Corruption Matters - June 2021 | Issue 57
Managing unreasonable conduct from home: complaint-handling before and after a global pandemic
Covid-19 kickstarted a year of remote work for thousands of professionals across Australia, including the frontline complaint-handling team at the NSW Ombudsman. Here’s how the team pivoted to manage unreasonable conduct by complainants while working from home.
Over the last 12 months, the NSW Ombudsman received fewer complaints than normal, particularly those made by telephone. The drop in complaints was mirrored by a drop in unreasonable conduct by complainants (UCC); that is, complainant behaviour that raises health, safety, resource or equity concerns for people involved in the complaint process.
While this drop may seem surprising, our insights suggest that the shift was likely the result of the pressures of Covid-19. Members of the public were understandably focused on pressing concerns like personal health and safety, and the financial impacts that come with job loss or reduced working hours. But, with the Covid-19 pandemic now largely under control in NSW, complaint volumes, including instances of UCC, are slowly returning to previous levels.
The importance of supporting complaint-handlers to manage UCC
Unreasonable conduct can happen through telephone communications and face-to-face interactions, but also online or in written correspondence. Supporting complaint-handling staff to respond to challenging behaviours should be a key priority for supervisors and senior management. This support enables staff to take appropriate, clear actions when UCC happens, no matter how or where it takes place.
How we supported staff working remotely
Working from home became commonplace in 2020. Even now, in early 2021, many organisations still have staff working remotely at least some of the time. For organisations like ours that deal with complaints, the shift to remote working threw up new challenges. We had to think creatively about how we could still fully support staff managing telephone calls involving UCC while they were working from home.
At the NSW Ombudsman, the assessments team, who are our frontline complaint handlers, started working from home in March 2020. This posed a challenge for supervisors, who normally rely on staff reporting problems to them, as well as being alert for physical cues – like body language and tone of voice – to indicate a challenging telephone call.
In response to the change in work environment, the team developed numerous strategies to ensure complaint-handlers were well supported during the remote working period. Managers and supervisors started by reducing the amount of contact frontline staff had with UCC – calls with the potential to involve UCC were escalated to more senior staff, thereby minimising the pressure on frontline staff to engage with potentially difficult situations from home.
During and after calls, the team used a range of techniques to ensure staff could access supervisors for assistance and support. Importantly, supervisors retained their capacity to remotely connect to calls in real-time, and they were also available via instant messaging to respond to staff queries. Following challenging calls debriefs were conducted over video conference, with regular follow-up for affected staff.
In 2021, the team has continued to enjoy a flexible approach to work, with many staff working in the office as well as at home. Many of the techniques above are still in use.
Enhancing knowledge and skills about UCC
Dealing with UCC is challenging. Whether staff members are in the office or at home, it is critical that they are able to identify the early warning signs of unreasonable conduct and have the skills and knowledge to implement strategies to prevent and manage it. It is also important that senior staff know how to provide appropriate assistance and support to frontline workers.
Our recently refreshed Managing Unreasonable Conduct by a Complainant manual contains valuable information that will assist officers from both public and private organisations understand:
- the characteristics and impacts of unreasonable conduct
- why some complainants behave unreasonably
- how to identify the warning signs, escalations and safeguards of unreasonable conduct
- key strategies to prevent and manage unreasonable conduct
- how to best support frontline staff dealing with unreasonable conduct.
Our new blended-learning training about managing UCC provides further insights for participants, including discussion about real-world examples.