One of the responsibilities of managing a company and its people is handling employee disagreements. Humans can find any reason to disagree, whether it’s who they are or what they like, and your employees are no exception. The worst part is a conflict is never isolated; once noticed, it affects the entire team.

Next time you’re faced with two employees who cannot get along, act before it affects your office environment and productivity. The following suggestions will help you handle the next employee disagreement.

1. Get all the details

Before you can make decisions or create action steps, you need to know what’s going on. Don’t rely solely on rumors or secondhand information. It’s important to hear from everyone involved, as well as others who are affected, so you have both sides.

Once you know more, you can make sure it isn’t related to equal opportunity issues or workplace bullying, harassment or discrimination. Those issues are much more complex and require different action from the employer.

2. Talk to them about finding a solution

In an ideal world, these two professionals can work it out themselves. Let them know you’re aware of what’s going on and you’d like them to resolve the conflict. It’s important to read the situation here to make sure passion or emotions won’t cause further problems in their discussion.

Monitor their progress and if they aren’t coming together for a solution, you need to step in to find a resolution before it escalates further. Don’t be afraid to bring disciplinary action to the table if they’re refusing to work together because it’s not just about them, but also your company.

If you do have to be involved, make sure you aren’t addressing the employee’s shortcomings or issues, but rather the overall problems and behavior.

3. Get to the bottom of the conflict

If you’ve stepped in, you can sort through the emotions and frustrations and find out what the actual conflict is. It can be hard to navigate all the hurt feelings and problems while remaining impartial, so always remember you can bring in human resources staff, either from within or organization or from an agency.

4. Arrive at a solution

At the end of the day, everyone still needs to work together, unless one of them wants to leave or push it too far and lose their job. Consult the employee handbook, making sure everything is in line with policy, and find the solution that works for everyone. Once everything is resolved, write up all the details of the incidents to have on the record should anything further happen.

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