Employee conflict in the workplace is a problem and it’s on the increase – why organisations need to consider how they deal with conflict

Ask any employment lawyer, HR professional or manager of teams and they will nod their head wearily and confirm this. Here are some facts and figures to support this:

According to Susan Clews, ACAS Chief Executive, ‘The headline statistics are startling - in total, the cost of conflict to UK organisations was £28.5 billion – the equivalent of more than £1,000 for each employee. Close to 10 million people experienced conflict at work. Of these, over half suffer stress, anxiety or depression as a result; just under 900,000 took time off work; nearly half a million resigned, and more than 300,000 employees were dismissed.’

Research by Myers-Briggs found that time spent on workplace conflict doubled between 2008 and 2022, and that managers spend over four hours a week dealing with conflict. Forbes, by Anna Shields, Dec 08, 2025

In addition, the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals cite that an ‘Acas-commissioned poll found that 44% of workers knew of conflict within their organisations over the last three years’.

The obvious next question is therefore, why is conflict escalating?

Research on this appears limited so my next thoughts on this are reflections taken from 25 years’ of conflict resolution experience.

To start with, employment rights have increased over the years, people are more aware and seem to be more willing or perhaps more courageous to raise complaints. 

Then there is the use of ChatGPT, Claude AI aka ‘the new best friend’ which seems to be the ‘go to’ place to ask for opinions and guidance on problems. Literally everyone uses it.  Ask any lawyer or HR professional and they will 100% tell you that nearly every grievance or complaint they get has been AI generated - and these are now twenty pages long as standard!

This of course can lead a person, rightly or wrongly, down a certain path without properly considering or analysing the situation through different lenses. For example this could be through constructive dialogue, coaching, self-reflection, empathy, accountability, different interpretations and so on.

And finally, the expectations and desires of particularly younger generations are quite different now. Gen Z employees seem to want better work-life balance, flexible working, interesting work that is in line with their values. I am not saying say this is at all bad, on the contrary. However, when companies have demanding work cultures, rigid structures, practices that do not align with the wants of changing generational dynamics, you can see why this would account for some of the increased conflict in the workplace.

A growing number of organisations are now using workplace mediation in conflict resolution, how is it effective?

Workplace mediation is a highly effective intervention for conflict resolution and one that is gaining more momentum.

According to ACAS Independent Research, 74% of employees that underwent workplace mediation reporting that their conflict had been fully or largely resolved, (Estimating the costs of workplace conflict, ACAS 2021).

The process is fast, highly cost effective and causes minimal disruption to your business

Professional mediation takes place usually over one day, split over several individual and joint meetings.   Compare this with the management time required in lengthy procedural and formal processes over weeks, which costs in lost productivity, poor moral, stress absence and employee turnover. This can be significant, even without the legal, Employment Tribunal and exit settlement.

It is a confidential and impartial process – which gets buy-in from aggrieved parties

By outsourcing the process to an independent professionally trained expert, parties are significantly more likely to engage and a level of trust and confidence is regained. One of the key blockers to trying to resolve a dispute internally, is due to a perception that HR is not independent or neutral and that confidentiality cannot be maintained.

Workplace mediation is seen as an investment in employees and shows a commitment by the company to help both parties find a way forward

Employees generally respond very well to workplace mediation as an alternative to going through a stressful and lengthy grievance process which is not designed for reconciliation. They know the company has taken the time to source and pay for this service which shows a level of commitment to the individuals to want them to resolve the dispute (and remain employed).

I hope this article has been helpful.

Suzie Yong

Conflict Resolution Specialist