UK leaders in workplace conflict management

Employment Discrimination Mediation Services

It is crucial for any successful business or public organisation to treat their staff fairly and respectfully. This is legally supported by the Equality Act 2010, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone based on a protected characteristic. In many cases, discrimination mediation can be an effective option to resolve issues between colleagues, before they escalate.

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Work towards a positive outcome for all involved with expertly delivered discrimination mediation services

Ensure allegations of unfair treatment are resolved before they escalate

It can take a lot of courage for staff members who feel they are being unfairly treated at work to speak up. Discrimination mediation offers a favourable alternative. Our expert mediators provide a safe environment in which the victim can feel heard, and develop an understanding to enable the unwanted behaviour to stop.

Refer a case of discrimination for mediation

Thanks to our large pool of active mediators, we can assign a practitioner to your case with expert experience in handling issues of discrimination at work. Our process enables us to develop a needs-based understanding between parties, which helps rebuild the damaged working relationship in addition to forming actionable solutions.

Train to carry out mediation for discrimination cases

Allegations of discrimination can carry with them especially strong emotions. Because of this, parties find attending mediation a difficult decision to make, and a tough process to sit through. Our mediation training provides the skills to encourage mediation uptake, practice in responding to discriminatory issues and dealing challenging behaviours which may present within the session.

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Mediate Alleged Discrimination within a team

Discriminatory behaviours very often have an impact on the wider team/ groups of staff. Other colleagues very often become damaged by a bad relationship between two people- which can cause feelings of frustration and loss of motivation. Once productivity begins to decline, it becomes wise to intervene. Our experts have the depth of mediation skills needed to handle group disputes, and facilitate group interventions.

Meet our workplace discrimination mediators

We pioneered workplace discrimination mediation in 1989 and have since grown and developed our large pool of discrimination mediators. All must hold several years’ experience of conducting mediations prior to joining us. Our large pool of active practitioners enables us to provide a mediator with specific experience of resolving discrimination issues, within your sector. Meet a few of our experts:

Katherine

Katherine is one of the most experienced discrimination mediators in the world. She started mediating in 1989, co-authored a book: 'Mediation for Managers' and developed the interactive model of mediation. This model was the UK's first person-centred approach to mediating discrimination issues.

Michael

Michael has delivered mediations and helped organisations develop their own mediation service, on behalf of CMP since 2009. With experience resolving cases involving discrimination issues, Michael also holds CEDR accreditation and practices as a family and community mediator.

Nigel

Nigel is one of CMP's longest standing discrimination mediators. He specialises in group conflict, and is also trained in Restorative Justice, Process-Oriented Psychology and Aikido. During his 20+ years with CMP, Nigel has also trained numerous internal staff members to mediate discrimination cases.

Michelle

Michelle is a CEDR-accredited discrimination mediator and employment lawyer. She holds over 25 years' experience in mediating workplace conflict, including discrimination cases across a wide variety of organisations and sectors.

How we mediate issues of discrimination at work

The discrimination mediation process is one where a perpetrator and victim must meet face-to-face for an extended period of time. Understandably, this is very rarely and easy decision to make and can often be a terrifying proposition. Thankfully, our approach to mediation helps parties to build up the courage and trust needed to have the confidence to agree to partake, and in the majority of cases, work towards a positive outcome.

When you assign a case of discrimination to be mediated by CMP, we can have an expert mediator on site within 5 working days. Initially, they will arrange for short one-to-one meetings with the involved parties. Each usually lasts 1-2 hours. Here, each will have the opportunity to express their individual concerns, such that the mediator can gain an overall understanding of the behaviours that have been happening. The initial meetings also provide the opportunity to build up a good level of trust and rapport with our discrimination mediator, and increase their confidence in the process.

Our mediator will then conduct a joint mediation session with the parties. During this, each individual will have the opportunity to express their views, concerns and perspectives of the issues involved with the discriminatory case. We adopt a person-centred approach, whereby the mediator facilitates mutual understanding on a needs-based level. This style aims to rebuilt the damaged working relationship, in addition to working towards positive solutions and agreements. We usually allow a full day for the joint session, and may also suggest a follow-up session at a later date, for certain cases.

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One-off discrimination mediation services

Organisations make the decision to outsource a case of discrimination to CMP for a number of reasons. They may not have a trained internal mediator, or the case may be especially complex/ senior-level, such that an expert intervention is required.

Thanks to our 30 years’ experience and highly qualified pool of discrimination mediators, we proudly report a 97% success rate in reaching positive outcomes. Our person-centred approach not only helps rebuild the damaged working relationship, but also helps with participants’ long-term development. In such, you’ll reduce the likelihood of future discriminatory issues, when you outsource your mediation case to CMP.

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Workplace Mediation when discrimination affects a larger group

Discriminatory behaviour isn’t always on an individual basis, and may be directed at a number of staff members within an organisation or team. Those not directly affected tend to take a view and also form alliances/ get involved with the conflict.

When discriminatory issues spread to the whole-team/ group level, the conflict can become almost impossible to mediate without an expert pair of hands. Thankfully, we have a team of highly experienced mediators who can intervene and apply their combined mediation and group facilitation skills to address specific issues and enable performance to get back on track.

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ESTABLISHED IN 1989, CMP HAS DECADES OF EXPERIENCE IN THE RESOLUTION AND MANAGEMENT OF WORKPLACE CONFLICT.

From mediation to investigation, neutral assessment to conflict coaching, we provide market-leading training and services to every type of workplace.