How Would You Resolve an Employee Dispute?

You could say, it’s not up to Employee A to resolve a dispute between Employee B and Employee C.

You could say that.

But if the supervisor for Employees A, B and C isn’t around or isn’t into resolving disputes, are we going to just let disputes fester?

Well, sometimes we do.

But let’s check with our applicant and see if she is inclined to get in there and mix things up.

“Mary, let’s say two employees that work near you are having a dispute. It gets a bit loud. The supervisor isn’t around, and you’ve learned the supervisor doesn’t particularly care to get involved in employee disputes. What would you do?”

Mary answers that she wouldn’t try to get involved in such things.

Okay, that’s an honest answer. And maybe a good approach as Mary worries that she risks making the dispute worse if she involved herself.

Or Mary answers that she’d want to do what she could to resolve the dispute. If that’s what Mary would do, let’s find out how she would do that.

“That sounds very responsible, Mary. Could you let me know how you go about that?”

And Mary does.

This is one of those hiring tips where there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer. But it will give you some insight into how your applicant views her position in the workplace.

Not wanting to rock the boat and taking the safe route.

Or being pro-active and keen on fixing things that appear to need fixing, even if fixing them isn’t specifically in her job description.

Again, either way, you’re going to learn something of value about your prospective employee.