GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM – 7 ATTRIBUTES - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN A NUTSHELL

HR MANAGEMENT IN A NUTSHELL

GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM – 7 ATTRIBUTES

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM

By

VIKRAM KARVE

A good grievance redressal mechanism is a sine qua non of a well-designed and functional Human Resource (HR) Management System.

In order to be successful, a grievance redressal system must possess five attributes:

1. SIMPLICITY

It must be a procedurally simple mechanism which is easy to use by every employee across the board.

It is best to have a simple form or an online drop down menu where an employee can effortlessly submit a grievance or complaint.

As one of my bosses used to say: “Don’t ask people to pour their hearts out and write long-winded sob-stories and essays – just give them a form to fill.”

Yes, a well-designed form can encapsulate the problem more objectively and avoid communications mismatches.

2. ACCESSIBILITY

All employees must have easy access to the mechanism and it should be quick and simple to lodge a grievance.

In earlier days, before the IT Boom and prior to the advent of Internet, there used to be cards or forms which could be filled up and put in easily accessible drop boxes which were located all over the workplace, canteens and shop-floors.

Nowadays, it can be an online system must be easily accessible 24/7 to all employees from their workplace and their homes as well.

If an employee has a grievance she (or he) must know where and how to submit it and the procedure must be fast and easy.

3. EFFECTIVENESS

The grievance redressal mechanism must be effective.

The system must work (and be seen to work) and there must be proper monitoring, follow-up and feedback to the employees and all concerned about the status and processing of the complaint.

The grievance redressal procedure must ensure that it is made unambiguously and clearly evident to all employees that there is an honest and transparent effort to resolve all grievances in a fair and just manner.

4. EFFICIENCY

The redressal of grievances and resolution of complaints must be done promptly and speedily in an efficient manner within stipulated time frames so that employees develop faith in the system.

Remember – justice delayed is justice denied.

5. RESPONSIVENESS

The grievance redressal mechanism must be user-friendly and sensitive to the special needs of the employees.

It must be gender sensitized, culturally consonant and in harmony with the prevailing environment.

Most importantly, it must be modern and technologically savvy and in sync with contemporary times.

Whatever the nature of the grievance or complaint, it must not be trivialized.

Grievances must be treated with utmost empathy and this fact must be evident to all the employees.

There must constant two-way communication between the senior management and the complainant and an impression must be made on employees that all grievances are taken seriously, treated sympathetically and handled with genuine earnestness with the objective of resolving them amicably, speedily and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned.

6. NON-VINDICTIVE

An employee must be able to submit a complaint or grievance for redressal without fear of retribution from higher management or reprisal from those who is complaining against.

Checks and balances must be put in place in order to ensure that there is absolutely no victimization or harassment of the employee who is submitting a grievance or making a complaint or is a whistleblower.

The system must be absolutely non-punitive and there must not be the slightest perception or even a shred of doubt in the mind of the employees that they will be “punished” for making a complaint.

7. FAIR AND JUST

The grievance redressal mechanism must function without fear or favour.

There must be total transparency in the procedure and justice must be done and justice must also seen to be done in a free and fair manner. 

While the points given above are in the context of Human Resource Management Systems, I feel that they are equally applicable to Grievance Handling Systems pertaining to Customer Relationship Management, Consumer Affairs, Client Service Organizations and the Service Industry.  

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2012

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT BHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories, creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional research papers in journals and edited in-house journals for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

 

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL and CUSTOMER CARE

Random Experiences

By

VIKRAM KARVE

An Effective Grievance Redressal Mechanism or Efficient Complaint Handling and Customer Service Management System comprises five aspects:

1. It must be easy for you to lodge the complaint. This can be either on phone or SMS or by email or on the website. (In today’s world of the internet, online grievance management mechanism is a must and the days of writing letters, submitting written applications and using snail-mail are a thing of the past)

2. Your grievance must be acknowledged in a prompt manner. This is best done by a prompt call or SMS or an email giving you a reference token number to enable you to monitor the progress of redressal of your grievance / complaint.

