Mediation to resolve conflicts in your team

Is there a conflict between two members of your team? Are your employees accumulating disagreements, no longer able to work effectively together and requiring your constant involvement in managing their relationship? You don’t know what to offer them and your patience has reached its limit? It is quite normal to sometimes feel ill-equipped to respond to such challenges. The mediation to resolve conflicts in your team.

Your responsibility as a manager is to protect the well-being and safety of your employees and, at the same time, to preserve the quality of the work climate in your company. Consequently, it is your responsibility to act diligently in conflict situations. Iceberg Management proposes that you entrust this conflict management to a professional certified by the Ordre des CRHA.

Mediation as a solution

Mediation is a process by which a neutral and impartial person helps employees involved in a conflict to communicate, to try to resolve their difficulties and to find a favorable outcome to their disagreement by themselves. The mediator’s role is also to accompany the manager in charge in the follow-up of the process in order to ensure the sustainability of the solutions identified.

The mediation process follows (5) five phases that will allow the implementation of solutions that are fair to the parties involved.

1. The first phase is in our opinion the most important; it allows the parties involved to fully understand the mediation process and to make a free and informed decision as to whether or not they wish to be part of it. In this way, the mediator ensures the full commitment of the employees. This is ESSENTIAL to the success of the process!
2. The second phase allows employees to share their experience and feelings in a safe and confidential setting before engaging in a more open dialogue.
3. The needs identification phase then turns to the future. What will they need to re-establish a healthy and respectful working relationship? What interests do they want to protect in order to feel comfortable in their interactions? These are all questions that the mediator invites employees to explore.
4. The fourth phase allows for the identification and negotiation of creative solutions to disputes.
5. At the end of the last or fifth phase, the mediator invites the parties and the manager to sign the agreement thus created.

The benefits of choosing mediation

The advantages of mediation are significant compared to other methods such as the development of personal development plans that require multiple follow-up meetings:

– Since it is a free and voluntary process, we make sure that employees who get involved do so with a real commitment. This is the first ingredient for a lasting resolution.

– Mediation is also flexible, adapting to the particular circumstances of your company and the specific needs of your employees.

Moreover, considering the current labour shortage and the costs associated with departures, it is important to promote employee retention through the rapid resolution of disputes. Mediation is a cost-effective option for reducing non-quality costs, particularly because it is quick and efficient.

Take advantage of a free one-hour consultation with one of our consultants to assess whether mediation is a solution for you. We will accompany you step by step in this delicate situation. You will emerge liberated and better equipped to prevent these situations and to intervene in case of conflict.

By Jacinthe Doyon, CHRP

Editor of the HR Espace Conseils blog – Iceberg Management