Workplace Mediation with Mediation in Action in the Thames Valley

When relationships at work fail, it can cost your company both financially and have adverse affects on your reputation.

The true cost of conflict to British business, according to the CBI is £33 billion [CBI member event 2006] . Even for SMEs, the average annual financial cost of dealing with a tribunal claim is nearly £20,000 as well as the impact on productivity and management time.

Talk to us today about workplace mediation - the way forward for building better relationships at work rather than pay for tribunal costs and having to take disciplinary action.

Workplace mediation is a cost-effective and sustainable alternative and is proven to deliver successful outcomes wherever there is conflict or a need to restore working relationships.

Mediation is as a viable alternative to the discipline and grievance process. The widely publicised 2007 Gibbons 'Better Dispute Resolution' review found current dispute legislation to be ineffective and burdensome, resulting in a recommendation for repeal and encouragement for "employers, employees and practitioners in Great Britain to increase the use of mediation" [Michael Gibbons letter to Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP, then Secretary of State for the DTI.] 

Advantages of Using MIA for Workplace Mediation

• MIA has 15 years of experience in mediation and many years of experience in business management.
• Unresolved, conflict at work can be costly in time and productivity. Mediation is likely to bring a resolution..
• Mediation will always be more cost effective than going to a tribunal.
• The satisfactory mediation outcome is an effective way to preserve reputation.
• Mediation focuses on the future working relationships of those all concerned.
• The process is entirely confidential, so that the parties involved can be confident that they can express exactly how they feel without any written record for the future.
• It will restore trust where it has broken down between management and the individual.
• Taking part in the mediation process does not forfeit your employment rights.
• Mediation is always voluntary and no side should feel favoured.

Mediation is 'without prejudice', and parties who elect to try mediation reserve their right to use other measures. Courts and tribunals take the view that, 'One party can disclose the content of earlier negotiations and/or mediations only with the express permission of the other'. Mediators cannot be called as witnesses in any subsequent proceeding, whether internal (grievance, disciplinary), or external (e.g. Industrial Tribunals).

No disputing parties have to take part in mediation as it is voluntary. The parties need to know that they are free to leave or withdraw at any time.

We will involve all the parties that have the authority to settle the dispute. We will ensure that the correct parties, i.e. those who are empowered to make the agreed changes, are involved from the outset.

The process of mediation will be entirely confidential, both within the mediation itself, and with respect to further proceedings. MIA will not divulge any confidences that are shared unless given permission to do so, and no notes or records of the mediation will be kept.

The content and terms of the agreement are entirely a matter for the disputing parties themselves to agree. They are themselves responsible for defining the problem and setting the agenda.

Contact MIA on 01865 372089