Would you like to save your Company £20,000?

An interesting article on the CIPD website exploring mediation and its benefits.

"Organisations must mediate with employees to resolve disputes if they are to reduce cases going to tribunal, the CIPD has warned.

Employment tribunal claims cost companies on average £20,000 a year, rising to over £210,000 for companies with 10,000 or more staff.

But for firms using mediation, only 3 per cent experience employees taking cases to tribunals, revealed the CIPD’s first research on the subject.

And companies that train employees in mediation have fewer tribunal claims, the survey of 800 organisations found. Despite the potential cost savings, almost 60 per cent of the companies surveyed have never used mediation in workplace conflict.

Of those that do, four-fifths report that it helps to improve relationships between employees, 71 per cent say it reduces the stress of formal disciplinary or grievance procedures, and half say it helps to avoid the cost of tribunals."

On the one hand you have to be cautious about any form of data which is brought into play - However the survey was of 800 organisations and the number of 60% never having used workplace mediation does seem if anything too low. Food for thought as hr professionals in my experience remain somwhat wary of using mediation and seem more comfortable using tried and tested techniques.