Workplace mediation and early resolution
Decide when mediation fits a workplace disagreement and when another route is needed, set it up with genuine consent, an impartial mediator and clear confidentiality, understand the stages of a mediation, help the parties write an agreement they can actually keep, and follow it up. Uses Acas guidance as the UK example and the EEOC's mediation program as a US example; your own policy and local law apply.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 55 minutes
- Contents
- 4 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Decide whether a disagreement is suitable for mediation or needs a formal or specialist route, and explain why
- Set up a mediation so that participation is genuinely voluntary and the confidentiality rules are agreed in advance
- Choose an impartial mediator, internal or external, with no involvement in the issue
- Describe the stages of a mediation and the mediator's role in each
- Check that a mediation agreement is specific, owned by the parties and has a review point
- Follow up after mediation and move to another procedure when it hasn't worked
Course outline
- 1.Workplace mediation and early resolutionVideo · 3 min
- 2.What mediation is, and when it fitsLesson · 14 min
- 3.Setting it up: consent, mediator and confidentialityLesson · 13 min
- 4.The mediation and the agreementLesson · 15 min
- 5.Follow-up, other routes and a US exampleLesson · 13 min
- 6.Workplace mediation and early resolution: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 18 questions
- 7.Workplace mediation and early resolution: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Acas: Mediation at work (UK example)
- Acas and CIPD: Mediation: an approach to resolving workplace issues (guide; UK example)
- Acas: Introducing mediation in your workplace (UK example)
- Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (UK example; Acas has said it will update this Code, so check the current version)
- US EEOC: Mediation (for charges filed with the EEOC; US example)
- General HR practice: fair process, confidentiality and documentation. Your own policies and local law apply; involve HR or legal advisers
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