Top Tips for Managing Grievance Processes

This is a summary taken from Judicium’s HR ‘Sofa Session’ from 30th of April, with Jenny Salero, Kelly Rayner and Suzanne Ravenhall. This session is a Q&A covering all stages of HR grievance processes in education, focusing on effective management to ensure concerns are addressed and staff well-being is supported.

Introduction

We often find that the summer term is the term in which we receive the highest number of queries about grievances. For most of schools this is the busiest term, there are SATs, exams and people are busy, tired and tempers are often a little frayed.

Although we have just returned from a break, we thought it would be useful to hold this session early, so that you are as prepared as possible for any concerns should they arise, during the Summer Term.

Not only have we seen a big increase in grievances during the summer term, we have also seen a big increase in the number of grievances raised, across the board since the Pandemic. We are still unable to pinpoint exactly why this is the case, but we work with clients all across the country and regardless of area or school type, there appears to have been an increase in complaints. It is crucial that any concerns are handled as quickly as is possible and correctly. Many of the longer term absences and long running staffing issues we discuss with new clients, can be traced back to a meeting or conversation, which perhaps did not quite go to plan, which escalated to grievance and subsequently a long running absence.

Your staff are your most valuable assets and you want to ensure that if concerns are raised that you are as equipped as you can be to manage the process quickly and reasonably.

We hope that the session will provide you with a good overview of how to do this, provide you with some top tips moving forward and answer as many key questions as we can in the session. 

Top Tips

Have a clear policy and familiarise yourself with this

The DfE requires all schools to have a policy on dealing with both disciplinaries and grievances.

These policies should follow, at a minimum, the best practice steps that are outlined by Acas, an impartial conciliation service, as in the event that a claim is issued, the Tribunal will look to see if the best practice steps outlined by Acas have been followed.

In general a policy should allow for:

A meeting for the concerns to be heard – often called a grievance hearing or meeting.

An investigation into those concerns where required – in most cases an investigation of some sort will be required, but the scope and depth of the investigation will of course vary, depending on the circumstances.

An outcome to determine whether or not these concerns should be upheld (along with any recommendations).

The opportunity to appeal if the employee is dissatisfied.

What does tend to vary from school to school is who will be a decision maker in the process, as the approach to grievances is different to that of a disciplinary process. In a disciplinary process the investigating officer cannot both investigate and make a decision on the potential sanction to be applied, whether that is informal management guidance, a formal warning of some sort or dismissal.

However, in a grievance process is it possible to have to approaches:

The first is similar to that of a disciplinary process i.e. someone will be tasked with being the decision maker, an independent investigation will take place to undertake all the ‘fact finding’ and the report would be passed back to the decision maker, who would decide whether or not the grievance should or should not be upheld, along with any recommendations.

Alternatively, unlike the disciplinary process you may have a policy that allows the investigator to be both the investigator and decision maker.

You need to ensure that you are familiar with the policy, so that you are clear on the approach and that the School is appointing the right person to the role – it may be that internally you revisit or reconsider who should investigate, if the investigator is also the decision maker. It may be that you choose to escalate the level of seniority or look to utilise someone that is fully impartial, such as a Governor or Trustee, if you think the ‘fallout’ of any decision is likely to be political. Knowing your policy, will allow you to lay the correct groundwork from the start of the process. 

Encourage informal resolution wherever possible

As we mentioned at the start of the session, there does seem to have been a big increase in grievances in recent years and not only that, but an increase in grievances between colleagues, rather than concerns about the practices or policies of employers.

A common misconception from staff appears to be that if they raise a grievance or concern that the person they complain about will be dismissed. This is of course possible, but only in very rare circumstances for the most serious of complaints i.e. those related to discrimination.

Therefore, in the majority of cases, regardless of whether a grievance is or is not upheld a resolution moving forward will be looking at ways in which staff can work together. As a result, wherever possible we would suggest that exploring the possibility of informal resolution or mediation should be discussed with the employee that has raised the concern wherever possible. If the matter can be dealt with informally this can save all parties lots of time and avoid further escalation or counter grievances, which can further impact on working relationships and staff morale. 

Make sure that the grievance has been understood – always confirm with the employee

We often receive copies of grievance letters from clients which have been written by staff when they are highly emotive and upset and it can quite often be difficult to see ‘the wood for the trees’ when looking at such letters.

It is crucial that whoever is investigating the concerns (whether this is the decision maker or someone tasked with the investigation) knows the remit of their investigation from the outset. This avoids the complaint snowballing.

