Handling workplace conflict is one of the toughest parts of being a human resources professional.
Every job has difficult tasks, but mediating disputes to resolve conflict is stressful, hectic, and loaded with emotions.
It's more than just a "tricky situation" – conflict at work can trickle down your entire company, fostering resentment and toxic company culture, which, in turn, is the largest driver of attrition, ranking 10.4 times higher than compensation issues.
Handling employee conflict is, therefore, an essential skill, and every HR team should have a handbook of go-to strategies to deal with it.
This blog post is your handbook.
We discuss how to identify and handle different types of workplace conflict, real examples of conflict resolution, and how to prevent conflict in the first place.
Every job has difficult tasks, but mediating disputes to resolve conflict is stressful, hectic, and loaded with emotions.
It's more than just a "tricky situation" – conflict at work can trickle down your entire company, fostering resentment and toxic company culture, which, in turn, is the largest driver of attrition, ranking 10.4 times higher than compensation issues.
Handling employee conflict is, therefore, an essential skill, and every HR team should have a handbook of go-to strategies to deal with it.
This blog post is your handbook.
We discuss how to identify and handle different types of workplace conflict, real examples of conflict resolution, and how to prevent conflict in the first place.
What is workplace conflict?
Workplace conflict is the actual or perceived dispute between two or more people in an organization. It’s often a conflict of needs, values, beliefs, or interests.
There are many types of workplace conflict, and they’re all damaging to your organization to some degree, whether it’s through resentment, absenteeism, or behavioral changes.
Let’s quickly clarify the difference between conflict and healthy disagreements: Disagreements are a normal part of working relationships and aren’t necessarily bad.
For example, if a designer and a developer disagree about how to implement a new feature on a website, the resulting compromise could produce a better outcome for the whole team because the debate ensures that the new feature meets all of the requirements.
Workplace conflict is the actual or perceived dispute between two or more people in an organization. It’s often a conflict of needs, values, beliefs, or interests.
There are many types of workplace conflict, and they’re all damaging to your organization to some degree, whether it’s through resentment, absenteeism, or behavioral changes.
Let’s quickly clarify the difference between conflict and healthy disagreements: Disagreements are a normal part of working relationships and aren’t necessarily bad.
For example, if a designer and a developer disagree about how to implement a new feature on a website, the resulting compromise could produce a better outcome for the whole team because the debate ensures that the new feature meets all of the requirements.
What is the impact of workplace conflict?
Learning how to deal with workplace conflict doesn’t just prevent raised voices. Real workplace conflict can expand into an unhealthy, toxic culture.
The full impact of workplace conflict can include:
Learning how to deal with workplace conflict doesn’t just prevent raised voices. Real workplace conflict can expand into an unhealthy, toxic culture.
The full impact of workplace conflict can include:
- Personal attacks and insults
- Absence and sick days
- Conflict between departments
- Bullying
- Employees resigning
- Colleagues being fired
- Team members being moved between departments
- The failure of projects
How to identify workplace conflict: The 5 signs of conflict at work
Workforce conflict resolution is easiest when you can spot it before it erupts into a dramatic disaster.
Let’s take a look at the main signs that conflict might be brewing behind the scenes.
Let’s take a look at the main signs that conflict might be brewing behind the scenes.
1. Absenteeism and decreased productivity
Employees who are embroiled in conflict or simply in a company filled with conflict slow down. Their performance drops, and they may start quiet quitting.
Further, employees who feel resentful toward their workplace may not show up at all.
2. More direct complaints
Employees find things to complain about in a toxic atmosphere rife with conflict and generally carry a negative attitude around with them.
However, it’s important to note that if your organization is filled with conflict, employees may have good reasons to complain – so please don’t ignore them.
3. Behavioral changes
When organizations have unmanaged workplace conflict, employees may start developing a silo mentality, meaning that they cloister themselves into their own groups. This divides teams and limits innovation. It also breeds workplace gossip.
For example, Alex fought with Kim, so now Alex tells colleagues about how Kim is argumentative.
