Mediation by an impartial third party offers a route to dispute resolution that is extremely cost effective and successful. It has wide application in the area of HR in reaching resolution of issues in cases of disciplinary issues, grievances, inter-personal issues and complaints. Particularly where the problem has resulted in an employee being absent from work or suspended, the cost of using mediation is more than justified by the positive outcome of reaching a speedy resolution.

Mediators encourage the parties to look at the issue from different perspectives and explore the areas in which their clients agree. Mediation encourages the parties away from the tunnel vision of winning, towards looking more broadly at the dispute in order to achieve a mutually acceptable resolution.

The advantages of mediation are that it:

• Provides rapid and cost-effective solutions
• Provides a safe forum for the precise issues to be articulated and understood so that satisfactory resolutions can be reached
• Avoids the inappropriate involvement of other employees and the time of managers and directors
• Facilitates constructive communication and improvement in relationships
• Protects the privacy of all parties
• Avoids the expense and disruption of long absences, grievance procedures and resignations

Our mediators are trained, highly skilled and have wide experience of dignity, harassment, grievance and diversity issues.