New Year's Conflict Resolution: Understanding Mediation

Christmas may be drawing near but activity at People Resolutions HQ is showing no signs of winding down just yet. We're putting the finishing touches to a new publication – Workplace Mediation: Top 10 Tips for HR Professionals – that will join a growing library of digital resources when it hits the website shelves in early 2013.

Aimed at those exploring the use of workplace mediation (firstly, we salute you), the guide walks through some critical considerations to be made before, during and after each mediation. Alongside the success factors, it also highlights common pitfalls to avoid and thereby protect the parties and organisation from potentially serious risk.

We were keen to distill a lot of the mediation best practice we've picked up over the years into something of immediate application to HR practitioners. During the planning stage, it was also important to us that the guide doesn't take longer than drinking a cup of coffee to read.

By the same token, we'll be conveying the advice within the guide in a 1-hour online presentation, on 16^th January 2013. Click here to register and listen in from your computer.

As we reach the end of the production process, from ideas generation and copywriting to proofing and design, we're excited to announce the release of the guide in late January. For now, you can scan through the tips in summary form and concentrate on finishing up for the holidays.

This is us signing off until 2013 so we wish you a very Merry (and conflict-free!) Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Making Conflict Visual

Workplace Conflict, in varying forms, is consistently on the rise.  Yet, many organisations have yet to take stock of the havoc that unaddressed conflict can wreak on an organisation.  Whilst most of us are aware of the formal outputs of conflict, little is understood about the less tangible outputs.

Allow us to illustrate with an example.  50% of employees involved in conflict will leave the organisation as a direct result.  Given that most workplace conflicts are not based in rights and wrongs, but in personality clashes, misunderstandings and relationship breakdowns; can your organisation afford to lose key talent in this, entirely preventable and unnecessary way? 

But how to help organisations recognise that workplace conflict causes more than just grievances, disciplinaries and tribunals?  Well, here at People Resolutions, we thought we’d bust out the company crayons, channel our best Rolf Harris impression and bring the real impacts of conflict to you in full technicolour with our very first infographic.

Check it out and tell us what you think.  “Can you tell what it is yet?”…….Good huh?!

Are you missing the most important step in your workplace investigations?

With employment tribunal claims still on the rise, it's perhaps no wonder that organisations are placing ever more importance on conducting their workplace investigations accurately and consistently.

The risks of not doing are impossible to ignore. A poorly handled grievance or disciplinary investigation, for example, can incur further unnecessary financial outlay e.g. having to re-investigate incomplete areas as part of a hearing or appeal. Or if the matter reaches employment tribunal, it's paramount to have a robust report in place that can stand up to scrutiny and challenge, as well as an investigator confident to defend their methodology and findings.

Any workplace investigation must of course follow the organisation's policies and guidelines prescribing the mandatory stages of the formal process. For most internal Investigating Officers, such procedures provide invaluable reassurance that they are following the necessary steps in their evidence gathering, interviewing and report writing. (Whether the policies can also impart the mindset of a competent investigator is a matter for another blog post...).

What we tend not to see in organisational investigation procedures is 'defining the Terms of Reference' – fundamental in our eyes, and which applies to any type of allegation or organisation. After the investigator has met with the Complainant, they are then a position to define what exactly is being alleged, teasing apart the original complaint/grievance and interview answers into a coherent one, two, three – however many – separate allegations. Our investigators will document these succinctly, alongside a declaration of agreed next steps and assertions of responsibilities and confidentiality.

Having this summarised on paper is valuable for a number of reasons:

-        The Investigator has the opportunity to take stock at a crossroads section of the investigation, and if there is indeed a case to answer, can proceed with clarity and confidence.

-        The document adds integrity and credibility to the process, and, if appropriate can be shared with other stakeholders (e.g. parties or Trade Union representatives)

-        They act as a reference point to inform how any subsequent issues/queries are handled

-        The Terms can be added into the Report to save time and add weight that a clear process was followed

There have been countless times when we have needed to refer back to the Terms of Reference for a case at various points within and beyond the investigation, and therefore strongly recommend that organisations consider building it into their standard investigation procedure.

