News roundup: Mediation, and the squeezed middle

27 January 2012

With a raft of employment law amendments and changes to the tribunal system in the offing this year, an interesting development this week was the announcement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills that they will fund mediation training for employees from a group of 24 SMEs.

Cambridge and Manchester will host the first mediation schemes later this year, which will see participating organisations benefit from access to a fully trained mediation team, in a bid to settle disagreements before they reach the tribunal stage.

Lynn Goodwin, Senior HR Business Partner at Ochre responded positively to the story: “With tribunals causing disruption and uncertainty for SMEs, the schemes are a very welcome development.

Mediation is not used enough. But often managers do not feel that they are suitably trained to deal with the difficult conversations with their employees that can prevent a situation moving to the tribunal stage. So it is essential that in-house skills and capabilities are developed to make these first Government-funded schemes a success.

I personally would be happy to take part in any pilot, and I know Ochre would welcome such a scheme in the South West.”

Earlier this week we also reported that statutory maternity, paternity, additional paternity, adoption pay and maternity allowance will increase from £128.73 to £135.45 per week or 90% of normal weekly earnings if lower. The changes will take effect from 9 April 2012. You can read the full Ochre news item here.

Whilst elsewhere we were interested to read the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's (CIPD) quarterly Employee Outlook survey of 2,000 employees, which revealed this week that UK middle managers are feeling the squeeze as a result of the economic downturn.

Almost half (49%) of middle managers say they are under excessive pressure either everyday or once or twice a week, compared to a survey average of 37%. They are particularly unhappy with their work-life balance; just 44% agree they are satisfied with their work-life balance, compared to 70% among employees with no managerial responsibilities.

In addition, middle managers worry most about their job security. One in three (29%) think it is likely they could lose their job as a result of the economic downturn, compared to 21% of employees with no managerial responsibility and 15% of senior managers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, according to the study, middle managers are the category of employees that are most likely to be looking for a new job with a different employer, with 29% looking to move organisations compared to a survey average of 21%.

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