Mediation & Strategic Conflict Resolution

Overview

Course duration: 1 day.

This course is run in partnership with JSB.

Strategic conflict resolution and mediation skills training will equip you with the know-how to create a strategic mediation structure within your organisation and a robust approach to resolve conflict through supportive management strategies.

Getting to grips with the management strategies surrounding conflict in the workplace can be a challenging process for HR. Successfully handling conflict and resolving workplace disputes can have multiple advantages for business performance - improved employee relationships, enhanced productivity and decreasing levels of absenteeism are all positive outcomes of effective dispute management.

What's more, the ACAS Code of Practice places a much greater emphasis on the use of internal mediation to resolve disputes – it is therefore essential that HR professionals understand the options available for dispute and conflict resolution.

This strategic conflict resolution and mediation skills training will equip you with the know-how to create a strategic mediation structure within your organisation and a robust approach to resolve conflict through supportive management strategies.

Is it right for me?

Designed for HR professionals, line managers, in house councillors and legal advisers, policy advisers, employee communication professionals and employee and industrial relations officers.

What will I learn?

By the end of this seminar you will be able to:

• Learn how mediation can be linked to core business objectives and understand the legal framework surrounding Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• Evaluate the behavioural and emotional reasons behind conflict at work.
• Get to grips with the mediation process and the different styles of mediation which can be used.
• Gain practical advice on how to manage relationships successfully in your workplace.

What will it cover?

What is mediation and why is it so important?

• Understanding the history behind mediation
• Addressing the key principles and aims of mediation 
• Why is mediation needed: the business case for mediation and advantages over litigation

Understanding the law behind mediation and legal implications for the future

• The Gibbons Report, Civil Procedure Rules and the Employment Bill reforms
• Court support for mediation
• Understanding mediation in relation to disciplinary and grievance procedures
• Mediation clauses and the contract of employment

Undestanding conflict: Evaluating the behavioural reasons behind conflict at work - Identifying conflict hotspots in your organisation

• Why does conflict exist in the workplace?

• Conflict mindsets

• How to identify the root causes of conflict in the workplace and recognise the early stages of disruption

• The "conflict triangle"

• Dealing with conflict

Gearing up for mediation and creating a workplace structure that works in your organisation

• Identifying where your organisation wants to be in relation to mediation

• Deciding where the mediation function should sit within the workplace

• Implementing a workplace structure: choosing between internal or external mediators and deciding upon the best course of action to take

The process in practice - Evaluating difference mediation styles

• Understanding facilitative, transformative and evaluative mediation and deciding which style best suits your organisation
• The phases of mediation and evaluating the role of the mediator
• Effectively managing the mediation process: record keeping and time management

Interactice session: where to go from here?

• Where will mediation fit within your organisation and in what shape and form?