From cost effectiveness to future-focused problem-solving, workplace mediation can help companies and individuals navigate difficult times.
Defined by barrister, arbitrator and mediator Michael Bready, mediation is a voluntary process led by an impartial third party aimed at resolving conflict. While an ideal workplace would operate seamlessly, without disruption or distraction, that simply isn’t reality and often to avoid more serious consequences, mediation is required to bridge a gap between warring co-workers.
“Conflict can occur in any employment relationship and is best dealt with early at the source,” Bready told SiliconRepublic.com. “If left unchecked, it can fester and escalate, potentially leading to grievance and discipline procedures or the need for parties to attend an employment tribunal to adjudicate their dispute.
“Mediation avoids these formal, stressful and expensive routes by guiding participants towards reaching mutually acceptable solutions.”
Fortifying the workforce
For Bready, it is important that employers take on the responsibility of ensuring that managers and team leaders can quickly identify disputes before they escalate. They should be aware of mediation and its impact, what it means and what it can achieve on behalf of a company and its employees, so it can be offered to workers at every level in a business.
“The greatest problem currently is that not everyone knows about the availability of mediation and the fact it is an alternative to court or tribunal. It takes years of training and practice for any mediator to develop their skills. It also takes a certain type of temperament and personality for a person to be an effective mediator.”
Issues such as poor work culture, unaddressed stressors and miscommunication often cause tensions to build up in workplaces. Bready thinks that employers should view workplace disputes as a barrier to be dismantled.
“It blocks productivity, a positive and healthy working environment and can detrimentally affect relationships,” he says. “Mediation can remove the blockage in a healthy, effective and restorative manner.”
While he noted that mediation has the power to rebuild and heal fractured workplace relationships, early intervention is key. Frequently problems arise as a result of poor communication, where one person feels that their point of view is being disregarded.
“Mediation can provide a forum for each side to ‘hear’ what the other side is feeling. An apology or an explanation can often go a long way towards the resolution of a dispute between parties.”
And because mediation is typically conducted in a less formal venue, participants feel less pressure and the overall process can be more proactive and fruitful.
The personal cost of disputes
Mediation is popular for a number of reasons, such as the positive impact it can have on the workforce, the avoidance of a court case or tribunal and the cost effectiveness.
“Whilst the costs of mediations will vary according to the complexity of the dispute and the time required to have the mediation, the cost will be fixed at the outset in an entirely transparent way and there will be no surprises.
“Mediation is nearly always a cheaper process than litigating a dispute in court.”
Bready noted that what is often forgotten in disputes is the personal cost of litigation. People who have been put through the rigorous process of a court hearing and cross examination will have endured significant stress and this will likely have a detrimental impact on relationships, be they business, social or personal.
“The relationship, no matter what its basis, is likely to be irreparably damaged,” he says.
For Bready, the only poor mediation policy a workplace can have is not having one. Mediation, he says, empowers people, helping them to take responsibility for their own disputes and enabling them to be part of finding a solution.
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