Many employment relationship problems can be resolved with mediation, facilitation, restorative justice, or another form of alternative dispute resolution.
Restorative justice is a process where the focus is on restoring relationships. It is like mediation and facilitation but is more focussed on investigating what has happened and why in a neutral environment and then identifying any problems so relationships can improve and be put back on track.
These can be some of the most dynamic and effective ways for parties to achieve an acceptable and durable outcome. Parties in conflict tend not to communicate well or constructively and poor communication can cause disputes to occur or escalate.
We can help open up and improve the quality of communication to assist the parties to hear and understand each other. We can, for example, help with “conflict coaching”. That means meeting with one or more of the people involved in the dispute, in confidence, to help them work out what their needs and interests are and what they want to achieve. If you are one of those people, we can help you to work out the best way to communicate with the other people to the dispute to help get you to a point where you can make decisions about whether, and how, you want to resolve the difficult issues or have difficult conversations.
Our Special Counsel, Carolyn Heaton, can work with you on this. She can provide legal advice to a party to a problem or be the neutral mediator or facilitator to work with the parties to bring about resolution of the problem. Carolyn is available as an employment mediator throughout New Zealand.
We are skilled and experienced at attending mediations with our clients. We know the ins and outs of how mediation works, how to prepare for mediation, and how to focus on getting a good outcome or feeling heard in the mediation. We also help parties document their agreements (settlements) including careful drafting of settlement terms and having Records of Settlement signed off by the Mediation Service.