Feel free to get in touch to see an anonymised example of a Terms of Reference.

Collaboration during the recession

It's well understood that the way in which employees work together can make or break an organisation.  A collaborative culture – where staff actively draw upon others' respective skills, positive communication is encouraged and conflict eschewed – is one that all businesses strive to foster given the advantages it brings.

The reality, however, is that even the most collaborative of organisations are finding it almost impossible to maintain this kind of healthy culture in the midst of a recession. Which, for at least the time being, is here to stay.

So how does the current recession effect collaboration within an organisation?  The main breaking point is the stress that it creates for employees.  Sales may be harder to come by whilst organisational costs sky-rocket due to the increased costs of fuel and other commodities.  In short the pressure is mounting and it sits firmly on shoulders of those who should be leading collaboration efforts – management.

As a result, it’s hardly surprising that any focus on collaboration pales in comparison to the need to generate sufficient cashflow to secure the survival of the organisation. On the flip side, neglecting to nurture an engaged, motivated workforce will generate its own financial drains, whether it be through increased conflict to deal with (the more formal the more costly), high turnover and absence, low productivity, and loss of key talent, to name just a few.

Our advice?  By all means focus on improving and maintaining the business figures, but remember that your workforce is a key part of your business and ultimately its survival through the recession. So get everyone working collaboratively in the direction of your business objectives.

The Plight of an HR Business Partner

Human Resources has undergone a huge transition over the last few decades; beginning in personnel, moving to HR and now we have all kinds of exotic combinations of Chief of Human Capital, Head of People and HC Directors.

The driving force behind most of this change is that HR wants and needs to be seen as more than a tactical or operational function. Yet to achieve this, and understand the strategic needs of the organisation, it has been noted by many that HR has to get closer to the business, hence the development of the HR Business Partner Model (HRBPM).

Over the last few years the HRBPM has been heavily criticised for not performing as expected. But Dave Ulrich, a key ambassador for the model, suggests that the reason lies with HR teams not having the necessary skills or commercial acumen to use the model effectively.  

According to the latest report by the CIPD Business Savvy: Giving HR the Edge, there are four core skills required by HR to be truly 'business savvy': Understanding the business model; Generating insight and impact through data; Connecting and collaborating with curiosity, purpose and impact; Leading with integrity.

Understandably, many HR teams struggle to achieve this alongside everyday workloads and priorities. But never fear, for those of you still getting to grips with your HRBP role, our sister company Human Potential Accounting, is offering a 1-day course that equips HR colleagues with the key attributes they need to become a commercially-focused internal consultant with true business partnering skills.

Note sure where you development needs are? Take our free online self assessment to find out.

To Coach or Not to Coach

To us at People Resolutions, it’s no surprise to discover that the use of business coaching is widespread in UK companies, with almost nine in ten respondents to a survey by the University of Bristol reporting that they now use coaching in their organisation.

We've directly observed a marked shift in HR over the last decade, from spending much of their time firefighting conflict, towards resolving it at an earlier stage and taking measures to preventing it occuring in the first place. One-to-one coaching for select individuals can play a huge part in both the prevention and resolution of workplace conflict, as well as helping staff adapt to the changing business climate. According to Lisa Berkovitz, “people are being forced to navigate the work world according to a new set of rules that no one has explained to them. The essential inner and outer skills needed today, aren’t being taught elsewhere.”

In a short series of two-hour sessions, coaching can explore attitudes, behaviours, communication styles, conflict resolution techniques and other gaps the individual may need to address – a personalised approach that no generic training course could ever match.  Lisa Berkowitz provides an interesting analogy: “There’s a reason why elite athletes and top performers in any field have coaches. A great coach can help reveal your blind spots so you can keep getting past your upper limit.”                 

Many of our customers are keenly aware that by not exploring coaching – for example as a way to resolve an issue or prevent it from escalating, or to help someone find their feet in a new role, the organisation leaves itself exposed to risk and costly outcomes, such as high turnover, grievances raised etc.