3. You must be kept informed and updated regarding the status of your complaint and it must be easy for you to monitor the progress of the grievance redressal process.

4. Your grievance must be resolved to your entire satisfaction in a time bound manner. A sincere and transparent attempt must be made by the customer care department to achieve “customer delight” by a mutually agreeable reconciliation of the complaint and insidious attempts to browbeat, bully, harass or confuse the customer must be avoided.

5. Your feedback and suggestions must be sought. As a part of continual improvement a good customer care department always asks for post grievance redressal feedback and suggestions, acts on the comments of the customer and keeps the customer informed. Rather than just ring up the customer, it is better to obtain feedback by email or in a prescribed format. This enables the customer to give comprehensive feedback and ensures that the feedback is properly recorded for future action.

Let me share some of my experiences of Grievance Management Systems I have encountered.

1. MARS INTERNATIONAL INDIA PVT LTD (Pedigree Dog Food)

The best Customer Service I have encountered so far – they meet all the five requirements above.

2. RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Though personal interaction at the bank branch has scope for improvement, the online customer care is prompt and efficient. Lodging a complaint is quite tedious, but once you manage to do that, things move quite swiftly and efficiently, you are kept informed at each stage and they ask you to confirm satisfactory resolution and solicit feedback.

3. ICICI Bank

It is easy to submit an online complaint and the same is promptly acknowledged. Thereafter you are hounded by a variety of customer care executives and relationship managers on phone and they send you emails too – but unfortunately that is where it all ends.

Most of these customer care executives and relationships managers are quite clueless and only indulge in sweet-talk but no effort is made to resolve your grievance or complaint.

It may sound astounding but some of these customer service executives and relationship managers even have the temerity to talk about investments rather than solve your complaint.

I am sorry to say that in the few occasions that I have raised a grievance I have not received a satisfactory resolution.

Also they have pruned down their online complaint options so now you cannot comprehensively and clearly enter your grievance online on the website.

Since the online or telephonic customer service is quite ineffective, for getting my complaints resolved, I had to personally visit a branch of ICICI Bank.

4. Reliance Communications

Today I received an SMS message on my Reliance Mobile Number: “Your Subscription to Reliance Voice Chat Service has been renewed at Rs. 30 for 30 days”

I was bewildered since I had never subscribed to any such voice chat service nor had I ever voice-chatted.

I rang up reliance customer care who stated that as per their records I am being charged every month for voice chat service for the past three months though he agreed that I had never used the service.

When I remonstrated that I had never subscribed to any such voice chat service he said that it may have happened automatically. He said that he would unsubscribe me immediately but could not refund the previous monthly subscriptions already charged since a “third party” was involved. 

When I insisted on a refund, the reliance Customer Care Executive spoke quite rudely in a “couldn’t care less” type of tone and said that these billing mistakes keep happening and nothing can be done now. He also added that it is only a question of 30 rupees a month so why am I so concerned about it. Then he disconnected.

I find this the most unethical customer service and insensitive customer relations management.

I have raised another complaint long back about erratic internet connectivity and slow speeds on Reliance Netconnect Wireless Internet Service due to fluctuating signal strength and zero signal at times. This issue has remained unresolved for many months now. The only reply I get is that this is a technical issue and they are looking into it.

Well the other cell phone providers are no better. Whereas the Reliance Communications customer service is downright rude, Airtel Customer Service is slightly polite, but then they too never resolve the issue. Maybe the monopoly they enjoy has caused them complacency as far as customer relationship management is concerned.

5. State Bank of India is the ultimate in grievance redressal management – they eliminate grievances at Stage 1 itself. They make sure that you just cannot lodge a complaint so they can have a clean slate – a zero complaint regime. If you want to lodge a complaint online, they tell you to contact your Home Branch and when you go to your Home Branch they tell you to submit the complaint online – and they send you round and round in a spin till your grievance disappears.