Risk, compliance and operational policies · 05
Complaints management policy
Turns a complaint into a record and a response rather than a grievance that escalates elsewhere.
Turns a complaint into a record and a response rather than a grievance that escalates elsewhere.
Define what counts as a complaint; provide accessible channels; set acknowledgement and resolution timelines; identify the decision-maker and an escalation route independent of the person complained about; require a register with root-cause analysis; state the external remedies available, including the relevant ombud or regulator; and report trends to the board.
Telling complainants about the external remedy is not a weakness; for many regulated sectors it is a requirement, and an organisation that conceals it converts a complaint into a regulatory matter. The register is the asset: three complaints about the same clause is a drafting problem, not a service problem.
The law it sits under
What governs this instrument.
Where the organisation is an organ of state or exercises public power, a complaints procedure engages the right to just administrative action under PAJA, including the right to written reasons. For a private organisation it is a contractual and reputational instrument, but the discipline is the same: a defined route, a defined time limit, and a record of the outcome.
Related pages, tools and documents
Where this instrument sits in the wider set, and the engagement that produces it.
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