The psychology of resolving conflict in the workplace

Mediation is engrained into the psyche of every civil and commercial litigator. It’s woven into the fabric of the Civil Procedure Rules – the rules that govern the conduct of litigation in England and Wales. It’s embedded in the civil litigator’s DNA.
And with good reason. Mediations are an effective form of resolving disputes and saving costs. The process is confidential, orchestrated and marshalled by a trained, unbiased mediator whose aim is to gently guide the parties down the road towards resolution.
It is somewhat of a mystery then that mediation isn’t typically on the tip of the tongue of every employment lawyer or HR director.
This is despite the pernicious destruction that suppressed conflict can have in the workplace. According to recent ONS data, the UK has one of the lowest productivity levels in the G7. Perhaps this is hardly surprising when, according to CEDR/CBI, unresolved conflict costs the UK economy a staggering £33 billion per year.
Everyone already knows that Employment Tribunal claims are expensive, time consuming, mentally draining and can cause irreparable reputational distress.
Yet, search every employee handbook and you are most likely to find that most dangerous of policies: the grievance procedure. A policy inherently designed to propagate dispute, accusation, animosity and ill-feeling. A policy that is focused on blame and culpability; that uses a grueling and often degrading quasi-legal process of mudslinging.
We propose an alternative: a resolution policy.
At IHL, we want to embed mediation into the heart of employment relations because we believe that all disputes, no matter how bad, are capable of being resolved. 
Workplace mediation is the process under which workers who are in conflict, either with themselves or their employer or both, are empowered to reach a practical, workable solution to their dispute, with the assistance of an independent mediator skilled in the art of dispute resolution.
We know why you might be reluctant. Will it work? What’s the outcome going to be? Parties often struggle to see a clear resolution through the fog of a preconceived notion of what a resolution might look like. The key is to work through issues in a calm and non-judgmental way that engenders constructive dialogue and creative thinking.
Sometimes we can’t see the end goal. Conflict can be loud, disruptive, confusing and scary. Let a mediator shine the light for you.
 
James Hazel qualified as a solicitor in 2008 and has held various departmental head positions in regional law firms before joining IHL as a business and employment relations adviser. He is also a CEDR accredited mediator with a particular specialism in workplace and employment disputes.