-Rosa C. Franco, Chief Executive Officer, Art of Resolution
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held its premier annual training event – Examining Conflicts in Employment Law (EXCEL) Conference – in San Francisco July 19-21, 2016. I delivered a workshop on improving resolution during informal EEO counseling.
It is a well-established fact that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) – specifically mediation – is more successful in resolving cases than traditional EEO counseling. This conclusion is drawn from EEOC’s FY 14 462 data in which approximately 65% of complaints that enter ADR are resolved. This is significantly higher than the 54.39% overall resolution rate—which is a combination of resolution in ADR and traditional counseling. The obvious conclusion is that resolution of informal EEO matters is more likely to occur when the aggrieved party elects ADR (usually mediation) rather than traditional counseling. This begs the question: what occurs during mediation that is yielding better results? Secondarily, can one replicate what’s occurring in mediation and apply it to traditional counseling to improve resolution in counseling?
Driven by this compelling data, I offered a workshop based on a proven premise: that, in fact, one can integrate mediation techniques into counseling to improve resolution in traditional counseling. The workshop provided insights into how to:
- Leverage shuttle diplomacy in traditional counseling
- Communicate expectations to the disputing parties
- Focus the disputing parties on their interests rather than positions
- Explore alternatives for resolution
- Successfully close the deal
If you are an EEO Counselor and missed EXCEL, no worries! We integrated many of these basic and proven principles into our online EEO counselor mandatory 8-hour refresher training. Click here for more details: EEO Counselor Refresher Training
If you are an EEO Investigator and need refresher training, we also have 8-hour EEO Investigator Refresher training available. Click here.