Mediation in the workplace: Can’t we talk about this?
October 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
Mediation can often help resolve difficult working relationships. Photograph: Aiste Miseviciute / Alamy/Alamy
They say compromise is the key to a happy relationship, but in the workplace it’s just not that easy, as the ongoing dispute between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union proves.
But even though hours of negotiations appear to be failing between the two parties (Royal Mail said last week it would only involve the conciliation service Acas if the union called off its strike threat), mediation can still work in one-on-one scenarios.
If you’re constantly being undermined by the boss, feel shaky with anxiety about low-grade sniping by colleagues in the office, or discover that a colleague has been stabbing you in the back, then you’re experiencing a level of workplace conflict that’s likely to result in long-term misery and frustration at best, or an industrial tribunal at worst.
In between the two extremes, it’s not uncommon to find one, or all, of the following: panic attacks, depression, sickness absence, retaliatory action that inflames the situation, performance reviews, disciplinary measures and sacking.
Workplace mediation, however, is a potential solution. It’s an approach that’s gaining currency with human resources departments, even though it can initially feel terrifying, particularly for junior members of staff.
For a manager who agrees to go to mediation because of a conflict that’s arisen in his or her department, there can additionally be an uncomfortable feeling of failure at their own inability to find a solution.
“There was an element of embarrassment,” recalls line manager Ian Brockhurst, who entered into a mediation with an aggrieved member of staff under him. “I was on the ‘wrong side’, according to majority opinion. I sensed other people were looking at me thinking that, as I was the senior party, I should have been able to sort it. I felt a lot of pressure that I hadn’t.”
The motivation to invest in an outside consultant’s expertise often comes from an enlightened HR manager’s awareness of what the process can achieve through their past experience, says Vicky Wells, founder of mediation company Splash Management Consultancy.
This is bolstered by the knowledge that the alternatives can get very expensive. There’s inevitably a loss of team morale and productivity while the warring parties are at each others’ throats, and, if someone resigns, there’s the cost of recruitment. If a case does end up at tribunal, there are potentially massive legal bills and any financial award to be found.
“Mediation always ought to be a consideration if you can see a complaint coming,” says Sue Weal, head of human resources at East Dorset District Council, who has commissioned several. “Given the costs, there’s a business case to be made, but it’s a compelling one if you have bosses who are open-minded.”
Indeed, the old statutory three-step grievance procedure (statement of grievance, meeting, appeal meeting) has recently been repealed. New employment legislation gives statutory force to a code of “best practice” set out by Acas, the advisory, conciliation and arbitration service, which includes guidance advocating mediation.
Penalties for not following the code includes a 25% uplift on any award given at any subsequent tribunal.
Employers can’t be forced to implement mediation, because it has to be a voluntary process, but if an employer unreasonably refuses to instigate a mediation when one …
Read the original article at Guardian
