Employee Relations

    Two colleagues who can't work together

    Peer mediation for conflict between equals. HR opens the room and watches the shared conversation — what each person says privately stays private.

    • Between equals

      No manager, no subject

    • HR observes

      Read-only, never posts

    • Private is private

      Caucus hidden from HR

    • Employer-paid

      £299, or £199 on subscription

    Why this isn't a review or a plan

    Reviews and improvement plans are manager-to-employee and deliberately asymmetric. A falling-out between two colleagues is neither.

    Putting one of them on a plan makes it a performance issue when it isn't.

    Peer mediation treats both as equals. Nobody is being assessed.

    A line manager mediating their own team is never seen as neutral.

    The mediator is impartial and never takes a side or recommends an outcome.

    HR needs oversight, but people won't be honest if HR reads everything.

    HR sees the shared surface and the outcome. The private channels are closed to them.

    Every row above is recorded and dated, so the record speaks for itself later.

    How it works

    01

    HR opens it — not the employees

    An employee can ask, but nothing starts until HR or a manager decides mediation is the right route. The other person is not contacted before that.

    02

    Two colleagues, as equals

    Both employees join with the same standing, the same tools and the same view. There is no manager and no subject — this is not a review or a plan.

    03

    HR observes, never participates

    HR can read the shared conversation, the issues and the outcome. HR cannot post, and cannot see either person's private conversation with the mediator.

    Guardrails

    Private stays private

    Each employee has their own private channel with the mediator. It is invisible to the other employee and to HR. Not just hidden from view — they genuinely cannot access it.

    Symmetric by design

    Peer mediation uses the same impartial engine as our other mediation rooms. Neither side is the one being assessed.

    Always employer-paid

    There is no route for an employee to pay. Neither party is ever shown a price.

    A record you can stand behind

    The shared record and the outcome sit alongside reviews, plans and letters, so the history of a case is one chain rather than four inboxes.

    The unbroken record

    Review → Improvement plan → Mediation, as one case chain

    Nothing is retyped and nothing is lost. Each stage carries the last one forward with its dates intact — so the story a tribunal would ask for already exists.

    1. Stage 1

      Review

      • 14 JanVoice note logged — client handover
      • 02 MarObjective proposed
      • 04 MarObjective accepted by employee
      • 28 MarReview closed
      Explore review
    2. Stage 2

      Improvement plan

      • 01 AprPlan opened from review
      • 15 AprCheckpoint 1 — summary written
      • 29 AprCheckpoint 2 — partially met
      • 13 MayOutcome: escalated
      Explore improvement plan
    3. Stage 3

      Mediation

      • 16 MayRoom opened, plan carried in
      • 18 MayIssues agreed: 2 of 3 green
      • 24 MayMemorandum signed
      Explore mediation
    Only accepted objectives and shared facts carry forward to the next stage.
    Private manager notes never move. They stay in the review, full stop.

    What it costs

    Peer mediation is employer-paid, charged once per case on agreement: £299, or £199 where the organisation has an active subscription. Employees are never shown a price.