Businesses usually need multiple individuals to work together to achieve success. However, at times, some employees may get into disagreements that hinder their ability to operate in an organization. In addition to hurting productivity and work quality, this can create a great deal of stress for those staff members. As a manager, you can use these ways to reduce conflicts in the workplace to maintain a positive environment.
Hold Team-Building Activities
The closer people in your company feel, the better they’ll be able to cooperate. Daily activities can come to feel enjoyable and when issues do arise, employees will be more gracious with one another. Foster this kind of atmosphere by holding team-building activities. You can organize a short game or casual meeting every so often that serves as a reprieve from normal tasks and a way for people to connect. Employee lunches and other meetups outside of work hours can also help. If you can’t bring people together physically, you can hold these through group video calls.
Offer Conflict Resolution Training
Training typically encompasses information on business procedures more than anything else. However, you could also include education about conflict resolution. You can outline some ways to approach problems that arise in your workplace and give example scenarios as well. For those who hold higher positions, you might give additional training for arbitrating conflicts between others. This will keep your company covered at multiple levels.
Minimize Sources of Confusion
If there are physical factors or processes in your company that are confusing, you should seek to eliminate them. Doing so can significantly reduce conflicts in the workplace or prevent them entirely. This might be as small as clarifying what to do when faced with occasional hiccups in the systems you use each day. It could also include refresher meetings, emails, and a general openness among higher-ups toward answering questions. Also, you want to keep your physical workplace organized. Synchronize the clocks in your building with a public or GPS NTP server so that there aren’t misunderstandings with time. Supplies and materials should also have specific locations so that they’re easy to find when needed.
