Hr Grievance Procedure

---
name: hr-grievance-procedure
description: Writes a grievance procedure from informal first to appeal, with timescales, roles and the rule for when the grievance is about the person who would hear it. Use for "run hr-grievance-procedure", "write our grievance procedure", "grievance policy", "how should employees raise a complaint", "grievance appeal process", "who hears a grievance about the manager", "grievance timescales", part of the AI for HR Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Grievance Procedure

## When To Use
Complaints go nowhere, or go to arbitration, because nobody knows the steps. Employees do not know how to raise something formally, managers do not know what to do when they receive it, and nobody knows who hears the appeal. This answers: what are our steps, who does each one, and how fast.

## When Not To Use
For one live concern and the conversation in front of you, use Employee Relations Intake. For action the employer takes against an employee, use Disciplinary Procedure.

## Inputs
- Where your people work (country, and state or province where it matters)
- Any current grievance policy, handbook section or contract clause
- Your reporting lines at role level: who could hear a grievance, who could hear an appeal
If you have none of this, I start from the country and your role titles and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
The procedure follows the Acas grievance procedure step by step (acas.org.uk/grievance-procedure-step-by-step) within the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Acas is written for Great Britain; the steps travel well, the legal tests do not, so every statutory point is flagged. The failure it prevents: an employee complains about their manager, the procedure says "raise it with your manager", and the complaint dies on the desk it is about.

## Workflow
1. Ask three questions: where do your people work; how many working days can you commit to for each step; who, by role, could hear a grievance and an appeal if the usual manager is involved.
2. Write the six steps as Acas sets them: understand the options, informal first; raise a formal grievance in writing; the employer responds and investigates; the grievance meeting; the outcome in writing; after the grievance, the appeal.
3. Set the timescales. Acas says "without unreasonable delay" and gives no number, so you set the working days per step; I mark each as your choice, not a legal limit.
4. Assign roles so different people investigate, hear and hear the appeal. The appeal goes to someone not yet involved, more senior where possible.
5. Add the conflicted-hearer rule: if the grievance is about the person who would hear it, name the alternative by role (another manager, a senior leader, an outside person).
6. Add the companion right for the meeting (a statutory right in Great Britain; elsewhere a policy choice and an adviser question) and state that mediation can be offered at any stage if both people agree.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Grievance Procedure
## Purpose and scope
[Who it covers, what it covers, what goes elsewhere (for example whistleblowing, discipline)]
## Steps
| Step | What happens | Who (role) | Timescale you set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Informal first | [conversation, mediation if both agree] | [role] | [n working days] |
| 2 Formal grievance in writing | [how and to whom] | [role] | [n] |
| 3 Response and investigation | [what is looked into] | [role, not the hearer] | [n] |
| 4 Grievance meeting | [companion right] | [hearer role] | [n] |
| 5 Outcome in writing | [what the letter says] | [hearer role] | [n] |
| 6 Appeal | [how to appeal] | [role not yet involved] | [n] |
## When the grievance is about the hearer
[Alternative hearer by role]
## Adviser questions
- [Companion right and time limits in this country]
## Decision
[Named person] approves the procedure by [date] and sets its review date.
```

## Done When
- All six steps are present in order, each with a role and a timescale you set
- Investigator, hearer and appeal hearer are different roles
- The conflicted-hearer rule names a real alternative
- Every statutory point is marked for an adviser

## Quality Bar
- Roles, never named people, in the procedure
- Plain language an employee can follow without asking HR
- No timescale presented as the law unless an adviser has confirmed it
- The outcome letter always says how to appeal
- Claude writes the process, never the verdict: a named person decides, and every legal point goes to a qualified adviser for the country it concerns.

## Next
Run hr-complaint-intake (Employee Relations Intake) to prepare the first conversation the procedure starts with.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).