Your guide to handling workplace conflict

Workplace conflict can happen for many reasons like a difficult conversation that gets avoided or a working relationship that quietly breaks down. These are usually where formal grievances begin, long before anyone puts anything in writing.

According to Acas research published in 2025, 44% of working-age adults in Great Britain experienced workplace conflict in the past 12 months. This free guide helps you recognise it early and deal with it fairly.

What’s inside the guide?

You’ll find practical guidance on:

• What causes conflict at work and why the same issues keep coming up
• How unresolved conflict affects your team’s performance and your business
• How to spot the early signs before someone puts something in writing
• When an informal conversation or mediation is the right call
• When you need to move to a formal process and how to get it right
• Running a fair and consistent grievance process
• Creating a culture where problems actually get raised

What you’ll get from the workplace conflict guide

When conflict takes hold in a team, you often don’t see the full picture until it’s already a formal complaint. That could be when motivation drops, attendance suffers, or when good people start looking elsewhere.

Not every situation needs to go formal. Often, the right conversation at the right moment is enough, but only if you know which situation you’re in. This guide gives you a clear framework for making that call.

Who’s it for?

You’ll find it most useful if you:

• Own or manage a business where HR decisions sit with you
• Lead a team and people issues regularly land on your desk
• Work in HR or a people management role
• Are a line manager handling a grievance for the first time
• Want clearer processes in place before the next problem comes up