During yesterday's Employee Council meeting, University Employee Assistance Consultant Mary Sherman introduced the new Alternative Dispute Resolution program, required under Virginia's Restructuring Act of 2005.
The program is meant to allow employers and employees a way to mediate complaints during their early stages before they find it necessary to undergo the state's more formal and strict grievance process, said Alan Cohn, director of Faculty and Staff Employee Relations.
"We want to communicate and facilitate a preventative process," Sherman said.
The program applies only to the University's classified staff; faculty and professors go through a separate process to communicate concerns with the University's senior officials.
There are currently eight different mediators on Grounds, all of whom are licensed clinical social workers and are trained through the Human Resources program, Sherman said. Typically, she explained, a supervisor makes a referral for two employees who are not getting along. Both employees are then asked if he or she wants to participate in the program. Assuming participation, each employee meets with a mediator separately first, then a second time together with the other employee, and finally in a meeting with the employer, the other employee and the mediator.
University officials spent almost one year outlining and creating the program before it was implemented at the beginning of this academic year, Cohn said. Before this resolution program was instated, the University ombudsman was responsible for providing mediation services and oversaw internal review, the Faculty & Employee Assistance Program and the University Human Resources Department, Cohn said.
"The Alternative Dispute Resolution Program has brought these three programs together in a more efficient collaborative effort," Cohn said. He added that the three programs have created a central database for collecting information about any complaints made, allowing mediators to better access pertinent data with a lesser risk of breaching confidentially.
The program's success, Cohn said, depends on the success of ongoing marketing to staff members as well as communication to employees and managers.
"We've gotten positive feedback from staff so far," Cohn said, adding that the program has already seen three requests for mediation.
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