Consensus Mediation

If you – either as a Manager or Human Resources Manager – are trying to manage a situation where relationships have become damaged or strained between two or more employees, there are a number of variables that might affect how you proceed. Let’s take a closer look at some of these:

Scenario 1: You have noticed tension or difficulties but nobody has come forward and raised it with you.

• Monitor the situation through observing the behaviours of the people involved. If you have the trust of another member of the team, you could  discuss with them in general how all the team mebers are getting on, whether there are any difficulties or issues arising.  At this point, you are trying to make a judgement as to whether you need to intervene further or whether the matter might simply resolve itself.
• Inquire of one or both parties informally how things are going with colleagues and any issues that might be arising on the team. You could mention you have noticed some tension between them and the other person(s).
  • If they acknowledge there is an issue, then you can get into a coach-like discussion with them as to what sort of options they might avail of in order to deal with this.
  • If they pass it off and say ‘everything is fine’, ensure they are aware that good workplace relationships are essential both for the welfare of the people involved in terms of their own stress levels and job satisfaction, but also in order to ensure they can get their job done effectively. Let them know also that you will be checking back again with them.

Scenario 2: One person has come to you informally and verbally said they are having a difficulty with one or more colleagues. They don’t want, however, to bring the matter to the other parties attention.

• Ensure that you let them know that you take seriously the issue they have raised and want to support them to get it resolved as quickly as possible. Don’t tell them to ‘put it in writing’ and resubmit it.
• While you will probably be asking them for more details, with ‘information’ questions such as ‘what happened’ or ‘what did you/they do’ etc. a key piece at this stage is to use listening skills to support them to ‘tell the story’ as opposed to ensuring you get ‘all the facts’.
• Use coach-like questions to help them explore their options. Rather than getting into ‘Jim’ll fix it’ mode, I advocate the use of exploratory questions to help them think through the situation and figure out for themselves what they should do. By doing this, you are implicitly letting them know that they have power and choices over how this situation progresses. Coach-like questions that you could use might be:
  • What sort of options do you see for yourself in order to get this sorted out?
  • How do you see yourself dealing with this issue?
  • How do you think I or the organisation can best support you in getting this resolved?
  • What do you see as the next steps here?
  • Imagine it is 6 months time and this has all been resolved – how do you think you might have got to that stage?
• In terms of support and resolution options some that you could explore with the person are:
  • Having a confidential ‘off-the-record’ discussion with a ‘Designated Contact Person’ or ‘Harassment Advisor’ (depends on organisation’s anti-bullying policy which of these you have in place)
  • Availing of Conflict Coaching with a trained conflict coach to help them think through in a structured and focused way how they might deal with this situation or improve their ability to manage conflict more effectively.
  • Ensure you make them aware of any confidential counselling service that your organisation might have in place for employees.
• While they don’t wish to bring the matter to the other person(s) attention, do discuss with them the pros and cons of this choice. Let them know that you will be checking back with them soon to see how they are doing and to see if the matter has been resolved.
• As a Manager or Human Resources Manager, as part of your ‘duty of care’ to staff, if a situation is brought to your attention, effectively, the company is put on notice about this. Where someone’s health or welfare seems to be seriously affected, you may have to take overt action to manage the conflictc even if they say they don’t wish this to happen. This of course should be done in full consultation with the person themselves, they should be fully aware of any action you are taking and be assured of protection and support around this.

Scenario 3: One (or more) person(s) has come to you and said they have an issue or difficulty with another person(s) in the workplace and they want to make a complaint. In terms of options, you can advise them that you can support them to resolve it informally, or, if they don’t wish to do this or have tried this already, that they can then have it resolved formally. It would be useful also to explain what the implications of both of these options are. For example, informal resolution would probably be much faster and minimise the escalation of the situation to a more conflictual one. Formal resolution would take longer and could result in a lot of stress for the person themselves as investigations tend to be adversarial by their very nature.

Informal resolution options you might offer include coaching them to resolve it themselves or having the parties mediate the situation. If you feel confident in your skills as a mediator, and consider that you would be sufficiently neutral and impartial to both the issues and the parties, it’s probably the best option for all involved. If you would like to get some support around this, why not try our Mediation Mentoring session(s). 

Alternatively, you can offer the parties the option of an external mediator, which is a service that we are happy to provide.