It is clear that the government is gearing up to using much more mediation with Ed Davey, the government minister writing in Personnel Today, "At the moment, we know very little about how much successful mediation takes place. This is because when it is used and it works we do not hear about it, as there is no employment tribunal claim. We want to know how much mediation is taking place, what employers' experiences of it are and what the reasons are for it not being used more often to resolve disputes. This is why I would like to encourage employers to contribute to our consultation. We have heard from a wide variety of parties, but would welcome further views too, particularly in relation to the use of mediation to resolve workplace problems."
Laudable as this is, there is a long way to go to implementing a successful mediation legislation.
But what are the factors that make workplace mediation successful?
1 Appointment of the right mediator. The biggest variable which makes a mediation successful is the appointment of the correct person. If you appoint the wrong person, the chances of success are much lower.
2 Defining the objectives of the mediation. Most employees are ignorant about how the mediation process works. Therefore it is cruciial that the parties have their expectations and knowledge about the process carefully managed.
3 Managing it carefully. One of the crucial issues of mediation is that workplace mediation can morph from a discussion about getting two people to work together to becoming a Compromise Agreement. As a consequence it requires careful, sensitive management by the mediator.
4 Buy in by the parties. The parties to the mediation need to be fully engaged and not view this as going through the motions exercise. The mediator can put subtle pressure on the parties but the parties need to be involved as well.
5 Humility by the organisation. Within a workplace mediation, often organisations need to buy in as well and consider why has this situation come to pass. Sometimes solutions may not be entirely due to the errant employee(s)/immediate managers. Can they take the feedback?
Justin Patten, Mediator