Animal Shelter Conflict Resolution Training

Because of the high-stress, emotional nature of animal shelter work, we can expect interpersonal conflict to happen from time to time. Unless staff and volunteers are prepared to address and resolve conflict, the shelter may struggle with turnover and negative impacts on animal welfare. Conflict resolution training should be an essential component of an animal shelter staff and volunteer training program.

Meet the Challenge: Why Conflict Happens in Shelters

Working or volunteering in an animal shelter is an emotional experience. Staff and volunteers are regularly exposed to animal abuse, neglect, abandonment, suffering, pain, and euthanasia. High-stress situations, such as veterinary emergencies, also add to the emotional fatigue of shelter workers and volunteers. In addition, animal shelter workers and volunteers feel very passionately about the work that they do, which means emotional responses to perceived deficiencies in animal care can be quite strong.

The constant emotional and physical labor of caring for underserved animals may cause the worker to feel exhausted to the point of reduced empathy, which is called compassion fatigue. Chronic stress and overwork can also lead to burnout. Both compassion fatigue and emotional burnout in shelter workers impact the care provided to animals and result in conflict between people.

Common triggers for interpersonal conflict in animal shelters include:

• Workload imbalance: One worker feels they are taking on more responsibility than another worker or that expectations are higher for them.
• Communication breakdowns: A worker doesn’t know what is expected of them, uses a tone that is interpreted negatively, or doesn’t follow communication protocols. A lack of transparency could also fit into this trigger.
• Differing care philosophies: Workers disagree on the best way to provide care to animals, such as specific training methods or medical treatments.
• Resource limitations: Staff may disagree over how to allocate resources and funds. Staffing shortages may fall into this category, too.

Unresolved tension among staff and volunteers impacts worker retention and animal welfare. Workers who feel the work environment is toxic will experience burnout and poor job satisfaction. A survey looking into how conflict affects animal welfare organizations found that nearly 32% of respondents had left a previous position because of conflict, and nearly 23% had seriously considered leaving their current organization due to conflict.

High turnover also means your shelter is often short-staffed, which creates a burden for the workers and volunteers who stick with the shelter. As a result, animals may experience inconsistency in their care, receive less enrichment, and have longer lengths of stay.

Spotting the Signs: Recognizing Workplace Conflict

The following are behavioral indicators of workplace conflict that you might notice in individual staff members:

• Avoidance of specific tasks or specific people
• Being passive aggressive towards other workers or volunteers
• Toxic attitudes, cynicism, and mistrust within the workplace
• Compassion fatigue and burnout.
• Increased absenteeism

You may also notice the following effects on team cohesion and shelter operations:

• Communication failures
• Missed deadlines and slower decision-making
• More mistakes being made
• High staff turnover
• Increased length of stay for animals
• Decreased quality of animal care

Signs of workplace conflict should not be ignored. While appropriate training is important for helping staff resolve minor conflicts, it is still a manager’s job to intervene when necessary.

When intervening in staff conflict, it’s important for managers to:

• Stay neutral and calm. They should not take sides or raise their voice.
• Actively listen to the parties involved without interrupting.
• Define the problem by summarizing each side’s arguments.
• Encourage collaboration among parties while guiding them towards solutions.
• Communicate the next steps, setting clear expectations.

Tools for Resolution: Core Techniques That Work

Training for shelter managers should include core techniques that they can use to help resolve conflict. Conflict mediation for nonprofits can be difficult, especially without a dedicated HR department. Because of this, resolving staff tension in animal shelters often falls on the shoulders of managers and leadership. When handled appropriately, however, conflict can actually lead to organizational improvement and strengthen relationships.

