Mediation & Resolution
Workplace mediation and conflict resolution
AWS provides workplace mediation, facilitated conversations and structured conflict resolution for employers dealing with interpersonal disputes, grievances, team breakdown and post-investigation reintegration. Mediation is voluntary and its outcome depends on the parties; it is suited to matters where the participants can engage safely and where the issues are about working relationships rather than contested serious misconduct.
Our approach
Intake & assessment
Confidential conversations with each party to test suitability and design the process.
Structured mediation
Joint session led by an independent mediator under agreed ground rules.
Agreement drafting
Documented outcomes, behavioural agreements and review checkpoints.
Reintegration
Coaching and facilitated check-ins to embed agreed behaviours.
Suitable matters
Communication breakdown, role and workload friction, ongoing interpersonal conflict, grievances that do not require findings, and re-establishing working arrangements after a process concludes.
When mediation may not fit
Where there is a safety risk, alleged serious misconduct or criminality, a significant power imbalance that cannot be managed, an unwilling participant, or where the matter requires findings of fact rather than agreement.
Confidentiality boundaries
Discussions are treated as confidential between the participants and the mediator, subject to safety, legal and reporting obligations. The employer receives whether the matter resolved and any agreed arrangements — not an account of what each party said.
Outputs and follow-up
A written agreement or set of working arrangements where one is reached, an agreed communication to the workplace if needed, and a review checkpoint after an agreed period.
Outcomes
- Reduced likelihood of escalation to formal complaints or external claims.
- Documented behavioural agreements with review points.
- A clearer basis for working arrangements going forward, where agreement is reached.
Related resources
- Workplace mediation: when facilitated resolution is appropriate →
Testing whether a matter is suitable for mediation.
- Workplace mediation: resolving conflict before it escalates →
Using facilitated conversations earlier in a dispute.
- Early triage of workplace complaints: the first 24–72 hours →
Deciding on a response pathway before positions harden.
- Workplace contact officers: role, boundaries, training and governance →
How internal contact officers interact with formal resolution processes.