Corporate Mediation

The High Price of Workplace Conflict

Conflict is a natural part of human interaction in any organization private or not-for-profit. In today’s work environment, Human Resource managers spend anywhere from 24 to 60 percent of their time dealing with employee disputes, and management in general spending more than half their time dealing with conflict between employees, peers, customers, suppliers and their bosses. It is where the quote “If I didn’t have to deal with people I would get more done” comes from. This does not include the loss of productivity of those employees while at work due to the stress of the conflict or the absenteeism of folks who take stress leaves. Fifty-three percent of workers surveyed by researchers at the University of North Carolina reported “they lost time at work worrying about a past or future confrontation”.

That adds up to a lot of wasted time that management and employees can be spending doing their job. The bottom line financial impact on earnings for a company can be staggering. If the conflict ends up in the legal system more time loss and the costly expense of legal fees further erode organizational profits and revenues. This does not even contemplate the cost to the employer of personal conflicts such as divorce and separation which impact employees’ productivity and attendance.

Managers today feel they are ill-equipped to manage conflicts that arise as part of day-to-day operations let alone resolve those that have reached a point where lawyers are engaged.

At PRM Mediation we offer support to our corporate clients by:

• Resolving workplace conflict and contract disputes before they reach court
• Providing proactive preventative processes and training to management and employees to positively manage conflict
• Educating clients about managing conflict through Workshops, Lunch and Learns, Seminars and Key Note Speaker Availability (For more information on booking Mary as a speaker please click here).

Using proven methodologies, PRM Mediation has a program to deal with inevitable conflict which includes topics like “Expect Conflict but Choose your Battles Wisely”, “Practice Safe and Preventative Maintenance” to prevent conflict, “It’s Not You – it’s the Problem”, “Listen and Learn” including tips on how to really listen and come to understand what coworkers are saying or are trying to say and acknowledging their concerns, and “Be Accountable in the Face of Conflict”, by owning up to the situation and taking positive steps to get help to move forward toward resolution.