The following are examples of tools for resolution that managers should be prepared to use:

• Active listening: The manager listens without interrupting, asks clarifying questions, and paraphrases what they’re hearing.
• Empathy exercises: Ask staff to see issues through the eyes of others. For example, if the medical team fails to disclose a health condition, it may be the front desk staff who deals with the angry adopter later.
• Structured dialogue: Set rules before a conversation begins. For example, only one person will speak at a time.
• Mediation strategies: Often, the manager serves as the mediator or “third party.” Identify shared values and avoid placing blame. Instead, focus on helping both sides come up with solutions.
• Conflict mapping: Conflict mapping involves creating a visual tool that identifies the parties in a conflict, their relationship, the issues, and their competing interests. This may be effective for more serious disagreements and can also serve as a way of documenting the issue.
• Peer facilitators: Some staff members may feel more comfortable with a peer facilitator as opposed to a manager. Trained peer facilitators can help manage small conflicts so that not all issues have to escalate to managers.

Culture Shift: Building Respectful Communication

Respectful communication should be built into your shelter’s culture. Communication within and between teams must be a normal part of daily operations.

You want to foster an environment that encourages staff and volunteers to provide feedback, whether that’s anonymously or in-person. Team members should feel safe expressing concerns without fear of repercussions. Incorporate a system for gathering feedback into your shelter volunteer management, as well.

A shelter’s culture begins at the top. If leadership isn’t modelling the behavior they want to see in their staff and volunteers, then the culture is likely to take a toxic turn. Leadership must model respectful communication. Questions for leadership to consider include:

• Do we respect work-life boundaries in our communications with staff?
• Do we model appropriate conflict resolution when we disagree during leadership meetings?
• When there is conflict, are we more concerned with disciplining someone than we are with finding solutions?
• Do we allow staff to provide their input for major organizational decisions?
• How do we respond to constructive criticism?
• Are we transparent in communications?
• Are staff expectations and boundaries clear?

Training Formats for Shelter Teams

Because conflict is such a major driver of turnover, conflict resolution training is an important part of shelter staff retention strategies. It’s a good idea to integrate animal shelter conflict resolution into onboarding for staff and volunteers.

Animal shelters can utilize in-person workshops, virtual modules, or hybrids of the two. Workshops could come from colleges, animal welfare organizations, or local conflict resolution programs.

Refresher courses should be offered so that staff members do not lose these skills. For in-person training and refresher courses, role-playing is a great method to allow staff to work through hypothetical situations.

Ensure that conflict resolution training is part of your animal shelter leadership development plan as well. Part of a healthy workplace culture in shelters is having managers and leaders who know how to address conflict appropriately.

Aside from training your staff in conflict resolution, consider incorporating regular team building for animal welfare organizations. This can include staff/volunteer retreats, game days, or social events. Workplace wellness in shelters is incredibly important for reducing conflicts that are exacerbated by compassion fatigue and burnout, and team building is a great way to encourage your team to support one another. Other training courses which may play a role in helping to reduce conflict include shelter staff communication training, mindfulness training, and stress relief training.

A Healthier Workplace Starts with Communication

The following lists detail some of the types of conflicts you may come across in animal sheltering, resolution tools that can be used in the moment, and training formats that can be included in staff onboarding and refresher courses to prevent conflict or show workers how to handle conflict.

Types of Conflicts

• Role Conflicts (e.g., who cleans kennels)
• Interpersonal Conflicts (e.g., clashing personalities)
• Resource Conflicts (e.g., not enough staff for tasks)
• Policy Conflicts (e.g., disagreements on euthanasia policies)
• Communication Conflicts (e.g., miscommunications or misunderstandings)

Resolution Tools

• Active listening
• Empathy exercises
• Structured dialogue
• Mediation (with manager or peer)
• Conflict mapping

Training Formats

• Role-playing scenarios
• Staff workshops for conflict resolution, communications skills, and stress management
• Virtual modules
• Team-building activities

Keep in mind that conflict affects staff retention and animal welfare. Your shelter should develop plans for conflict resolution that take into account the organization’s size, budget, and emotional climate. Smaller shelters may do well with small group discussions or virtual modules while larger shelters with more moving parts may wish to pursue formal training with an outside organization.

No matter the size of your shelter, conflict resolution begins with appropriate, respectful communication. As a leadership team, you should be modeling this communication at all times.