This not only strains trust, it also forms cliques. For example, Alex and their group go out to lunch together. They not only don’t invite Kim, they don’t invite anyone who’s nice to Kim.
4. High turnover
Workplace conflict decreases trust and causes employee burnout, and when they can’t take it anymore, they walk out the door.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, a toxic culture is the greatest driver of attrition.
Conflict at work perpetuates the cycle of churn and burn the longer it goes unchecked.
5. Missing meetings or silence
Some employees may stop attending meetings or answering group messages.
This could be an angry employee who simply doesn’t want to engage, but it could also be an employee who feels devalued because of workplace trauma and feels like their coworkers don’t want them around.
Employees who are embroiled in conflict or simply in a company filled with conflict slow down. Their performance drops, and they may start quiet quitting.
Further, employees who feel resentful toward their workplace may not show up at all.
2. More direct complaints
Employees find things to complain about in a toxic atmosphere rife with conflict and generally carry a negative attitude around with them.
However, it’s important to note that if your organization is filled with conflict, employees may have good reasons to complain – so please don’t ignore them.
3. Behavioral changes
When organizations have unmanaged workplace conflict, employees may start developing a silo mentality, meaning that they cloister themselves into their own groups. This divides teams and limits innovation. It also breeds workplace gossip.
For example, Alex fought with Kim, so now Alex tells colleagues about how Kim is argumentative.
This not only strains trust, it also forms cliques. For example, Alex and their group go out to lunch together. They not only don’t invite Kim, they don’t invite anyone who’s nice to Kim.
4. High turnover
Workplace conflict decreases trust and causes employee burnout, and when they can’t take it anymore, they walk out the door.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, a toxic culture is the greatest driver of attrition.
Conflict at work perpetuates the cycle of churn and burn the longer it goes unchecked.
5. Missing meetings or silence
Some employees may stop attending meetings or answering group messages.
This could be an angry employee who simply doesn’t want to engage, but it could also be an employee who feels devalued because of workplace trauma and feels like their coworkers don’t want them around.
How to handle workplace conflict
We know workplace conflict has a detrimental impact, so let’s learn about the best resolution process to properly address it.
We recommend moving the affected employees to a private area, using nonviolent effective communication, and working to come to an agreeable resolution.
Here are our top workplace conflict resolution strategies for creating positive change.
We recommend moving the affected employees to a private area, using nonviolent effective communication, and working to come to an agreeable resolution.
Here are our top workplace conflict resolution strategies for creating positive change.
1. Deal with conflict as soon as possible
Address conflict as soon as it rears its head. Don’t put it off for a rainy day and let the situation grow out of hand.
Here are a few tips:
These might seem like obvious points, but one of the main reasons that toxic cultures spread is that people ignore conflict in hopes that it will vanish on its own.
2. Clarify the source and the type of conflict
You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what caused it.
For example, Mala works differently than her colleagues. She prefers to use her flexible schedule to get the bulk of her tasks done late at night, but this causes her colleagues to think she’s avoiding them.
This could be a working style conflict, a task-based conflict, or even a personality-based conflict. But once Mala’s HR manager gets to the bottom of it, it’s actually a cultural conflict because it’s how most of her colleagues worked at her former job.
Understanding which of the types of workplace conflict you’re dealing with helps you resolve it more easily, efficiently, and delicately.
3. Encourage the parties to communicate in a safe space
Communication skills are essential to resolving disputes, but they don’t help if you’re communicating in the middle of a noisy office. Or in front of other employees who inserted themselves into the situation, even if they did it with good intentions.
Conflict at work can snowball into something bigger than it is when employees feel threatened or misrepresented, which happens easily when they have an audience.
Bring conflicting parties to a safe space and encourage them to talk with a third party mediator.
In person, this might look like taking everyone involved into an unused office or conference room. Virtually, you could open a Slack channel just for the employees involved in the conflict and the mediator.
This ensures that everyone stays focused, no one gets antagonized by outside sources, and everyone feels safe and secluded.
