Reference no: EM133138312

You are the Director of a non-profit Food Bank. You have 16 employees and 45 volunteers. You could not function without volunteers, but this creates some problems. There is frequently some tension between some of the employees and some of the volunteers.

Many of the volunteers are professionals. A volunteer who is an accountant keeps your books, and files the forms with the IRS and Department of Revenue. These volunteers resent employees always telling them what to do, and how to do everything.

Some of the employees have less education that the volunteers and resent being talked-down-to by volunteers who know less about what needs to be done than they do. The employees are suspicious that they will eventually be replaced with all volunteers. Some volunteers are unreliable, and employees are angered when volunteers are do not show up and departments are shorthanded.

Members of both groups have complained that members of the other group have insulted and harassed them. On top of that you have all of the usual disputes that any workplace would have involving employees. You do not have an HR Department as such. Your Administrative Assistant takes care of the Human Resource and volunteers paperwork.

You could not personally handle all of these disputes, some of which are rather minor. You decide to design a system to deal with them. Usually it is best to involve several steps before a problem is referred to you. The first step may be informal, such as, talk to your Supervisor or HR representative. If that is unsuccessful, the next step may be more formal, like the Supervisor meeting with both parties. Each step would become increasingly formal.

If you have an employee handbook at work, it probably contains a similar pan. You do not have to design an identical plan, but it will give you an idea of what I am looking for. The Smith and Martinez article may be helpful. You may also include any ideas to prevent these problems.