According to People Management an in-house mediation service at East Lancashire NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust has reduced formal dispute cases by 60 per cent in its first year, PM has learnt.
The trust trained 15 members of staff, including front-line workers, managers and union stewards, as mediators and appointed a dispute resolution lead to work alongside HR to coordinate the service.
I do some mediation training of the same sort . Provided it is managed carefully organisations do see a real benefit with the introduction of mediation programmes of this sort.
Sometimes however firms can have too high expectations of the results; the would be mediators need to be trained thoroughly and have plenty of opportunity to put their skills into practice.
Justin Patten
Mediation Trainer