Acas warns UK employers need stronger mediation skills

Employers need to strengthen their mediation skills if they are to stop workplace disagreements escalating into formal disputes, according to new research commissioned by Acas. The YouGov survey of 1,000 UK employers shows a 33% of the UK’s workplaces do not have staff with the necessary mediation skills to resolve a workplace conflict, rising to 40% among SMEs. The findings, which are reported by People Management and Personnel Today, come as workplace conflict reached its highest reported level last year, with 44% of UK workers experiencing some form of disagreement at work in the 12 months to November 2025 and tribunal delays extending to 2030 in some cases. Acas is urging employers to manage disputes informally without resorting to costly formal action and is encouraging employers to make sure managers have the confidence and skill to mediate successfully. We’ll speak to our Head of Client Training who is helping a number of clients train up their staff.

For HR professionals, that challenge becomes particularly acute when concerns develop into formal grievances. Increasingly, HR teams are being asked to manage lengthy and complex complaints while at the same time ensuring that grievance processes remain fair, proportionate, and focused on achieving a practical resolution. In some cases, employers report receiving highly detailed and legalistic grievance submissions, often assisted by AI, making it more difficult to identify the real issues and manage expectations effectively.

Against that backdrop, many organisations are reviewing how grievances are handled, placing greater emphasis on early conversations, clearer scoping of issues and more resolution-focused approaches to workplace conflict.

So, what are the main challenges HR teams face when grievances become formal, and how can training help keep grievance processes focused, fair and proportionate? Earlier, I spoke to Pinsent Masons Head of Client Training, Trish Embley, who joined me by video link to discuss it and I began by asking why formality is something employers should avoid wherever possible.

Trish Embley: “Well, we've always been trying to promote a more resolution-focused, informal, approach so long as, obviously, the employee agrees but more so these days where thanks to AI we are hearing back from clients that they are getting lengthy 80 page grievances with inconsistencies, overly legalistic, and often the law in it is incorrect and this is just time consuming for everyone. You know, you can't see the wood from the trees and it doesn't really help anybody. They can be very emotional as well sometimes, and that can create real problems in terms of drilling down into the issues and having some clarity about essentially what's your concern and what can we do about it?”

Joe Glavina: “How can HR keep a grievance process focused and fair? What upfront work do you suggest that HR can do to help with this process?”

Trish Embley: “Well, there's a couple of things. My personal preference is to try and steer a move away from the paperwork, which AI has got involved in, and have a more human approach. So, I might say, yes, I've got your 80 page document but let's just have an initial meeting, an initial scoping meeting, to just clarify and identify your issues a bit like the way a tribunal at the start says, right, let's have a clear list of issues so we know what we're looking at and we can sort out the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I think that conversation then can help us get rid of all the background noise and really focus on the concerns. It can also help us manage expectations, explain to people what's performance management, what's bullying, and AI – AI is a people pleaser, and it can tell people their entitled things that they're not. We could have that conversation. That's a great starting point. Interestingly enough, in the past couple of weeks I have heard some clients saying they are moving to a model where they are saying when you submit a grievance it can be no longer than two pages long or developing pro forma grievance forms that focus on the real issues and that's quite a recent development.”

Joe Glavina: “In your experience, Trish, where does training make the biggest difference for HR professionals? How exactly does it help?”

Trish Embley: “If we say to HR, what's the problem they say it's the complexity and the length of time that’s involved in grievances and so I think that whole concept of what's reasonable and what's proportionate. So, I often talk in our grievance training about ‘somebody who's taken my semi-skimmed milk out the fridge’ grievances and we wouldn't want to see anything like that going through too much of a formal process with two levels of appeal. Yes, it is important that we empower the individual - because of the implied term of trust and confidence - to go through a formal grievance if they want to, and that's where I think having these sorts of initial coping conversations will help HR practitioners to manage the process to the extent that they are able to themselves by explaining the benefits to the individual of a more informal approach. So it's helping HR highlight benefits. So I might be in a very adversarial mode, somebody has slighted me, somebody's done something wrong and I want judgment. What might actually be better for me is something that gets the individual involved, or individuals involved, to empathise and understand my side of things and to find a resolution going forward. So not so much the past, but more what's going to happen in the forward. Selling that is tricky but can be done. Also, there are some complex legal issues involved to do with taking witness statements, for example, reluctance, disclosure of witness statements and, of course, the good old what do you do if you're trying to resolve a grievance and you've got one word against the other? How do you go about deciding which side you’re going to come down on and explaining to one party why you haven't, perhaps, gone with their version of events. Finally, in the training, the communication of the outcome. We always say look, aim for acceptance because you're not always going to get happiness but, again, it's a sensitive issue and we want to make sure that if I don't uphold someone's grievance it's not that I don't believe them, or think they're lying, and how I explain my decision in that way. Also, even though it mightn't hit the bar of, you know, we've got to look at whether some legal obligation has been breached here, that doesn't mean there isn't some win in that we've learned something, we've learned, and we're going to change something, or the manager involved has got some areas for development.” 

So, the key takeaway for HR is that effective grievance handling is not simply about following a process. As workplace complaints become more detailed and complex, HR professionals need the skills and confidence to keep grievances focused, proportionate and, wherever possible, resolution focused. Early conversations, clear scoping of issues and effective communication can all help prevent disputes becoming more entrenched and difficult to resolve.

If you would like help training your HR team on grievance handling, investigations, or workplace dispute resolution, please do contact Trish – her details are on the screen for you.

- Link to Personnel Today article: ‘Acas: UK needs to bolster mediation skills to avoid disputes’

- Link to People Management article: ‘Third of workplaces lack mediation skills, Acas warns’