The CIPD’s Good Work Index for 2024 found around 25% of UK employees experienced conflict in the workplace — and only 36% of those incidents had been “fully resolved”.

That’s the real problem: the ongoing streams of resentments, grievances and fall-outs that are left to fester, and all go into the simmering pot of a toxic workplace culture.

The survey of 5,000 employees suggests that the most common forms of conflict were people feeling “humiliated or undermined at work” (48%), “being shouted at or having a heated argument” (35%), “verbal abuse or insult” (34 per cent) and “discriminatory behaviour” (20 per cent).

In response, HR commentators have pointed to the importance of positive workplaces cultures, because conflict affects engagement and productivity, staff turnover and reputation. It’s a no-brainer.

What isn’t so simple is how to reduce levels of ‘conflict’ and create that culture where people feel a sense of psychological safety. What’s being done to make the constructive, everyday forms of challenge and differences of opinion, a matter of strength rather than a problem?

Because there is always going to be some kinds of ‘conflict’ at work. Each of the main types of conflict reported in the CIPD survey is open to interpretation. A manager’s valid need to discuss poor performance with someone could easily be labelled as “bullying” if they don’t like the situation, no matter how it’s done. Someone’s attempt to be heard — finally, after months of frustration and sense of being sidelined — could end up looking like aggression. What is and isn’t discrimination itself is a complex area, involving a number of thin lines. And that’s before we start to think about innocent attempts at humour, misplaced efforts to lighten the mood and create banter, and what some people believe are insults.

HR and organisational leaders generally need to understand the nature and role of conflict in workplaces. Not think in terms of monitoring the data and crushing any sign of tensions. Conflict can just be a sign of commitment to work roles, managers dealing with difficult situations rather than letting them all go by, the consequence of introducing important changes, from staff trying to be their whole selves and not a corporate drone. In other words, employers need to respond in a mature and professional way to conflict.

What can be done? The Good Work survey found that employees were most likely to just ‘let it go’. Only 29% discussed their grievance with a manager or HR. 17% spoke to the other person involved. Only one per cent had taken their case to an Employment Tribunal. So, considering the potential angst that conflict can lead to, employees don’t have many places to turn to.

HR has to do more than just talk about the importance of a good culture, or put more pressure onto managers to magically deliver one. There has to be a practical programme of change that involves a mixture of systems and skills. 

At CMP we talk in terms of creating Clear Air Cultures, with an emphasis on practical resolutions; dealing with situations in informal ways if possible; and most of all, making staff feel comfortable with talking about their issues in positive ways. So there’s trust and belief in the organisation. They don’t have to let things go, they can reach an understanding and everyone can move forward. The air stays clear, the potential for anything toxic drains away.

This is done through:

• creating a behavioural framework which all employees understand and know what is expected of them; offering conversation skills development, particularly among managers for dealing with difficult conversations — building Conversational Integrity (based around developing five capacities: situational awareness, curiosity, reflective listening, empathy and self awareness); 

• having a triage process to signpost to informal mediation or other restorative interventions when appropriate;

• using highly skilled mediators, coaches and trainers when needed to restore relationships, develop emotional intelligence, address unconscious bias and early conflict situations;

• ensuring robust and fair HR investigations are in place when allegations of misconduct are reported;

• and by encouraging people working at all levels to speak up and demonstrate what can be achieved through positive, constructive approaches to dealing with conflict.