If you are like the majority of managers working under employment contracts, you can understand the frustration that accompanies the employment grievance process. For the most part, grievance policies are designed as mediation avenues for clarification, or even compromise, between the employer and employees. Yet what happens without a clear understanding of the true purpose of the grievance process can be a whirlwind that causes a lot of aggravation and frustration between both parties. Here are three effective ways to ensure your company's approach to claims handling isn't distorted or manipulated. When an employer is approached and informed of the filing of a claim, the first step should be to accept the claim in a professional manner. A mistake many managers make is checking the first step of the grievance. Whether or not you believe a grievance is founded or not should not come into play upon notification. An important note is to remember that anything you say or anything you respond to will most certainly be part of the grievance. By maintaining your professionalism, you will be able to sufficiently address the grievance. Consider two examples of approaches below: Scenario - Carol works at the local factory. She was docked for arriving to work five minutes late. Carol approaches her manager and tells him that she is filing a grievance to get her money back because she worked overtime the day before as a favor. In situations like this that appear to be, the term "staff" can result in immediate termination by a manager. Indeed, if Carol feels that she is not being taken seriously and that her union rights are being ignored, this will most likely lead to possible increased aggressiveness on Carol's part and a desire to...... middle of paper ......advance to this step. Stay the course. Do not respond to threats. Finally, once the employee/union has made its case, reiterate the policy (do not give or mention any forms the employee signed, not at this point) and, most importantly, close the meeting. Don't wander around and let tempers flare. Within the allotted time, give a brief formal refusal. In such situations, a union may have very limited grounds to add to the grievance and will need to follow through on what it has. Don't give them more. Even though, as a manager, you strongly believed that the grievance was unfounded, you recognized the grievance procedure and handled the matter professionally. You did not allow additional allegations to be added and essentially strengthened the policy by successfully addressing a grievance on an issue that will most likely be shelved..