Employers are worried about using Mediation and Settlement Agreements. The introduction of employment tribunal (ET) fees has changed the balance of power between employers and claimants. It has had a significant impact on employees’ willingness to make claims.
Employers spend an average of 19 days of management time dealing with individual ET cases. Larger organisations with more than 250 employees spend 20 days dealing with individual ET cases. While organisations with fewer employees spend around 12 days. CIPD (2015)
Recent legislation has only a limited impact on employers’ approaches to managing conflict. However, there is growing support for an alternative dispute resolution. Try something different to the usual formal discipline and grievance processes. Employers are beginning to use informal methods when attempting to dismiss staff.
Employers are beginning to use mediation and settlement agreements as a means of terminating employment. The majority (56%) of employers asked in a recent CIPD survey that they feel settlement agreements are a useful mechanism for removing an underperforming employee without the need to go through an unnecessary and time-consuming performance management process.
Employers are making increased use of mediation, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, to resolve workplace issues, but many HR managers lack confidence in developing informal approaches to managing conflict and continue to be nervous about departing from grievance procedures.
However, recent changes in employment regulation and tribunal procedures have included:
- introduction of employment tribunal fees (July 2013)
- early conciliation by Acas (April 2014), building on experience of pre-claim conciliation
- settlement agreements and extended ‘without prejudice’ protection for employers seeking to terminate employment (July 2013)
- new Employment Tribunal Procedural Rules (July 2013).
What the Employers Say
Employers generally say they see using mediation and settlement agreements as a default option, to be used only after other options have been exhausted. However, there has been a huge increase in settlement agreements, partly as a result of the 12-month cap on unfair dismissal awards.
In some cases, settlement agreements will be the outcome of a workplace mediation first. The extension of ‘without prejudice’ protection has raised awareness of settlement agreements.
A client of Metis HR Ltd had this to say. ‘’It seems that a disciplinary route isn’t always the best option. We felt that in our situation mediation helped us to come to an agreement with an unhappy, disruptive employee with no risk of any come backs once the agreement had been signed. The fees were reasonable and the service as always was very good. If we had chosen to follow a disciplinary route it most likely would have been more costly, with no guarantee that it would end there.’’
Metis HR is a professional HR Consultancy based in the North West of England supporting clients across the country. We specialise in providing outsourced HR services to small and medium-sized businesses. Call us now on 01706 565332 to discuss how we may help you.
We can now provide on-site mentoring services designed to resolve workplace conflicts between employees who have previously worked well together. For further details email Metis HR on mediation@metishr.co.uk
