Provide conflict management training
Managers and team leaders should be aware of how to manage conflict among the employees they are responsible for, and employees who have direct contact with customers should know how to handle difficult situations.
A conflict management course will equip employees with the knowledge they need to recognise violence, aggression, harassment and bullying in the workplace and the strategies required to reduce the risk of harm.
Where employees might face abuse or assaults from customers, clients or other third parties, they should be aware of protection strategies and personal safety tactics. A good training course will provide them with these skills.
Positive workplace environments
Strong and effective relationships between employers and their employees are key to managing workplace conflicts. Adopting good conflict management techniques and encouraging a positive working environment where employees know they can openly share any concerns with their manager or team leader will keep incidents of conflict low.
Foster a safer workplace with our IOSH Approved Conflict Management online course, including how to recognise bullying and harassment, and how to use personal safety tactics.