Address conflict as soon as it rears its head. Don’t put it off for a rainy day and let the situation grow out of hand.
Here are a few tips:
- Ask affected employees if they want to talk: If you see a few workers who look to be at odds, check in on them. Do this as soon as possible, but try to be delicate about it.
- Ask employees about possible conflicts during one-on-one meetings: One-on-one meetings shouldn’t just be about work tasks. Try asking if anything’s bothering them and how their mental health is.
- Offer to play the mediator: If you’re right and conflict is brewing, ask if they’d like your help and offer to mediate the discussion. Acting as a calm negotiator before things get out of hand is one of the best ways of dealing with workplace conflict.
These might seem like obvious points, but one of the main reasons that toxic cultures spread is that people ignore conflict in hopes that it will vanish on its own.
2. Clarify the source and the type of conflict
You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what caused it.
For example, Mala works differently than her colleagues. She prefers to use her flexible schedule to get the bulk of her tasks done late at night, but this causes her colleagues to think she’s avoiding them.
This could be a working style conflict, a task-based conflict, or even a personality-based conflict. But once Mala’s HR manager gets to the bottom of it, it’s actually a cultural conflict because it’s how most of her colleagues worked at her former job.
Understanding which of the types of workplace conflict you’re dealing with helps you resolve it more easily, efficiently, and delicately.
3. Encourage the parties to communicate in a safe space
Communication skills are essential to resolving disputes, but they don’t help if you’re communicating in the middle of a noisy office. Or in front of other employees who inserted themselves into the situation, even if they did it with good intentions.
Conflict at work can snowball into something bigger than it is when employees feel threatened or misrepresented, which happens easily when they have an audience.
Bring conflicting parties to a safe space and encourage them to talk with a third party mediator.
In person, this might look like taking everyone involved into an unused office or conference room. Virtually, you could open a Slack channel just for the employees involved in the conflict and the mediator.
This ensures that everyone stays focused, no one gets antagonized by outside sources, and everyone feels safe and secluded.
4. Use nonviolent communication
Nonviolent communication is a great tool to help discuss the conflict and encourage employees to speak respectfully.
How does it work?
In a discussion using nonviolent communication, there are two modes that each participant needs to be in at all times:
Clearly expressing themselves without assigning blame or criticism
Empathically listening to others without assuming blame or criticism
Essentially, it’s calmly expressing yourself and using active listening. This throws out “coercive language” – any language that is designed to make someone feel afraid, guilty, or ashamed.
Here are a few examples of coercive language:
This communication, also called “violent communication,” makes assumptions about other people, casts blame, and tells them what their own experience is.
When you encourage nonviolent communication, you clear away distractions so that all parties can focus on clarifying the deeper causes of the conflict.
5. Focus on common goals and brainstorm possible solutions
Focusing on common goals is one of the best ways to nurture inclusivity and promote a healthy company culture.
Encourage people to submit possible solutions and offer some up yourself. Hold a brainstorming session where everyone submits ideas.
Ask every party to consider healthy ways to find a middle ground. Does everyone present want the project done next Friday? Great. Can everyone agree that they want the landing page to have an animation? Excellent, let’s go from there.
We might disagree and have different points of view, but at the end of the day, we all want to complete our work.
6. Agree on a resolution
Once you find your common ground, and it leads to an acceptable solution, ensure you get everyone present to agree to it. This solution may lean towards one person’s side of the argument, or it might not – simply focus on finding the best response to the issue.
It’s natural that not everyone will be 100% satisfied with the solution, but they can still be open to it.
Nonviolent communication is a great tool to help discuss the conflict and encourage employees to speak respectfully.
How does it work?
In a discussion using nonviolent communication, there are two modes that each participant needs to be in at all times:
Clearly expressing themselves without assigning blame or criticism
Empathically listening to others without assuming blame or criticism
Essentially, it’s calmly expressing yourself and using active listening. This throws out “coercive language” – any language that is designed to make someone feel afraid, guilty, or ashamed.
