Workplace Mediation
What is Workplace Mediation?
Mediation is a completely voluntary and confidential form of resolving disruptive conflicts between staff. An ongoing conflict can damage your organisation's reputation, productivity and profitability and can often result in high level of absenteeism.
It involves an independent, impartial specialist bringing two or more individuals or groups together to help them reach a solution to a workplace dispute that's acceptable to everyone.
Mediators do not make judgments or determine outcomes - they ask questions that help to uncover underlying problems, assist the parties to not only understand the issues and clarify the options for resolving their difference or dispute, but also understand and interpret emotions and the impact this can cause.
The overriding goal of workplace mediation is to restore and maintain the equilibrium and achieve a good working relationship wherever possible. This means the focus is on working together to effectively move forward with respect for each other instead of determining who was right or wrong in the past.
Many kinds of dispute can be mediated if those involved want to find a way forward this can usually be achieved within one day. It can be used at any stage in a dispute but is most effective before positions become entrenched. Employers might want to think about writing a mediation stage into their individual grievance procedure and this is something that we can help with.
In summary the benefits of Workplace Mediation are:
- Improved working relationships;
- Improved communication within work teams;
- Staff have route to raise and attempt to resolves workplace issues;
- Better self-awareness of the impact we can have on others;
- Better awareness of colleagues’ needs and feelings.
Professional Workplace Mediators get over 300 employees a year back to a better working relationship with the current rate of success sitting at 98%.