Workplace Conflict Management

Mediate Today is a specialist dispute resolution agency with broad experience in workplace conflict management and resolving workplace disputes for public and private sector clients.

• Recent experience indicates an increase in worker’s compensation claims resulting from workplace disputes.  We work with insurance companies, employer organisations and employees to mediate the resolution of workplace conflicts and to get employees back to work. Our approach is to help the parties find practical outcomes that result in long term solutions to return the workplace to a safe and efficient environment in the shortest possible time.
• Provision of an independent and expert chairman for workplace agreement negotiations. We find that independently chaired workplace agreement negotiations by Mediate Today can assist in reaching agreement up to 50% faster.
• We can help by providing independent enquiry and reporting on workplace allegations; including unfair termination, victimisation, sexual misconduct, harassment, religious / race discrimination and promotion disputes.
• Mediate Today can also assist negotiations in relation to management restructuring.
• Resolving team conflict (see below).

Your enquiry will be responded to by either Robert or Lorraine Lopich who understand the issues and will establish the most appropriate dispute resolution process, timelines, available practitioner etc. for delivery of the service.

We will normally respond to your enquiry on the same day. In principle, we believe workplace matters are time critical and look to start the process to meet the workplace needs.

Although different services will require different processes, there are some common steps. The first step is to talk with you to understand the nature of the problem, the desired outcomes and to design the most appropriate process for achieving that.

Generally we meet with the parties separately for about 1 to 1 ½ hours to establish a rapport, build trust and to discuss the issues and the needs and expectations of the parties to get their perspective. If mediation is the preferred process the joint sessions would be held as soon as practical, usually on the same day or the following day.

Workplace mediations are usually short in duration, say approximately 3 to 4 hours. Our objective is to assist the parties to design plan for the conduct of their workplace relationship in the future and to express that in a settlement agreement between the parties.  We also provide the employer with an outcomes report which is designed to assist the employer to provide guidance to the parties and to monitor the relationship of the parties into the future.

Resolving Team Conflict

Resolving team conflict is complementary to our workplace mediation role and is sometimes identified as an additional step following resolution of the initial conflict. The original mediation may resolve the dispute between two or more staff members but the whole team is often caught-up in the conflict and this needs to be addressed to achieve long term harmony in the workplace.

This service consists of a half day workshop involving the broader team members. We have found that although you can resolve the initial conflict, the dispute may also render the team dysfunctional and this needs to be resolved. The workshop introduces the team to some techniques for improved communication and looks at what changes may need to be made to achieve a harmonious, productive workplace.

Call us on 1300 760 225 – we help resolve conflict!