Why should you use workplace mediation?

It is a well-known fact to entrepreneurs, occupational psychologists, and HR managers that the success of a company can be affected by employee wellbeing and satisfaction.

What is mediation?

Workplace conflicts can be emotionally draining, time consuming and expensive for employers. One of the solutions could be mediation, often providing a speedy resolution to disputes and conflicts that may have been on-going for several months.  

Mediation offers a safe space for employees to express their concerns and feel heard. It can help explore miscommunication, misconception and misunderstanding early in a dispute that is often the root cause of the conflict.

Unlike adversarial approaches, mediation is not about determining who is right or wrong. It is also not about focusing on what happened in the past instead, it encourages dialogue and compromise and provides employees with a platform to resolve their dispute by themselves and choose how to continue working together as a team in the future. Mediation helps maintain and often improve professional relationships, which is crucial for ongoing collaboration and teamwork and the success of the business.

Addressing institutional challenges

In cases of a toxic environment in the workplace, mediation can be particularly helpful saving time and money for the employer.

It is often hard to identify the cause, and using grievance or disciplinary processes to identify and eradicate the problem can be extremely expensive and time consuming for management. However, group mediation can quickly identify the root causes of conflict. In previous cases we have handled, an employee complained to HR that her colleagues stopped suddenly talking to her after number of years of working together and she believed that it was because of her national origin. Having spoken to all her colleagues in the mediation private sessions it became clear that this happened because she complained about them to HR about some comments that had been made about race. They regarded her as a friend and felt betrayed by her going to HR rather than trying to resolve matters informally.

In the mediation group session, her colleagues explained that no harm was intended and had they knew that she was hurt by the comments they would not have been made. At the end of the mediation, apologies were given alongside promises about future conduct. The employer was happy, and the toxic environment vanished overnight. We checked in with the employer few months later who confirmed that the relationship in the department is better than ever, and they received no resignations or further grievances.

All of which demonstrates the benefits to employers who deal with workplace issues promptly and effectively, with workplace mediation offering  a swift and cost effective solution.

If you want to know more about mediation process and our services provided by qualified and experienced mediators, please email our Employment team.