Small Business Tips
How to Mediate and Resolve Conflict Between Employees
As a business owner, you face trials every day. It's no surprise that some challenges involve the people who work for you. Your employees are your business, your brand, and your success or failure. You can't afford to have conflict in your workplace, literally! Disputes can have severe consequences on your business objectives. The people who work for your business are your most important asset. To keep your business humming smoothly, your employees need to get along and work as a team. As your business hires more employees, there is more potential for conflict between co-workers. It's a fact of business life. Bill Howatt is a workforce productivity expert at Morneau Shepell‚ one of Canada's largest HR consulting firms. In a 2015 Globe and Mail article, he wrote that "Leaders who lack conflict management skills and avoid conflict often end up being less effective at achieving their defined business objectives." If you don't take steps to deal with conflicts between employees, your entire business can suffer. This includes employees, customers, suppliers, and of course, your sales figures. The Department of Justice describes mediation as a commonly used method of resolving disputes. But what is the definition of mediation in the workplace? According to conflict management consultant Tim Hicks, "mediation provides a structured setting in which the parties meet with a neutral third party to accomplish what they have been unable to achieve on their own: hear and understand each other; become clearer on what their interests and goals are; problem solve and build agreements." Mediation is a confidential, informal and voluntary process where someone helps resolve a conflict between employees and mend their working relationship.
What are some workplace conflict resolution strategies?
Conflicts occur naturally in the workplace. Different people have different beliefs and viewpoints, and therefore, some people don't get along or agree with each other. As a business grows, conflicts can cause several problems, such as:
- Absenteeism (the Conference Board estimated that absences alone cost the economy $16 billion in 2012)
- Lost productivity
- Lost business opportunities and customers
- Reduced synergy and teamwork
- Lawsuits from current or former employees.
Besides economic losses, unresolved conflicts cause chronic emotional aggravation and low morale for some employees. Others may experience mental health issues or depression. One of your roles is to provide leadership to your employees. That also means learning how to deal with conflicts and resolve them. If you don't know how, then you can attend a workshop or hire a mediation consultant.
Ways to resolve conflict in the workplace
Workplace conflict resolution involves several steps and a straightforward process. The following mediation steps are general guidelines for settling conflicts at work.
- Stay calm and approach the problem head-on. As the business owner, you are the person in charge. Unless someone else is better qualified, you will need to mediate or defuse the situation. This is an opportunity to show your leadership skills.
- When you mediate a conflict, meet both people or groups together to get at the heart of the issue quickly. Each person will get their turn to explain their experience to everyone present. By discussing openly, there won't be any secret information floating around.
- Be aware that employees not involved in a conflict can also be affected indirectly. Company morale can suffer. Make sure you're open to discussing any of your employees' preoccupations at any time (open door policy).
- Ask each participant in the mediation process which steps they would like the other participant to take to fix the situation.
- Focus on items that both sides agree on and have a common understanding of.
- The two sides must commit to making the necessary changes to resolve the conflict.
