In early May, the Labor Department announced that the national unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent – the lowest it has been since December of 1969. That number coincides with a 4.8 percent increase in the number of job advertisements, as employers look to fill more than 7 million open positions.
This is all to say that there are lots of jobs and not enough people to fill them. While these numbers are excellent for the overall economy, it presents a unique challenge for federal agencies that compete with the private sector for skilled employees.
Like all organizations, agencies want smart, dedicated and enthusiastic employee to join them. Agencies, though, must not forget about the people that they already employ. While there are many reasons people decide to work for the federal government, many find inspiration in the government’s larger mission, the ability to directly help citizens, or the security of working for an agency.
Improving the Grievance Process
To help improve employee retention, federal agencies though need to improve some of the ways they serve their employees. In particular, government human resource and civil rights offices need to ensure that employee grievances are handled in a timely and respectful manner.
Federal agencies struggle to appropriately manage the employee grievance process because of a lack of personnel and inadequate management tools. Grievance managers have too many cases that they try to manage on outdated technology, leading to inevitable delays in processing. During that time, the employee that filed the grievance likely has grown angrier. That person could hire legal representation, retaliate against the offending employee, or simply leave for another job.
In that last case, the agency has lost a talent employee by simply not answering a complaint they had. It would be hard to blame that employee, too. Everyone wants to work in a safe environment where they feel valued and respected. If another employee continually made insensitive comments and created a hostile work environment without repercussions, it can lead to other employees wanting to leave as well.
To fix this, federal agencies should look into a grievance management solution like Advocate. Instead of managing these cases through Excel, Sharepoint, and email, Advocate creates a central repository that ensures all grievances get the appropriate attention of the proper people. This leads to grievance cases being handled quickly and efficiently, putting the employee that filed the grievance at ease and possibly removing potential future grievances as well.
For those interested in learning more, email info@symplicity.com.