How can I encourage my employees to mediate?

I need some advice to help me overcome resistance to mediation from my staff.

by Joanne Strong | 5th Aug 2010

Hi, I am the Head of HR for a UK company employing ca3000 people. My company established an internal mediation scheme in late 2009 but we are experiencing resistance from some employees and managers to engage in mediation. To date, of the 4 cases, we have mediated – all 4 have all resulted in a satisfactory resolution. Do you have any ideas what we can do to encourage more people to use mediation? Thank you

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Members Comments

Hi Joanne,

This is an interesting question and one that seem to be asked rather a lot by many of our customers. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. The shift to a non-adversarial culture of dispute resolution takes time and not everyone will engage fully.

However, when your managers and employees do begin to engage in mediation, the transformation can be profound.

David Liddle's top five hints for a succesful mediation scheme

Here are my five top hints to help you develop a culture where mediation is viewed positively and your employees are able to engage fully.

1. Work with all stakeholders. If mediation is seen as only an HR initiative it may be viewed with some suspicion. Get your unions, managers, occupational health and other stakeholders on board. One NHS Trust I am working with in Newcastle have actually set up a mediation coordination forum with representatives from across the Trust. This approach seems to be working well

2. Demystify mediation. Many employees and managers still don't understand what mediation. It is a new concept and for some is quite puzzling.

The areas that you need to commute clearly are:

What is mediation and how does it differ from other approaches?
What does a mediator do?
How does mediation work?
What happens during mediation?

For more information, see the FAQ's section on the TCM website

3. The next step is to promote the positive benefits of mediation. Mediation delivers fantastic results and you need to communicate these clearly:

It restores trust; it reduces stress; and it strengthens working readerships.

There is a more and more evidence available to provide support - contact me on 0800 294 97 87 to find out more.

4. A key recommendation is to include mediation in your HR policies including grievance and discipline. Unless it is clear that you are promoting mediation to resolve grievances, your employees may feel that mediation is an experiment.

No one want to feel experimented on when they are in dispute with a colleague or a manager. TCM helps companies to develop mediation policies, contact me to find out more.

5. Finally, my advice is to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. It can take a long time to move away from the adversarial approach that many organisations use for resolving disputes.

Not every case will succeed and not every employee will welcome this initiative. However, remember your key goal and remember that many employees who are in dispute just want the dispute resolved so they can get on with their jobs. In these cases, mediation is likely to be one of the best, if not the best options.

I hope that this helps and good luck, David

member : DIDIER MASSADOR, 4th Feb 2011

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