Many businesses will tell you they have internal mediators – members of HR who do their best to address a difficult situation when it escalates. Yet, no matter how skilled your internal team is, that isn’t true mediation. It’s a facilitated conversation between several employeeswhere participation is expected, if not required, and where the needs of the business are often the ultimate priority.
True mediation is different. It’s impartial, completely confidential, and is delivered by an external, accredited expert who knows how to get the best from the situation. Many people don’t really understand what mediation is, or why you’d use it. Yet it offers an essential, cost effective, solution for addressing workplace conflict in your business. To help you get the best from both your internal and external support, this blog explores:
- What mediation is and how it works
- What’s great about internal facilitation
- Why an external mediator is a good thing to have
What is mediation?
Let’s start by explaining what mediation isn’t.
It isn’t forcing two people who don’t get on to sit in a room together and talk about their issues. In fact, that’s almost the opposite.
Mediation is:
Impartial: a trained mediator isn’t connected to the company. They take a wholly independent view and aim to find a resolution through encouraging participants to speak freely about their personal concerns and perspectives on a situation. The mediator doesn’t share their own views, nor try and influence or guide participants to any particular outcome.
Confidential: Nothing about a mediation session is shared with the company unless there is complete agreement from all the parties involved. No notes are taken, or forwarded, no details are passed back. The sessions are completely confidential and those taking part are reassured they can say whatever they need and want to.
Conducted on a without prejudice basis: Mediation is a protected conversation, separate from any other process. Its details can’t be shared in other processes e.g. disciplinary or grievance hearings, and any action plans are agreed directly with the individuals involved, not the company.
Voluntary: Have you ever been forced to see a counsellor? If you have, you’ll know it often ends up being a waste of time. The same is true of mediation. A key element is knowing you don’t have to take part. Deciding to start mediation is a voluntary process, and individuals can opt out at any stage.
How mediation works
Initially, the mediator meets with each party individually. During this first discussion, they explain their role as mediator and confirm the aim of mediation – to better understand one another’s needs and, ideally, identify a mutually agreed way forward that works. They’ll also discuss the details of the issue.
A mediator doesn’t then just sit and chat. They use their expertise to ask questions, and assess body language, responses and tone to get to the heart of the issue. They can then explore what next steps might look like and how that relates to the other person.
Once individual consultation is concluded, all parties are typically invited to take part in a joint mediation. This may be in-person or online, depending on the situation. During joint mediation, the aim is to enable understanding and begin to re-build relationships. It’s a way to help everyone explore the different perspectives involved and (hopefully) acknowledge others may have an alternative view of what’s happened.
The final stage is reaching agreement. It is up to participants to identify their own solutions,and the mediator helps individuals consider how this might be achieved.
At the end of the meeting, the mediator provides a Mediation Outcome Agreement which is signed, and the parties involved are expected to follow it. The details of this agreement and the mediation sessions are only shared with the company with the agreement of allindividuals.
How internal facilitation differs
As you can see, mediation must be impartial and confidential to work effectively. Not all conflict situations need this, however. Many smaller, internal disputes can be resolved through facilitated conversations.
These conversations always have an agenda. It might not be explicit, but it’s there. A senior leader or head of HR expresses a need for this situation to be “resolved”. They may even have provided guidance on what a reasonable solution to this issue might be.
With facilitated conversations, they may have some level of confidentiality as the details are unlikely to be discussed outside of approved managers and the HR Department, yet aren’t mediation as they fail on the other three criteria (impartiality, conducted on a without prejudice basis, and being voluntary).
They’re also typically ‘surface’ conversations using facts, examples, and practical processes. Any tangible action is focused directly on business needs. In comparison, mediation explores deeper issues relating to feelings, perceptions and needs. The focus is on the individuals.
When to use internal facilitation
There are many low-level disputes which benefit from internal facilitation. A misunderstanding between two colleagues about a project deadline, an over-zealous manager who gets excited in their first employee one-to-one, exploring reasonable adjustments to support a health concern. In fact, lots of situations benefit from active listening and empathy as ways to improve communication.
Your internal facilitators are skilled communicators. They can spot the signs when something more is going on. They can see patterns of behaviour and attitudes and ask great questions to get to the root of the problem. What they can’t do is be impartial.
Where your aim is to help the parties involved see a different perspective and work better together, facilitated conversations work well. They can also be your cue to get an external mediator in as the internal expert recognises the issues are more deep-rooted and needssomeone neutral to assist.
When you need an external mediator
The more complex the issue, the more likely you’ll need an external expert. Here are some typical examples when mediation would be better than a facilitated conversation:
- Senior level disagreements
- Potential bullying, harassment and discrimination issues
- Ongoing/long-lasting conflicts which are escalating
- Relationship issues causing financial costs or delays to critical projects.
- Breakdown of communication between multiple parties
- To proactively resolve concerns before a formal grievance lands
This list isn’t exhaustive, but it demonstrates the broad range of circumstances mediation can support.
An external mediator can help participants identify a more objective view using their skills, knowledge and experience. Individuals are empowered to determine their own resolution rather than having something imposed. Crucially mediation typically takes a matter of days and gets to the crux of the problem quickly. Formal grievances, on the other hand, can take weeks, if not months to conclude.
Why mediation can be great for business
Mediation is most successful when used early. The parties are open to exploring options, having a conversation with an expert, and seeing if they can resolve their differences. It’s a cost-effective way of addressing the issue. The dispute doesn’t run for months, costing the company valuable productivity. Instead, it’s resolved within days, and there’s a clear commitment (through the Mediation Outcome Agreement) for everyone to move on.
Using mediation proactively within your business not only helps resolve the situation, but can also protect relationships from deteriorating and actually improve them moving forward.
If you’re facing a workplace conflict situation, especially if it’s been ongoing for a while, get in contact. Let’s talk about the problem and see what can be done to help resolve it, quickly. Call the HR Detective hotline on 01278 802329 or email debbie@thehrdetective.co.uk.
