Guest blog by Liz Kendall
Having spent most of my career in law and healthcare, one phrase stands out as being pervasive in both contexts – early intervention. I advocate for the importance of early-stage health and wellbeing services for staff and its obvious benefits. Switching back to working in a law firm again has enabled me to combine this with educating employers about the benefits of early intervention of workplace mediation. There is an important link between these two types of early intervention.
In the medico-legal sector, the term early intervention of rehabilitation is frequently used by insurance companies and law firms alike to describe the quickest way for someone to make the best possible recovery. The sooner someone receives recommended treatment, the better the prognosis. Alternatively, the longer the delay in treatment, the longer the recovery.
The same principle can be applied to workplace conflict. All too often we hear of organisations ignoring the first signs of friction between employees, brushing the issue aside and hoping that it will go away. This is to the detriment of the employees both directly and indirectly in dispute. Starting with a decrease in productivity, periods of absence occur; stress and anxiety symptoms usually follow. Sometimes it is not until this point that the matter gets picked up by Human Resources/Occupational Health. Perhaps a grievance is raised which may culminate into a disciplinary, dismissal, employment tribunal. This is far too late. The cost to the organisation of prolonged workplace conflict runs into thousands of pounds and the effect overall on health and wellbeing of employees can be devastating for the future of that company. A few years ago, Acas reported that the cost of conflict to UK organisations was approximately £28.5 billion per annum. This is unsustainable.
Which is where early intervention of workplace mediation comes in. Using an independent Workplace Mediator as soon as conflict is noticed by a member of staff can help the parties resolve their differences, exploring ways in which they can collaborate with each other. The service is both voluntary and confidential. The organisation benefits from reducing absenteeism, retaining their key trained staff, and avoiding costly legal employment tribunal fees. This also creates a healthier, happier environment in which to work and reduces the claims experience.
This service sits perfectly well within an OH offering as it does a Human Resources service. Very often OH is the first person to identify that an employee’s ill health and/or absenteeism is in some way caused or contributed to by an underlying workplace issue. A combination of all three services helps to reduce down referral time, which in turn, helps to get the employee back to the workplace.
Early intervention of mediation effectively bridges a gap. It does not serve as a replacement for another service. It can stand alone or can be an additional step in the process of addressing conflict in the workplace either before or during referral to OH/HR. This helps to filter out those disputes between key members of staff that are capable of being rectified, preventing the matter from escalating into something from which there is no return. There are exceptions of course. Workplace mediation is not suitable for those matters where someone has been the subject of varying forms of harassment and/or violence. Ultimately, there will always be instances that start at grievance level and require the expertise of employment lawyers to assist throughout the process.
If we want to make a noticeable change, we must be open to having discussions with stakeholders to create a delivery solution that covers all eventualities. A professional pool of expertise, with the emphasis on early intervention, will help to make a noticeable reduction in the cost of workplace conflict and an improvement of the general health and wellbeing of employees.
Liz Kendall, Everys Mediation Team. Fellow of the Civil Mediation Council and Vice Chair of the Devon & Somerset Law Society’s Mediation Panel. She champions early intervention and promotes mediation with Occupational Health, Human Resources, and wellbeing strategies.