On 23rd April, Acas ran a webinar on “Making the Business Case for Mediation” with a panel of Mediation experts. Please see below for the main messages from panellists as well as further resources.
- Challenges of low productivity across the GB economic landscape, and businesses role to address the crisis with a need to invest in a more engaged, trusted workforce so that they thrive (journalist and economist Will Hutton)
- Lessons learned from recent research case study on how an acute healthcare Trust developed a culture based on early informal dispute resolution with multiple channels and skilled managers (Prof Richard Saundry and Dr Gemma Wibberley)
- The need to shift the conversation from litigation to informal resolution to limit the organisational costs of workplace conflict which is at £28.5 bn per year for businesses (Kate Nowicki, Acas Director of Dispute Resolution)
- Insightful questions and points from attendees on changing the culture around dispute resolution (carrot or stick), the importance of language, and the role of senior leaders to change the culture (Caroline Sheridan)
In the session, Kate Nowicki said that Acas will be launching a broader campaign on the value and impacts of workplace mediation later in the year, and welcomed input and involvement from attendees. Please get in touch if you would like to be further involved.
As part of that, we would be grateful if you could share the below resources with your networks and members to help us start the conversation:
Recording:
Making the Business Case for Mediation – YouTube
Blog:
Making the case for mediation | Acas
Research:
· East Lancashire Health Trust research Supporting Infographic and Slides are available from our Frontifysite.
In this PrOPEL Hub video, our expert panel share key insights on utilising mediation to effectively resolve conflict that can be directly applied in the workplace.
Mediation can help to restore and rebuild employment relationships and offers a more efficient way of handling many workplace conflicts than poorly designed and unwieldy disciplinary and grievance procedures. Developing mediation capacity can also change the way that problems are handled and encourage early and informal approaches to resolution. However, despite often being sold as a panacea, mediation is not an alternative to good, basic management practice. When used badly, mediation can lead to more problems and undermine confidence and take-up.
In this PrOPEL Hub video, our experts share key insights on utilising mediation to effectively resolve conflict that can be directly applied in the workplace. Rachel Suff, CIPD; Caroline Sheridan, Civil Mediation Council and Terry Duffy, NW Area Director of Acas focus on how we can make the most of mediation – for organisations, employees, managers and HR. This event is chaired by Professor Richard Saundry, leading academic authority on the management of discipline, grievance and workplace conflict.
