What is Workplace Mediation?

What is workplace mediation?

Im Catherine Gillespie, Managing Director of Workplace Conflict Resolution, a Nationally Accredited Mediator and Senior Experienced Workplace Investigator. In this video presentation Id like to share with you what is and is not workplace mediation.1

Workplace mediation aims to find resolution between two or more conflicting parties.

A workplace mediation is essentially a meeting between two or more parties who are experiencing conflict, with the aim of the meeting to lead discussions to find resolution. The chair of the meeting should be somebody independent to the issues being discussed and preferably independent to the parties in the mediation.

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Workplace MediationA workplace mediation is not a process designed to determine facts and make findings on exactly what happened or make a ruling on who is right or wrong.

A workplace mediation is not a process designed to determine facts and make findings on exactly what happened and make a ruling on who is right or wrong. And yet sometimes thats what the parties in mediation want, is for someone to be labelled right and the other person to be labelled wrong. If one or more parties is looking for a process that clears their name and labels the other person as wrong or at fault, then a workplace investigation and not a mediation should be conducted. However an investigation should only be conducted where there is reasonable grounds to believe a workplace policy may have been breached. So in light of this the mediator should not be trying to uncover the truth about actions and behaviours that occurred pre, during and post the incidents in question.

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Facts are distorted because there are at least two perspectives in every conflict situation.

Rather the mediator should understanding that in a conflict situation each person has a different perspective and the facts will be distorted by these perspectives. So trying to hold the discussion to find agreement on the facts is going to be very difficult and often leads to the conversation coming to a holt. Conflict occurs not only because these parties have different perspectives but because they also havent been able to communicate and resolve the conflict for themselves. So the mediators role is to encourage each party to share their views but not to gain agreement around these views.

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The mediators role is to help find agreement about future workplace interactions

The mediators role is also to help the parties find agreement about future workplace interactions and not past interactions. The mediators role is to lead the parties to identify what changes in their interactions and behaviours are required that will support them to work safely, respectfully, professionally, and productively going forward together in the future.

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The mediation format may varyWorkplace mediations are a voluntary processA support person may be present

Because these parties in mediation havent been able to resolve the conflict and communicate well with each other the mediator may do well to hold pre-mediation phone call meetings with each person to be able to coach them around improved communication techniques and to coach them to see beyond their own perspectives and start to vision realistic, possible outcomes that they can put forward for discussion in the mediation. Its best that any agreement reached is recorded and documented and signed off by both parties. A mediation may be held in the one meeting room with both parties sitting together opposite each other talking. Or it could be held in two separate rooms in a shuttle mediation with the mediator moving backward and forward between the parties delivering information from one to the other.

Dont forget that workplace mediations are a voluntary process. Parties may choose not to participate or may start the process and then withdraw at any time. In addition, each party to mediation is entitled to have a support person present.

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MediationInvestigations

Training

If you would like to know more about successful workplace mediation techniques or would like a workplace mediation conducted at your workplace, here is show you can contact us.

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