Whenever the meeting with the employee has taken place to hear the concerns, we would always advise that this meeting is followed up in writing with an email/letter to confirm the understanding of the grievance and that the employee is asked to reply and confirm that the understanding of the grievance is correct. Not only will this help to avoid the expansion of the grievance beyond the original concerns, but may also reduce the chances of an appeal, as all parties are on the same page. 

Document everything

It is hoped that by going through a grievance process that a satisfactory resolution can be achieved, unfortunately that is often not the case where concerns are between/about colleagues. It is therefore crucial that notes of all meetings are kept, that the investigations that take place are fully documented and that any meeting that takes place to provide feedback is also noted.

If an employee appeals or seeks to bring a claim for discrimination for example and you have documented the fair process and steps you have taken it will put you in the best possible position to defend any claim moving forward.

Provide support to both parties throughout

Finally, this sounds obvious, but can often be forgotten when members of SLT are moving through the time consuming and difficult process of a grievance, alongside a full time job, but it is crucial that both the person that has raised the concern and the person the complaint has been raised against is supported.

Support could be provided in a number of ways, including:

A named contact from the SLT who is not involved with the process;

Details of any employee assistance programme;

Details of any counselling support that may be available;

Welfare meetings; and/or

Referrals to Occupational Health.

If additional support is provided it can help to reduce or prevent absences, which unfortunately often go hand in hand with grievances.

Common Questions

Can the employee bring a parent or a friend?

There is no legal right to be accompanied by a parent or a friend, but it is at your discretion to allow this.

The legal right to be accompanied extends to a grievance meeting/appeal and the employee can be accompanied by a workplace colleague or trade union representative. However, you can choose to extend this right to a wider group and in some circumstances this may be helpful or an adjustment to support a member of staff to attend an fully engage in the process.

When can the meeting be arranged?

A meeting should be arranged as quickly as it reasonably can be, bearing in mind any notice of the meeting as required in the policy. The meeting should take place during the normal working hours of the member of staff being spoken to.

Do all meetings regarding the grievance have to be in person?

No, the meetings can take place online via Teams/Zoom. Ideally, a meeting would take place, but on some occasions, it may be that discussions and investigation take place via email/in writing.

We suggest that any investigator notifies any parties spoken to that there may be follow up questions and confirm if they are happy to liaise via email, if there are any points to clarify or follow up on.

Can I still investigate the grievance if the employee is off sick?

Yes, and in many cases if the absence is related to the grievance an Occupational Heath referral will state that an employee cannot return until the workplace issues are resolved.

Therefore you should do all that you can to progress a grievance whilst an employee is off sick. If the employee does not wish to engage seek advice from Occupational Health about their fitness to attend meetings – as noted above these do not have to be in person, it could be done remotely, online, in writing etc. It is very rare for an employee to engage in a process in any format.

Does the grievance have to be in writing?

No, a grievance is a concern about work. Ideally the grievance should be put in writing, so that the School has a record of this, but a grievance can be written or verbal concern.

The employee hasn’t completed the correct form/document – do I need this?

No, if your policies specifies that certain forms should be completed ideally the employee should follow the policy. However, if you have a member of staff that is upset to the extent that they wish to raise a grievance asking them to repeat what they have done in a different format etc is probably only going to create more annoyance. If you have enough information from the email/letter/discussion etc use that as the basis for the process and get the ball rolling.

What if there is a disciplinary process that is also ongoing - does the grievance need to be resolved before the disciplinary can proceed?

This depends on the circumstances and the content of the grievance itself, so is very fact specific. However, as far as is possible we would suggest that both processes run concurrently. An example of when a disciplinary process may need to be placed on hold could be where the investigation is underway and allegations of discrimination are raised against the investigating officer. If however the investigation had not yet commenced a new investigating officer could be appointed and the grievance investigated alongside this.

Does the grievance have to be upheld to make a recommendation?

No, recommendations can be made as part of a grievance process regardless of whether the grievances are upheld, as there are always ways in which we can improve. Often, making a recommendation in a situation where a grievance has not been upheld can sometimes help to appease the member of staff and allow them to feel that they have been heard.

Related Training Courses

Managing Short Term Sickness Absence – Thursday 22nd May 2025 9.30am – 12.30pm - More information

A Practical Guide to Grievance Investigations – Friday 13th June 9.30am – 12.30pm - More information

Managing Difficult Conversations  - Friday 20th June 2025 9.30am – 12.30pm - More information

Managing Long Term Sickness Absence – Tuesday 24th June 2025 9.30am – 1.00pm - More information

Wellbeing in the Workplace – Thursday 10th July 2025 9.30am – 12.30pm - More information

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