Hampshire Mediation works with both employers and employees to resolve workplace disputes, some of which can include an element of bullying. Disputes in the workplace can be extremely traumatic for everyone involved. Left unchecked, the smallest disputes can balloon out of all proportion, poisoning the atmosphere in the workplace, causing mental and physical illness, and damaging the profitability and even the very existence of the company or organisation.
Mediation is a quick and effective means of addressing workplace disputes early and decisively, restoring efficiency and effectiveness to the organisation, and releasing the tension on the individuals and groups involved in the dispute. As mediation has an 85% success rate, and studies further indicate that an acceptable solution is far more conducive to re-establishing, or restoring good relationships, mediation is ideally suited to workplace disagreements where everyone has to return to the same workplace at the conclusion of the mediation.
Why do we need workplace mediation?
An organisation’s employees are vital to its success, whether that success is measured in goods sold in a shop or the quality of education offered by a school or college. Nothing is more disruptive to that success than a conflict between two colleagues. Friction within the team can have a disastrous impact on productivity, motivation and engagement, but the effects are not felt only at work. Colleagues engaged in a dispute will take their resentment and anxiety home with them, where it will impact on their home lives, denying them the respite that home should offer and making the problem even worse. It also affects individuals’ physical and mental health and their overall well-being.
About workplace mediation
Mediation in the workplace has been around for over 30 years, and its success in resolving disputes has been recognised by individuals, trades unions, employers’ organisations and the government. It is increasingly popular with employers who recognise that it is more important to help their employees work out their own solutions to their difficulties rather than to impose a solution.
Workplace mediation is an informal and entirely confidential process wherein the two parties to the dispute work together to explore their difficulty, understand it, and then identify and develop means of overcoming it and putting it behind them.
They do this by working with an impartial third party – the mediator – who helps in the mediation process but does not seek to impose any particular solution on those taking part. The process focusses on the effects of the dispute, helping everyone to come to a full understanding of it and its impact. It is not about identifying who is right and who is wrong, and it is certainly not about apportioning blame for what has gone before. It is about identifying what can be done to fix the problem, and working out a clear strategy for the future.
The outcome of workplace mediation is, in around 90 per cent of cases, a settlement agreement. Unlike other forms of mediation, that agreement is not legally binding in workplace mediation but it is certainly morally binding. The agreement is also a private document between the individuals concerned, and nothing in it is ever shared with anyone else without the express permission of the individuals involved. That includes the employer.
How we can help
Hampshire Mediation can be effective in helping organisations to address all manner of disputes, including:
- Disputes between individual members of staff
- Workplace bullying and harassment
- Disputes between individual members of the management team
- Disputes between management and staff over pay and conditions
- Disagreements over employment contracts
- Disagreements over working conditions
- Change management
One key irritant in many workplaces is change. Change introduces uncertainty and can make even the most accepting and cooperative people feel anxious and uncertain. Hampshire Mediation can also help your company manage change by bringing together all members of staff affected by change and finding a way to implement it that is understood by, and acceptable to, all parties.
Workplace bullying
Mediation of workplace bullying is a specialised area of workplace mediation. Bullying in the workplace can be terribly damaging not only to the individuals experiencing it, but also to other employees and staff who are aware it is going on. It is often a matter of perception and realisation, and it is not uncommon for the alleged perpetrator to be mystified that their behaviour should cause a problem. In the long run, this is not only a problem for individuals, but also for companies’ performance and profitability.
Because bullying involves an element of intimidation and the victim often feels fearful about entering into mediation, Hampshire Mediation will perform a mediation where the person accused of bullying is not initially in the same room as the person alleging they are being bullied. If it is appropriate, at some stage later in the mediation the two parties may come into the same room, but this is not always necessary, and the aim of mediation is to keep every participant feeling as comfortable as possible.
By working together with everyone involved, Hampshire Mediation is able to offer long-term and effective solutions to workplace bullying, restoring harmony and efficiency to the workplace.
Our terms and conditions for workplace mediation can be found here.