Written by Daphne Doody-Green, UK Market Director, CIPD (August 2024)

Work can and should always be a force for good. But one in four workers (25%) in the north of England have experienced conflict at work over the past year, with most choosing not to report incidents such as verbal abuse and harassment, according to the 2024 CIPD Good Work Index: North of England.

The research – from the annual survey of close to 900 workers in the north of England - also reveals that victims of workplace conflict suffer more from poor mental health and a lack of trust and confidence in management.

In response, the CIPD is calling for employers to ensure line managers are trained and prepared to deal with conflict effectively, and to address the underlying causes, such as poor management practices and excessive workloads.

What constitutes as bullying, discrimination, and harassment?

The world of work is changing at pace and line managers are facing many new people challenges. For some employees, homeworking and the rise of technology threatens to create an ‘always-on’ culture where issues can be spread far and wide across online chat platforms.

Therefore, it’s never been more important for line managers to play a vital role in identifying, challenging, and dealing with conflict at work, including unfair treatment and sexual harassment.

To achieve this, they need to participate in regular people management training. This should offer specifics around what bullying, discrimination and harassment looks like, and how to resolve conflict by being able to have difficult, yet open and honest conversations, to prevent and tackle conflict at work.

Managers must also take the time to understand their organisation’s policies and procedures on bullying, discrimination, and harassment and how to report issues in a timely manner, so they are investigated swiftly.

Is a manager’s ‘style’ causing conflict and stress?

Managers are at the heart of people’s experience of their workplace.  What they do and say has a significant impact on their team’s motivation, engagement, and overall performance.  This explains why ‘management style’ can often be the source of conflict and is the second most common cause of stress at work, after unmanageable workload.

People managers must reflect on their own management style and the impact their behaviour has on others. They should become part of the solution to resolving workplace conflict at an early, informal stage, before incidents escalate.

To do this, people managers must be open, collaborative, and compassionate to create a culture where staff feel trusted and confident to speak up without fear of judgement or being ignored.

Avoiding excessive workloads & an ‘always on culture’

Rising technology and remote working is giving many employees – particularly parents and carers – a better work-life balance. However, the blurred lines between work and home have led to many staff working longer hours to manage increasing workloads – often out of hours - and working when they are ill.

Line managers need to take effective steps to manage the main risks of excessive workloads which can cause stress and mental ill health among their workers.

As part of this, they must assess individual and team workloads to make sure they are reasonable, set clear expectations about taking breaks, and act as role models for healthy working practices.

This includes taking time off themselves when sick. Providing staff with autonomy to control how, where and when they work is also key to empower, rather than restrict them, in their roles.

Monitoring and reviewing workplace conflict

Staff attitude surveys will enable people managers and the wider organisation to collect feedback in areas like gender equality and bullying and harassment.

Monitoring the gender diversity of the workforce at every level, including for recruitment and promotion, will also help to highlight if there is any potential discrimination or harassment on grounds of gender.

New law to protect workers from sexual harassment

From October 2024 the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill will strengthen existing protection for workers against sexual harassment.

The new law will place a new duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment. Tribunals will have the power to increase compensation by up to 25% if they find an employer has breached this duty.  

Therefore, it is essential that people managers are proactive and systematic in how they tackle and prevent sexual harassment at work by providing evidence of the reasonable steps taken. This includes undertaking regular training and development to understand their role in preventing and addressing sexual harassment.

Free resources for line managers

The CIPD - the professional body for HR and people management – offer a range of free resources for people managers to develop their management capabilities and prevent and tackle workplace conflict including bullying and harassment.