Navigating Workplace Disputes: Best Practices for Employment Dispute Resolution Policies

For business owners and managers, handling employee complaints isn’t just good management; it’s a legal necessity. Addressing workplace disputes efficiently and fairly protects your organization from both litigation and reputational harm while fostering a culture built on trust and accountability.

Workplace disputes come in many forms: common issues include allegations of discrimination, employee disciplinary challenges, claims of harassment or retaliation, and contract disagreements. Left unaddressed, seemingly minor issues can grow into major problems that drain resources and lower company morale.

A formal complaint policy should encourage employees to come forward with concerns as soon as they arise. When workers reach out to their supervisors to notify them of potential problems, the company gets an opportunity to resolve disputes before morale begins to suffer. As an added benefit, a formal dispute resolution policy provides a roadmap for managers and supervisors to consistently handle complaints across your whole enterprise.

Designing a Formal Complaint Process

Every business should have a well-defined process that employees can use to raise their concerns. An effective complaint process should include:

• Transparent Reporting Channels: Make sure that your employees know who they should be reporting their concerns to. If you ask your employees to raise their concerns to their direct supervisors or managers, your complaint process should specify alternate reporting channels outside of the employee’s chain of command; that way, if an employee’s complaint involves his or her supervisor, they have an avenue to report that dispute without the supervisor’s involvement.
• Non-Retaliation Policies: Your company should maintain a clear assurance that employees will never face backlash for raising complaints in good faith.
• Manager Training: Managers and supervisors should be educated on the company’s expectations regarding dispute investigation, including any steps necessary to investigate and document employee allegations. Regarding claims of harassment or discrimination, your policies should require that supervisors escalate concerns when they become aware of them, even if harassment was not brought to their attention through an employee complaint or occurred outside their line of supervision.
• Documentation: When you hear about a potential employee dispute, don’t be tempted to start “taking things offline” to eliminate a paper trail. Employers should be consistent in how they collect and maintain records of complaints, investigations, and dispute outcomes. Consistent recordkeeping will show that your organization has taken reasonable steps to investigate and correct any problematic behavior. Copies of investigation or dispute records should be kept in confidential personnel files.

Be Careful with Confidentiality

When an employee raises concerns, especially about sensitive issues like harassment or discrimination, confidentiality quickly becomes one of the biggest worries for everyone involved. The EEOC’s guidance clarifies that while discretion is critical, company policies regarding confidentiality should be limited. ¹

Employees should know that the company will seek to keep their complaint as private as possible. Confidentiality policies encourage transparency from your workers and prevent instances in which employees withhold their concerns for fear of retaliation or social stigma. At the same time, employers can’t promise complete secrecy. A fair and effective investigation requires sharing at least some details with the accused and with witnesses who may have relevant information.

Workplace grievance procedures should focus on limiting information sharing to a strict “need-to-know” basis: information is shared only with those involved in resolving the complaint, such as investigators, HR staff, or key witnesses. This approach helps ensure privacy while still allowing a thorough investigation to move forward.

However, employers should be warned against imposing broad confidentiality rules that extend beyond their investigation timeline, as the policy could inadvertently interfere with employee rights to collective action. Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees have the right to discuss workplace conditions with one another, including discussions about complaints of harassment or discrimination.² A blanket rule requiring employees to maintain post-investigation confidentiality can expose the employer to liability under the NLRA.³ Instead, confidentiality rules should be narrowly tailored, time-limited, and justified by legitimate business needs such as protecting witnesses, preserving evidence, or preventing retaliation over the course of an investigation. This balanced approach respects employee rights while still safeguarding the integrity of the investigative process.

Fast Isn’t Always Best

When a complaint lands on your desk, your first instinct may be to resolve it as quickly as possible. While timeliness is important, speed should never come at the expense of thoroughness, fairness, or consistency. Rushing through steps in an investigation, skipping documentation, or offering a quick “fix” without a full understanding of the facts can backfire. A hasty resolution may overlook critical evidence, create the appearance of bias or favoritism, or lead to inconsistent outcomes across similar complaints.

The best policies are useless if they’re not put into practice. Take the time to investigate, document each step, and apply policies consistently. A measured approach demonstrates that your business takes employee concerns seriously. Deliberate adherence to employee grievance policies also strengthens your legal position if the matter later faces outside scrutiny. In workplace disputes, deliberate deliberation almost always outperforms a quick reaction.

Turn to Strauss Troy for Your Workplace Disputes

To some degree, workplace disputes are inevitable; expensive litigation doesn’t have to be. By implementing clear grievance procedures, your business can create a fair, compliant, and productive workplace.

At Strauss Troy, our labor and employment attorneys provide tailored solutions for businesses in the Cincinnati and Covington areas. We help employers protect their organizations, strengthen compliance, and resolve disputes with confidence.

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Footnotes

1. U.S. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n, Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (April 29, 2024), available at https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-harassment-workplace.
2. See Banner Estrella Medical Center, 362 NLRB 1108 (2015) (“Employees have a Section 7 right to discuss discipline or ongoing disciplinary investigations involving themselves or coworkers. . . . Accordingly, an employer may restrict those discussions only where the employer shows that it has a legitimate and substantial business justification that outweighs employees’ Section 7 rights.”).
3. Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store, 368 NLRB No. 144 (2019) (holding that employer may lawfully maintain a confidentiality restriction relating to workplace investigations, but only to the extent those rules apply for the duration of an investigation).

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