A 2008 study commissioned by CPP Inc. reveals that the average U.S. employee spends nearly 3 hours each week dealing with workplace conflicts. 
This means a business with 50 employees loses the producitvity of more than one full-rime employee each year to water cooler plots, territory protection, preemptive strikes, gossip, retailiation, drawing colleagues into the fray, and generally dealing with drama -- all of this instead instead of answering the phone, taking care of customers, making sales calls, or simply doing what employees were hired to do.
In addition to lost productivity, workplace conflicts often escalate into situations resulting in the loss of one or more employees -- voluntarily or otherwise -- and the potential for nasty employment litigation claims on the heals of the departure.
The cost to businesses may be even greater than the three hours weekly average -- the study reveals that one in four employees admitted that workplace conflict led to absences from work, over 30% reported that they resulted in one or more employees losing their positions, and the failure of a significant number (over 10%) of business projects were attributed to co-workers just not getting along.
Hoping it gets better is not an alternative -- particularly in small and mid-sized companies in which the failure of a single project could have a major impact on the viability of the company.
Workplace Mediation is designed to help identify and diffuse the tensions -- most of which are casued by misunderstanding, poor communication, personality conflict, or perceived slights.
By facilitating civil, respectful discourse, under the guidance of a mediator trained in techniques to encourage cooperative problem solving, Workplace Mediation can break the perpetual process of suspicion, resentment, and retailiation.
Workplace Mediation promotes a change of perspective, better communication, and clearer understanding, to achieve the kind of breakthrough which leads to real rapproachment. The impact on the bottom line is a direct benefit of using the preemptive solution of workplace mediation, instead of waiting until the problem demands attention -- often in the form of a lawsuit.