The Mediation service at the University is delivered by staff for staff. The service is available to all staff and is an informal, confidential way of resolving differences within the workplace. There is no cost to staff for using the service and your access to the service will be confidential.
Information about the service can be found using the links below, or for more details, please contact your local HR Advisor.
Download more information from our leaflet.
The mediation team is staffed by a group of volunteers from a range of teams, in both professional and academic services, and from a variety of staff grades across the University. All the mediators in the team have been trained by a professional mediation company approved by the College of Mediators and have met the standards of ‘’Trained Mediator’’ as outlined by the College. If you proceed with mediation you will not be allocated a mediator from your own department
Mediation is a structured process in which an impartial third party, the Mediator, assists people to resolve disputes and reach agreements for a way forward.
Mediation is confidential, voluntary and informal. It is completely separate from any other University procedures.
The mediators will not ‘take sides’ and will not ‘tell you what to do’. They will support the participants to reduce hostility and resolve the situation so that they can move forward positively.
Any employee of the University of Bedfordshire who thinks mediation might be useful can contact the service themselves. Managers can contact the service on behalf of an employee with the employee’s consent.
Mediation is completely voluntary. Nobody can be made to attend mediation. Mediation will only take place if the participants agree to it. You can withdraw from the process at any point if you decide mediation is not for you.
Mediation can only happen if both parties are willing to participate.
Mediation works best when the parties know each other, where maintaining their working relationship is important, and where both parties want to avoid formal procedures but who may need some support to discuss difficult issues or improve their relationship.
Mediation cannot be used if the participants have no control over the issue the dispute relates too, or where they want somebody to make a decision or judgement, or they do not wish for the situation to remain confidential.
Mediation cannot happen where criminal or illegal activity is involved.
Mediation focuses on improving interpersonal relationships at work. It should not be used as a form of performance management by line-managers.
The information below outlines the mediation process from beginning to end. You can also access the mediation flow chart.
Stage 1: When you contact the mediation service, via your HR Advisor, you will have a brief discussion with the HR advisor who will then email you a leaflet regarding the service. A line-manager can also contact the service on the behalf of both parties if you have both given consent for that to happen.
The HR advisor will then allocate your enquiry to a mediator/s who will contact you to gain some basic information about the situation and to arrange the initial mediation meeting. Each referral is normally allocated to two mediators who will facilitate the process together.
Once the initial meeting date is arranged the mediator/s will email you a copy of the ‘Pre mediation consent form’ which you will sign in the initial meeting.
Even though you may sign the pre mediation consent form you are still free to withdraw from the mediation process at any time.
The other party to mediation will also be contacted to arrange their initial meeting.
Stage 2: The aim of mediation is for the whole process to happen in 1 day.
Mediation takes place during working hours and the mediators will ensure the meeting is in a room that is comfortable and away from your normal working area.
The mediators will meet with each participant for their individual meetings on the morning of the agreed date. The purpose of the individual meeting is for you to be introduced to the mediators, discuss the situation and to decide if you want to proceed to a joint meeting with the other participant. They will also explain the format of the joint meeting and you will all sign the pre mediation consent form. The meetings will last for up to 90 minutes each.
Stage 3: The joint meeting will normally happen in the afternoon, of the same day, if both participants are happy to proceed. Both mediators will meet with both participants for the joint meeting. The meeting will last for up to 3 hours. If you do not wish to return to work after the mediation you should arrange with your line-manager to take an extended break or use annual leave to take some time off.
As the joint meeting progresses the mediators will draw up a mediation agreement detailing points of acknowledgement and agreement. They will ensure you are completely happy with this before you both sign it and it is typed up and emailed to you.
You will both agree if this can be shared with anyone else or not. You might instead agree a shared statement such as ‘’Mediation has taken place’’.
Stage 4: You will be offered a review meeting at a date within three months of the initial meeting. This is optional. The review meeting is to see how you are getting on and if anything in the mediation agreement needs to change.
The mediation referral will then close.
One of the strengths of mediation is that it can happen quite quickly. Once you have decided to meet the mediators they will arrange both individual meetings in the morning and, if both parties are happy to proceed, the joint meeting in the afternoon of the same day.
If the joint meeting cannot happen on the same day the aim is that it will take place within a maximum of 7 days of the individual meetings taking place.
Yes. The only people that will know you have contacted the mediation service are the HR advisor, the mediators and your manager, if you have informed them, or if you have asked the HR advisor to inform them.
The HR advisor will keep a ‘Mediation tracker’ which details names of parties, names of mediators, whether the joint meeting and review meeting went ahead and the date the referral was closed. This information is not attached to your employment file.
The only written record of the joint meeting is the ‘Mediation agreement’ and this will be kept on file with the mediation service for three months after the date of the joint meeting along with the referral form completed at the time you contacted the service and the ‘consent to proceed form’. After three months of the last joint meeting this information will be deleted.
Apart from the mediation agreement any notes written during the joint meeting, by either the mediators or the participants (as memory prompts), will be handed to the mediators and destroyed, there and then, at the end of the meeting.
There will not be any entry onto your employment record that you contacted or engaged in all or part of the mediation process.
Most people who attend mediation find it a very useful process which resolves issues and improves relationships. Any agreements reached are made on a voluntary basis and cannot be legally enforced.
Mediation does not stop you using other employment processes or procedures as long as what happens in mediation remains confidential.
If you are not satisfied after attending mediation, you are still free to use any other HR process.