Objective of workplace mediation is to bring people together within the same negotiating table with an goal of remedying the dispute. Just like any mediation process, mediators assist two or in quite a few instances more parties to get a usable agreement that is hopefully in the best interest of all involved. This deal must also observe any organisational guidelines and appropriate industrial statutes. In the course of the mediation process, each of the parties are encouraged to converse truthfully and produce all the attainable data to be certain of truthfulness and openness.

Many of the more typical sources of dispute in the workplace are due to discrepancy in needs and wants, views, morals, skills and expectations. Not enough regard, control or respect besides the more apparent occurrences of harassment and bullying can all be reasons for argument at work. These factors usually end in either employment termination or an employee taking a position; both of these typical scenarios will lead to a dispute predicament where a worker is claims an unfair dismissal or an employer taking disciplinary action against employee’s stance.

Workplace issues often are challenging impacting more than two parties like the instances of supporting workgroups, management teams or whole offices to differentiate concerns and resolve disputes. While workplace mediators will likely be skilled in employment and industrial law, their responsibility as mediators requires them to abstain from taking any sides through the mediation process.

In a case of an employment lawyers actually being mediators, it is evident that there must be no conflict of interest, i.e. these mediators should not be representing any of the parties legally. As with any WORKPLACE MEDIATION|WORKPLACE CONFLICT RESOLUTION, mediator’s position is not to supply any industrial or legal advice. The main function of any mediator during the gathering is to guide parties in specifically evaluating issues in dispute diferentiating the needs from wants, promote the dialog, focus on and present the options and ultimately reach the agreement which is consequently written in the mediation report.

As the intent of a good mediation process is to reach a successful settlement for all parties concerned, it’s not unheard of for mediation to result in broad feedback to management about practical changes to HR policies and workplace procedures with a view of minimising the disputes going forward. Click here for a very useful article on workplace mediation as described by Australian Fair Work workplace department.

While it is technically possible to use an in-house expert for workplace negotiation such as human resource staff or a CEO, doing this forms drawbacks concerning lack of neutrality and confidentiality. This type of on-site conciliator or arbitrator might be influenced by previous occasions, information, loyalties and alliances making them possibly biased or at least they may be thought as biased by the disputed parties. Workplace negotiation that is processed by an external official will more likely be fair, unbiased, discreet and independent.