Business owners will start their companies with several contracts in place with suppliers. At this point, they will involve the best business lawyers they can get to guarantee their interests are protected. Even so, getting shortchanged in a business contract is not the only thing that can cause the downfall of your company. You should be especially vigilant when employees. Ensure the terms of your employment protect you and your employees, and have the proper mechanisms for conflict resolution.
Union arbitration might, for instance, work in some industries for workplace conflict resolution. Though this keeps your company’s issues out of court, it does not guarantee you maximum privacy since union officials will be privy to the details. Your lawyer can recommend having your employees sign an agreement for alternative dispute resolution to handle any issues that might arise. The options, in this case, include arbitration, mediation, and collaboration. One of the most effective is mediation. Here, a legal professional will only empower you to settle your issues. This is because mediation believes that conflicting parties are the best-placed ones to get solutions to their problems. One form of mediation in workplace conflict resolution is transformative mediation. Here are the techniques of transformative mediation.
Reflecting
Here, the mediator captures the tone of the conflicting parties and the content of their words. If, for instance, someone is taking a combative tone and assumes that he/she is the one naturally wronged, he/she is not as open to seeing his/her contribution to the issues at hand. Everyone should be heard in the conflict and reflection allows both parties to appreciate their contribution to workplace conflicts.
Summarizing
In mediation, it is easy for people to digress from the pertinent issue and forget the points they have covered, summarizing allows you to gain insight into what you have discussed and the positive steps you have made. The mediator, in this case, will also go through the major points both parties have made and hasten your decision making.
Questioning
Here, the mediator asks open-ended questions on how you would like to resolve the issue and others to clarify the problem. The open questions give you the chance to elaborate on the conflict and, in so doing, get the best way forward. They also promote conversation around different topics.
Caucusing
At times one party may take a hard stand and refuse to reason with the other person. This leads to gridlock in mediation. In this case, a mediator might call for a separate session with the person and try to break down any communication barriers he/she is putting up. This allows the mediation to move forward and reach a desirable end.
The essence of good workplace relations cannot be overemphasized. Without these, you will experience high turnover, and your workforce’s productivity will be low. The above approaches to transformative mediation do not just aim to resolve present conflicts. They also lay the groundwork for gaining a better understanding of people’s actions. While this might sound over-ambitious, it is achievable with the right mediator.
