The question of AI and how grievances are increasing in volume and complexity has come up quite a lot lately. It's definitely a modern issue, but the root cause and the solution haven't changed in the 30 years since I first trained as a mediator!
🤮 Grievances have always been awful and they always will be - they just make things worse. AI doesn't change that, it just makes them that bit more horrendous.
💻 AI doesn't make people have issues, but it does help them to have the confidence to articulate their problems. Maybe that's good news - issues which wouldn't have previously been known are now surfacing.
🤬 If an upset employee asks AI for ideas about raising negative issues why wouldn't they use all the great suggestions it comes up with?
😀 Content and happy employees will not ask AI for negative ideas. They may use it for positive suggestions though!
⏰ In the time somebody could have written a sentence, AI will write a 96-page document. As with all grievances, the actual issues won't be in the document. It will boil down to trust, relationships, communication and leadership.
🔎 Tip: if AI has been used to write 96 pages, just ask AI to summarise it down to half a page (remove any names first to maintain confidentiality - maybe replace with "employee A" and "employee B", etc).
🎯 Grievances tend to conclude in "a lack of evidence to prove". Not until people have proper, honest conversations will the real issues be addressed.
🗣️ Organisations rarely develop managers to have the confidence to have real conversations. Most HR professionals aren't trained either. If both were trained in these life skills, 99% of grievances would disappear. That's proper cultural change - I've seen it so many times!
👥 Every grievance procedure will state the first step is to try informal resolution. Most skip by this because they don't know how to resolve issues informally. AI can't do this - but people with the right skills can!
🛑 There should be a big barrier between informal and formal procedures. Any issue which could be resolved formally should have been resolved informally.
📑 The solutions will not be found in a grievance document - putting that to one side and saying "I've read this - now tell me what's happening" will be the start of finding the solution.
👂Genuinely listening to understand the person will always be the best way to deal with issues - not reading and responding to a document.
The root causes haven't changed:-
❌ We've lost the art of proper conversations.
❌ We scare the life out of managers for getting things wrong.
❌ We criticise managers for avoiding 'difficult' conversations.
❌ We don't develop managers or HR with the skills and confidence they need to deal with challenging people and situations.
❌ We skip over the informal stage in grievance policies because we lack these skills - and the confidence they bring.
❌ We expect the magic fairy 🧚🏼♂️ to sprinkle leadership dust over managers and HR professionals when they accept the job. Unfortunately that doesn't happen very often - she's very busy this time of year!
The problem isn't AI - it's leadership.
As long as we rely on policies rather than enabling real human conversations we will always have this challenge. Let's stop blaming AI and get people having the proper conversations they need to have!