So while coaching may appear an expensive luxury, in actual fact for the right person (or group/team) at the right time, it can represent a sound financial investment on the part of the organisation in generating improved working relationships that pay dividends.

What your staff survey isn't telling you about workplace conflict

On a daily basis we’re talking with organisations about their employee issues, and one particular HR concern crops up time and again: Based on the annual number of formal grievances and complaints alone, the business could believe it has relatively low levels of conflict, while the staff engagement survey results indicate high levels of reported bullying and harassment. The apparent mismatch between the two metrics understandably makes it difficult to gain an accurate picture of conflict, the consequences of which can be very costly.

Letting ‘ground level’ conflict fester - which can easily happen when HR are often the last to hear about such situations and therefore can’t help diffuse it any earlier - can result in hotspots of tensions and resentments between two or more employees that can impact productivity and engagement within whole teams if left unaddressed. And at the other end of the scale, having to resort to more overt and formal measures such as mediation and investigations also require a financial investment that can get out of hand.

The key to minimising the cost of conflict and the disruption it brings lies in:

a) Getting a full and accurate picture of your conflict in all forms at at all levels, and;
b) Educating everyone in the business about how conflict is caused, how to avoid it in the first place, and how to handle it sensitively and effectively if it does occur.

In a previous post we talk about ‘nipping conflict in the bud’ with training that helps individuals recognise their own and others’ social style and encourages healthy, positive working relationships. We firmly believe that getting a genuine handle on conflict requires a cultural commitment to understanding conflict and being accountable for keeping it to a minimum by all members of staff.

We recently ran a Group Conflict webinar related to the themes in this post – click here for the presentation slides.

Why Most Conflict Training is Missing the Point

Most organisations spend a lot of time and money doing mediations, investigations and tribunals related to dispute resolution. They also invest heavily in training HR and management to resolve conflict at an informal stage, but the fact is, once a conflict situation has reached the point where it needs to be addressed, some damage has already been done. 

Equipping staff with mediation and investigation skills to bring such situations to a close is certainly a step in the right direction, but is this really anything more than a sticking-plaster approach? 

Conflict training, if it is to genuinely achieve prevention of conflict in the first place – and by this we mean avoiding and dissolving tensions before they fester and escalate – it should incorporate more than strategies to deal with established conflict. Training which broadens employees understanding of human behaviour.

If people at work are able to understand the different types of ‘social style’ that exist in relation to their own, it gives them the power to know how and when they should adapt their behaviours to encourage healthy working relationships. This can only help mitigate the risk of any friction developing and building, leading to fewer complaints and grievances to deal with and ultimately a more collaborative culture with better teamwork, cooperation, harmony and respect. 

Surely this kind of training is the better investment?

Who’s leading the way towards Collaboration?

Earlier this week we were informed of new research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and Penna that “Over four in ten managers (43 per cent) consider their line managers to be ineffective.”

Whilst this is shocking in itself, it won’t come as a surprise to many HR professionals in the UK.  A large proportion of conflict that we deal with at People Resolutions stems from poor communication – most likely between line managers and employees.

The research also found a strong link between line manager effectiveness and business performance: “Only 39 per cent of managers in low performing business thought their line managers were effective, compared to 80 per cent in high performing organisations”.

People Management Training as a whole has been around for years – but is it working?  This research would suggest not.  However, this brings the fore the importance of leadership to an organisation.  Can a workforce ever truly be 100% effective if the leadership isn’t?

As part of our 2012 mission help organisations move from conflict affliction to collaborative performance, we must also address the question of who leads such a move in organisational culture. With workplace conflict currently costing UK businesses over £24 billion per year, the drive to minimise conflict and move towards a more collaborative culture is more important than ever.  As will all substantial shifts in organisational culture we believe that this should be lead from the top.

Gen Y Workers – Are They Collaborative?

Generation Y describes our young workforce, born between 1977 and 1990, who are in their early twenties to mid thirties. But for many employers, they’re also the least understood group.

