You know what it’s like, the atmosphere in the team is prickly and ‘those two have obviously had words again’.

They clearly don’t get on or it’s a case of the notorious ‘clash of personalities’.

But do you have to just continue to accept this poor working relationship and suffer the impact this is having on the business or is there something more you could be doing?

If conflict is not tackled, you can guarantee that problems will return to your ‘to do’ list within a few weeks or months.

The problem is unlikely to go away on its own; let’s be honest, if the parties involved could solve their relationship problem, they would have done so by now.  Problems can spiral out of control or escalate to claims of harassment or bullying.

Our in-house team have over 10 years of experience in facilitating those tricky conversations, and helping Companies to resolve workplace conflict, with minimum fuss, and maximum impact.

Formal mediation is a well-recognised option which has a high success rate when undertaken by a trained mediator.

Discussing the problem with an outside party can provide useful distance from the problem and a different perspective.

Mediation is particularly useful when the parties have become deeply entrenched in their separate camps.  The recent joint report by CIPD & ACAS, “Mediation: An Approach to Resolving Workplace Issues” found that 80% of employers identify the main benefit of using mediation is a lasting improvement in working relationships between employees.

Whilst tackling conflict may seem to take up a lot of time and effort to find a resolution, think how much time it would take out of your day if the problem escalated!  Prevention is better than cure, so tackle workplace conflict as soon as it arises and turn this challenge into an opportunity.