When an employee gets angry, there are typically justified reasons for them to do so. When that happens, you as a manager or HR professional (or even a co-worker), should take the opportunity to engage the employee, as your response to your employee’s outburst may be the best way to develop a long term employee, and gain trust from that employee. According to an article by Mel Kleiman in tlnt.com, employees who go out of their way to express their grievances are a great source of information on what is really happening in the company. An angry employee can voice their displeasure, keep it bottled up, or leave for another company. By expressing their displeasure, you can learn about and fix problems in your organization.

Mr. Kleiman suggests you do the following:

Thank them for letting you know about their issue, and how valuable the feedback is.

Show empathy for their frustration, and let them know you really do care.

Get all the details. Make sure that they have not left anything out.

Apologize for their frustration. Let them know that you are truly sorry they are experiencing problems.

Take action on the items of their frustration. This is where you can win back the employee and keep them as a trusted team player.

Follow up. Make sure you have completed what you are doing about the source of frustration and make time to discuss again with the employee.

An angry and frustrated employee can disrupt business and the office setting. Fixing the problem can help your business and in the long run, be a good thing for your organization.

Managepoint is the leader in outsourced human resources. We do payroll, benefits, administration and training. We can help your company by being your HR department, and help you handle all issues, including an angry employee. Call us today and we will show you the Managepoint difference.