Immersed in technology from an early age and constantly moving from one idea or trend to the next, Gen- Yers are often labelled as having short attention spans and blur the line between their work and private lives; just as they might receive personal text messages and visit Facebook at work, they’re also comfortable with checking work emails over the weekend. They prefer – or rather expect – job profiles full of variety, flexibilty, meaning and interaction in return for their loyalty (which explains why they usually move on after 18 months).

All of this places new demands on the employer to harness a group with mixed characteristics – new media savvy and ethically driven on the one hand and flighty and easily bored on the other. Gen- Yers may be naturally communicative, but does this mean they are more collaborative?

Let’s be clear about what we mean by ‘collaboration’ – an organisational culture where staff across disciplines and roles are able to work together co-operatively towards the business’ objectives. Companies that nurture this kind of environment are less likely to suffer from conflictual behaviours and associated symptoms such as work stress, absence, turnover, low engagement, etc.

On the face of it, the always-on, always-connected Gen-Y worker naturally fits the profile of collaborative contributor. Certainly for organisations built on remote/mobile working, Gen-Y’s inclination towards email, text messaging and online networking as ways to communicate with team members is a valuable asset. But this group has also been criticised for its tendency to favour such methods over face-to-face or telephone contact  with colleagues and customers, despite the potential of email to generate misunderstanding, conflict and delays. In this respect, Gen- Yers could learn from older colleagues who more likely to pick up the phone to iron out an issue, or seek out more ‘in-person’ teamwork.

More than effective communication and teamwork, being collaborative at work means behaving in a fair and equitable way, appreciating diversity in colleagues and having a high level of Emotional Intelligence (EQ). MBA student, Michael Miranda, believes that “Baby Boomers are able to ‘self-manage’ far better than Gen- Y,” the latter being less aware of and in control of their feelings – a core component of EQ.

Of course, each generation (and individual) brings something different to the workplace, and it is a shared appreciation of these varied attributes that makes for a truly collaborative culture. For the passionate, iPhone-reliant Gen-Yer, today’s workplace must present an environment in which individuality can be expressed and collaborative behaviours are rewarded and reinforced from the top. 

The People Resolution Mission for 2012

At an estimated annual cost to the UK economy of £30bn, for many it will be hardly surprising to hear that workplace conflict is increasing. Constant change, budget cuts, ongoing restructuring and the daily pressure of asking people to 'do more for less' is taking its toll. This all points to the need for a more collaborative, effective workplace culture.

Therefore, People Resolutions has made it our mission to help organisations move from conflict affliction to collaborative performance.

Whilst there is some research already out there about collaboration, there doesn’t seem to be one uniformed, agreed definition. Over our 11 years of working in this field with many organisations, we have developed our own definition:

“Collaboration is a workplace culture where employees across different disciplines and roles are able work together co-operatively in a converged manner towards the organisation's objectives. Through our experience, we have found that a number of organisational factors influence collaboration, and when missing, an organisation can suffer from conflict in addition to many other undesirable symptoms including high turnover, significant absence relating to work stress, competitive culture, silo working, resentment and low engagement.”

To ensure we are building cutting-edge consultancy tools to help move organisations to a collaborative culture, we are working in conjunction with Coventry University on a year-long project to measure the positive impact of this behaviour on business success.

We, of course, are not saying that there can be only one definition of collaboration and we understand that this may mean something slightly different for each organisation. Ultimately we believe in the importance of working with companies, firstly to understand where they sit on the "conflict to collaboration scale" and secondly to understand where they want to get to.

With that in mind, we would love to hear what collaboration means for you. Let us know your definition....

What does your average day look like?

So, it turns out that the average office worker has disagreements with their colleagues 1.06 times daily.  Who knew!

If you can get your head round that .06 part, then that means that every person in every office has to deal with workplace conflict (of varying degrees of course!) every single working day.  Now this could be anything from who's making the next round of teas (the average person drinks 3 cups per day if you were interested), to more serious personality clashes and even formal complaints.

But the good news?  It seems that HR are an upbeat kind of crowd with 60% of HR professionals telling researchers they were happy in their job.