The answer is unmanaged employee conflict.

The question is, “What is one of the largest, reducible, and least recognized costs in organizations today?”

It is estimated that over 65% of performance problems result from strained relationships between employees - not from deficits in individual employees’ skill or motivation.

What Is ADR?

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to any means of settling disputes outside the courtroom. ADR typically includes arbitration, mediation, and/or conciliation. A method that is meeting with more and more success in the workplace is mediation.

What types of disputes can be addressed through mediation?

Mediation can be used to help resolve most types of disputes. Workplace disputes, labor/management issues, environmental/public policy issues and international conflicts can often be effectively addressed through mediation.

How does mediation apply in the workplace?

Mediation is a voluntary and confidential process in which a neutral third-party facilitator helps people discuss difficult issues and negotiate an agreement. Basic steps include gathering information, framing issues, developing options, negotiating, and formalizing agreements. Parties in mediation create their own solutions and the mediator does not have any decision-making power over the outcome.

How is mediation implemented in the workplace?

Mediation allows for early and non-threatening intervention in workplace conflict.

The following need to be in place to initiate mediation:

1) The disputants need to agree to sit down together.
2) They must have the authority to resolve the conflict.
3) They must agree to ground rules including confidentiality.
4) There needs to be an agreed upon protocol which is adhered to by all parties throughout the whole process.
 

What are the benefits of mediation?

Cost-effectiveness

Mediation tends to be much less costly than other alternatives and obviously less expensive than allowing situations of conflict to fester endlessly.

Enhanced Engagement

Because mediation is undertaken between parties who are active participants in the process, the compliance is higher.

Skill-building

Through their direct participation in the mediation process, participants build conflict resolution skills that are invaluable to them in their work and can be transferred to their personal lives.

Please contact Larry Schruder if you would like to know more about managing employee conflict.