Here are a few examples of coercive language:
- “He’s always doing that! You know everybody hates that.”
- “She’s trying to make me feel bad.”
- “This is all their fault. I didn’t do anything.”
This communication, also called “violent communication,” makes assumptions about other people, casts blame, and tells them what their own experience is.
When you encourage nonviolent communication, you clear away distractions so that all parties can focus on clarifying the deeper causes of the conflict.
5. Focus on common goals and brainstorm possible solutions
Focusing on common goals is one of the best ways to nurture inclusivity and promote a healthy company culture.
Encourage people to submit possible solutions and offer some up yourself. Hold a brainstorming session where everyone submits ideas.
Ask every party to consider healthy ways to find a middle ground. Does everyone present want the project done next Friday? Great. Can everyone agree that they want the landing page to have an animation? Excellent, let’s go from there.
We might disagree and have different points of view, but at the end of the day, we all want to complete our work.
6. Agree on a resolution
Once you find your common ground, and it leads to an acceptable solution, ensure you get everyone present to agree to it. This solution may lean towards one person’s side of the argument, or it might not – simply focus on finding the best response to the issue.
It’s natural that not everyone will be 100% satisfied with the solution, but they can still be open to it.
When agreeing to a solution, it’s important to remember to encourage humility in each party.
Even if someone is clearly “wrong” in the conflict, it helps the situation to have the person who’s “right” put in the effort to reach an agreement, even if they did nothing wrong. This demonstrates good faith to the employee who’s “wrong” and helps prevent them from feeling victimized.
This is also a good time to determine if each party can do anything to prevent this conflict in the future.
And that leads us to our next point.
7. Decide on preventative strategies
We admit it’s a bit corny, but the best solution to a problem is preventing it.
After a conflict, take some time to talk with your people and determine what can prevent this from happening in the future.
Or better yet, build strategies to prevent workplace conflict before it happens. Assess your workplace and determine what would prevent disputes in the best way for your organization.
Try asking your people and seek their opinions. It’s always a good idea to learn from past conflicts – they provide valuable, specific insights.
If you’d like to get right to it, feel free to skip ahead to our strategies for preventing workplace conflict.
Even if someone is clearly “wrong” in the conflict, it helps the situation to have the person who’s “right” put in the effort to reach an agreement, even if they did nothing wrong. This demonstrates good faith to the employee who’s “wrong” and helps prevent them from feeling victimized.
This is also a good time to determine if each party can do anything to prevent this conflict in the future.
And that leads us to our next point.
7. Decide on preventative strategies
We admit it’s a bit corny, but the best solution to a problem is preventing it.
After a conflict, take some time to talk with your people and determine what can prevent this from happening in the future.
Or better yet, build strategies to prevent workplace conflict before it happens. Assess your workplace and determine what would prevent disputes in the best way for your organization.
Try asking your people and seek their opinions. It’s always a good idea to learn from past conflicts – they provide valuable, specific insights.
If you’d like to get right to it, feel free to skip ahead to our strategies for preventing workplace conflict.
How to prevent workplace conflict
Workplace conflict management can be done, but it’s easier and healthier to prevent it in the first place.
1. Build an inclusive, safe company culture
Ensure your workplace is safe and accepting for everyone. This prevents workplace conflict and makes it less destructive when it happens because people feel safe and accepted.
Here are a few tips:
Prioritizing inclusiveness is key to fostering a healthy culture and preventing conflict. A lot of conflict happens because companies don’t actively support different people with different working styles and personalities.
2. Create stronger team cohesion
Actively promote team building, relationship building, and collaboration. Differences and disagreements are easier to tackle when everyone has a base level of respect.
This is especially important for remote companies and teams. It can be difficult to naturally build a cohesive culture when you aren’t in the office, and it takes a little more active effort.
This also goes for hybrid teams. Employees who aren’t at the office 100% of the time may be affected by proximity bias and could be forgotten or left out of team events.
Building strong team cohesion is also important to encourage between departments. Another department isn’t some kind of distant “competition” – they’re also your colleagues.
