Employee Mediation

Workplace conflict is a major cause of staff turnover and can seriously impact your organisation’s bottom line. While it’s reasonable for everybody to have an occasional ‘bad day’, sometimes it can get out of hand and start causing problems that can seriously affect productivity, performance and the ongoing relationships between team members.

Conflict can arise from several different concerns including differences in personality or styles of working (‘personality clashes’), personal problems, real or perceived levels of support or resources and stress reactions.

IMPARTIAL EVALUATION

INDIVIDUAL COACHING

RESOLUTION ACTIVITIES

Don't let it get out of hand...

Most managers will first attempt to resolve disagreements between co-workers through informal processes but are often unsuccessful. Why? Because despite the best intentions, one or both parties can still feel that an internal mediator has a bias towards the other party. Relationships, shared experiences, and ‘insider’ knowledge can often make it difficult for an internal mediator to be seen as truly impartial. This perception of bias can make it almost impossible for both parties to feel satisfied with a mediation outcome.

This dissatisfaction is what can lead parties to set battle lines, fostering a win-lose mentality, and end up requesting formal processes that can lead to time-consuming, costly arbitration processes.

Why use an independent mediator?

We definitely agree that most disagreements can (and should) be resolved through informal processes, however we have found that using an independent mediator to facilitate the informal discussions often achieves better long-term results and more positive ongoing working relationships within your organisation.

Our dispute resolution specialist operates as an independent and impartial third party to facilitate discussions and mediate any issues within your workplace to assist in resolving tensions within the workplace in an informal and cost-effective manner. Our mediation and dispute resolution services are confidential and used to assist organisations resolve underlying issues to achieve positive working relationships.

This process can also identify any potential future issues that may arise and aid in creating solutions prior to these issues becoming alive. Successful mediation can assist your organisation in stabilising working relationships and aid in staff satisfaction.

Additional benefits of mediation and dispute resolution include but are not limited to:

Increased performance, productivity and motivation;
Employee retention;
Reduced stress, absenteeism, presenteeism;
Enhanced workplace communication, team functioning, and effectiveness;
Development of conflict resolution skills;
Enhances commitment;
Generated new insights; and
Leads to goal achievement.

Workplace Assessments

Workplace assessments uncover underlying tensions within teams or staff members by investigating workplace dynamics and staff satisfaction levels. This is an important step toward improving and maintaining working relationships and addressing issues in order to prevent formal complaints or actions.

Our specialist team conducts the assessment in your workplace in an integrated and holistic approach. We examine specific allegations, potential future issues, workplace culture, operational issues and provide you with a comprehensive report of findings and recommendations. This in turn is a valuable tool providing you with all the information and facts required for workplace transformation/rehabilitation.

Final note

There is definitely still a place for formal procedures in organisations and our dispute resolution specialist can also assist to facilitate these processes if your internal informal approach has not been successful.

HUMAN RESOURCES