Case study: Mediation and resolution in the workplace

ACAS has published new research in conjunction with East Lancashire East Hospitals NHS Trust on mediation and resolution in the workplace – read the full report below.

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on NHS Employers

The need for a new approach to workplace dispute resolution has become a central focus of public employment policy (Gibbons, 2007). In particular, it has been consistently argued that more emphasis needs to be placed on early responses to individual employment conflict and the increased use of alternative dispute resolution.

Interest in workplace mediation has certainly grown over the last decade, alongside an expanding evidence base that points to its potential benefits. Mediation has been found to provide an efficient and effective way of resolving disputes when compared with conventional rights-based approaches.

Moreover, it has been argued that mediation can have positive ‘upstream’ effects and act as a catalyst for improvements in the way that organisations manage individual conflict.

This report attempts to evaluate the attempts by one acute NHS Trust to build on an existing internal workplace mediation service to develop a more systemic approach to early conflict resolution.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) is located in Northwest England. In September 2016, the Trust redesigned its approach to workplace mediation and conflict resolution with the aim of improving staff health and wellbeing and reducing the impact of workplace conflict on service delivery and patient care.

The new Early Resolution Policy was launched in January 2019. Although this policy does not replace those on disciplinary action, managing performance or attendance, the Trust states there should be a “greater focus on informal remedy”.

Therefore, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust provides a context in which we can not only examine the operation of internal workplace mediation but also the development of a distinctive early resolution policy and process, an approach which has not been the subject of independent academic research.

This will provide vital insights for policymakers and practitioners in designing similar initiatives.

Furthermore, as the research has straddled the COVID pandemic, it enables an assessment of the capacity of an organisation to manage conflict when under severe and exceptional pressure. Consequently, this report:

• Examines the development of workplace mediation within the Trust
• Assesses the benefits of workplace mediation in relation to the resolution of individual disputes and the wider impact of the operation of the mediation service on the management of conflict and employment relations
• Examines the rationale and development of the Trust’s move towards an early resolution approach, which mediation is part of
• Investigates the management of discipline and grievance within the Trust
• Examines the introduction and implementation of the Trust’s Early Resolution Policy 

To read the full report, click here.