How’s the ‘vibe’ in your workplace?
With the festive holiday season on its way and the psychological impact of another year ending, your colleagues may be reviewing their situation and workplace relationships.
Last week we had the pleasure of running our Workplace Mediation Conversion 1 day course. Our delegates included community mediators (already volunteering with Calm for Neighbourhood conflicts) with a wide variety of career backgrounds and civil/commercial mediators with a strong legal background. It’s worth noting that the delegates spanned five decades in ages.
It’s helpful to step back sometimes and look at the bigger picture in the workplace landscape. This course gave us the chance to do that, by considering the ‘workplace context’, informing us about how mediation can assist and where it fits in.
After settling a little, post-pandemic, the workplace landscape is now moving to meet the new ‘wave of change’ encompassed by AI. Differing views about how best to engage with AI (for risk/benefit), and some information leading to uncertainty about job security, are contributing to tension between colleagues. For the individual, their manager and their organisation, there are choices to be made about how to address those tensions.
Early Informal Intervention
It’s clear that the message ‘earlier the better’ for conflict intervention, is being heard. While there is a place for formal & legal processes, the opportunity for informal processes, including workplace mediation, is becoming more effectively embedded.
A recent report by ACAS (Advisory, Arbitration and Conciliation Service) highlights the benefits of information resolution. ACAS report July 2025: Defining and enabling informal workplace resolution
The report includes a useful ‘common trajectory’ for these informal routes:
· “beginning with each party having only their own perspective
· moving towards establishing a shared understanding that integrates different perspectives
· ending with mutual understanding or agreement on next steps to resolve the issue”
Put this in the context of other aspects…people are working for longer (ie to a later age) so there are more generations across the workforce. In the US, recent data shows that there are now more employees with eldercare responsibilities (23 million) than with under 5s responsibilities (21 million). For employees under time pressure (and often financial & emotional pressures too) with care responsibilities, the prospect of a lengthy and time-consuming grievance procedure is not welcome. The option to have a supported conversation with ‘the other person’ in a dispute situation is faster, more open to human understanding and generation of versatile solutions. This might be through mediation or earlier, through an appropriately trained colleague.
Managers Often Lack Appropriate Skills
The catch there is to ensure that managers have that appropriate ‘conflict resolution’ training. The ACAS report concludes: “a key barrier was the lack of managerial skills and confidence to engage effectively in informal resolution. This is compounded by limited access to management training, guidance and advice, as well as insufficient time and competing job demands on managers”. This highlights the soaring need for those essential skills to be better embedded throughout organisations.
Many organisations can offer that training, including Calm Mediation. We stand out through our 25 years of experience in conflict resolution of interpersonal situations. Our workplace mediator panel is supported through ongoing development sessions and supervision.
Two points to note: we use the ‘co-mediation’ model in which two mediators work together throughout the case – giving a stronger range of skills, experience and attention for the clients. Our charges are set to be affordable and all income is reinvested into the conflict resolution work we do as a charity.
If you or your organisation would like to strengthen your conflict resolution skills – from ‘approaching difficult conversations’ to ‘becoming a mediator’ or provision of independent mediation services – let’s have a chat.