3. Focus on “culture add” when building your team
Culture fit is the traditional way to recruit, but it isn’t the most effective. Hiring for culture add helps build a diverse team with unique perspectives yet shared values.
Using assessments like our Culture Add test enables you to reduce culture- and personality-based conflict. But because it encourages diverse thought, it also opens the door for healthy, innovation-boosting conflict.
Keep in mind that even companies that hire for culture add can have a clash of values. Culture additions may have slightly different values than your own. The point is that you hire similar people, not identical.
4. Use talent assessments to hire the right team
Talent assessments help you hire the right people in the first place.
Traditional hiring methods do little to avert potential workplace conflicts because a resume can’t show you a candidate’s problem-solving and communication skills, which are key to productive conflict resolution.
But using skills tests can help you:
One of the best ways to prevent workplace conflict is to make sure that you build your company on a solid foundation, and talent assessments ensure you find the best employees to support your business.
Ensure your workplace is safe and accepting for everyone. This prevents workplace conflict and makes it less destructive when it happens because people feel safe and accepted.
Here are a few tips:
- Encourage feedback and constructive disagreements
- Respect personal differences
- Combat workplace bullying
- Make your values clear to all
Prioritizing inclusiveness is key to fostering a healthy culture and preventing conflict. A lot of conflict happens because companies don’t actively support different people with different working styles and personalities.
2. Create stronger team cohesion
Actively promote team building, relationship building, and collaboration. Differences and disagreements are easier to tackle when everyone has a base level of respect.
This is especially important for remote companies and teams. It can be difficult to naturally build a cohesive culture when you aren’t in the office, and it takes a little more active effort.
This also goes for hybrid teams. Employees who aren’t at the office 100% of the time may be affected by proximity bias and could be forgotten or left out of team events.
Building strong team cohesion is also important to encourage between departments. Another department isn’t some kind of distant “competition” – they’re also your colleagues.
3. Focus on “culture add” when building your team
Culture fit is the traditional way to recruit, but it isn’t the most effective. Hiring for culture add helps build a diverse team with unique perspectives yet shared values.
Using assessments like our Culture Add test enables you to reduce culture- and personality-based conflict. But because it encourages diverse thought, it also opens the door for healthy, innovation-boosting conflict.
Keep in mind that even companies that hire for culture add can have a clash of values. Culture additions may have slightly different values than your own. The point is that you hire similar people, not identical.
4. Use talent assessments to hire the right team
Talent assessments help you hire the right people in the first place.
Traditional hiring methods do little to avert potential workplace conflicts because a resume can’t show you a candidate’s problem-solving and communication skills, which are key to productive conflict resolution.
But using skills tests can help you:
- Hire employees with strong communication skills
- Hire a business manager with excellent conflict resolution skills so they can spot and diffuse conflict before it becomes an issue
- Hire employees that have skill sets that match their jobs, making tasks flow easier
- Hire employees with key personality traits, such as empathy and conscientiousness
One of the best ways to prevent workplace conflict is to make sure that you build your company on a solid foundation, and talent assessments ensure you find the best employees to support your business.
👉🏻 Check out our conflict resolution interview questions
Assess conflict management skills with the right interview questions
For an in-depth assessment of applicants' skills, use a combination of skills assessments and structured interviews.
Skills assessments allow you to quickly identify the best talent in the talent pool, while interviews allow you to assess candidates' behaviour, personality and social skills.
This, in turn, will help you accurately and objectively assess candidates' strengths and weaknesses and make an informed hiring decision.
For an in-depth assessment of applicants' skills, use a combination of skills assessments and structured interviews.
Skills assessments allow you to quickly identify the best talent in the talent pool, while interviews allow you to assess candidates' behaviour, personality and social skills.
This, in turn, will help you accurately and objectively assess candidates' strengths and weaknesses and make an informed hiring decision.
The Managing conflict in business course is for all HR and managers who face employee conflict in the company, as well as for employees themselves who are fed up with conflict.
