ADR Technique: Mediation and Facilitation

How the ADR System Works
The National Archives & Records Administration's (NARA) RESOLVE program works very closely with the union, the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) office and the human resources office. The EEO office is directly linked with RESOLVE for all cases. Any employee contacting the EEO office is told about the RESOLVE program. If the employee has no objection, their name and number are forwarded to the director of RESOLVE for further program explanation of the process and benefits. Mediation is offered at each and every stage of the EEO process. The top union representatives have received extensive training on ADR and are equipped to counsel employees on the benefits of ADR to resolve their potential grievances. Union representatives and labor relations have used facilitation to negotiate their contract and several mid-term bargaining issues. Their positive experiences with ADR in this context has enhanced their support of the program overall. The availability of the ADR program for resolving disputes is being aggressively publicized in a number of arenas. RESOLVE is fully funded and pays all external neutrals expenses.

An individual involved in a dispute can contact the director of the RESOLVE program, who performs all intake functions and confirms the names of the parties involved. The director then contacts the other individual(s) involved to see if all parties agree to participate. If everyone agrees, the director handles all logistics: finding a neutral room, finding an appropriate mediator, and sending out background materials. The parties mediate and then contact the director with the results of the session. The director maintains a roster of neutrals screened for demonstrated experience throughout the country. No internal neutrals are used, since the agency is considered too small to maintain the perception of neutrality if internal staff serve as mediators/facilitators.

Background/Objective
The RESOLVE program was initially created to bring NARA into compliance with the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act. As the design of the program proceeded, the stakeholders involved quickly realized the tremendous benefits that ADR could offer and soon the goals expanded to create an alternative forum for staff to take all workplace issues.

The original design teams involved representatives from all stakeholder groups and the staff at-large, including representatives of the Union, EEO office, Human Resources, and General Counsel. After receiving training in the full spectrum of ADR techniques and analyzing dispute resolution processes the agency was already using, the teams first developed key principles as a foundation for the program. A core design team then moved to design RESOLVE with facilitation support from an outside ADR systems design specialist. The design set out the details of the process for accepting and scheduling cases. The ADR program was initially implemented through a pilot and then fully implemented in 2000. Separate and apart from the design teams, the agency created an evaluation team. This team developed benchmarks to measure the pilot stage of the program. The core design team currently operates as the stakeholder group from which the current director receives guidance. The primary goal of RESOLVE is to offer an alternative process for resolving all workplace disputes. Overall, the program hopes to change the culture of the agency to help staff begin to think of communication first and choosing mediation before going to more cumbersome and costly administrative processes.

Duration/Current Activity
The program is still very young. The pilot phase began in November 1998 and only went nationwide in the spring of 2000. The director of the program is traveling to all NARA facilities around the country to conduct a two-hour orientation on the program. The director is accompanied by two union representatives, who share their thoughts on the benefits of the program and their own positive experiences with the ADR process. In addition, demonstrated cost savings and cuts in processing time for resolving disputes that have resulted from the use of ADR are helping to shift the agency toward expanded use of ADR in resolving disputes.

Rules Governing the Program
The Agency developed a policy statement encouraging the use of ADR and explaining the program. This, along with other information, is posted on the agency's web page in its "staff-only" site. The ADR program is voluntary, but strongly encouraged, applies to virtually all workplace disputes, and has dealt with a wide array of issues to date. The disputes have included co-worker and peer to peer conflicts, EEO and grievance cases, personnel issues, reasonable accommodation cases, and cases that involved a supervisor and employee but did not involve a formal EEO case or grievance.

Contact
Sarah Rudgers, RESOLVE Director, NARA, 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 3110, College Park, MD 20740; Telephone (301) 837-2089; Fax; (301) 837-0293; Email: sarah.rudgers@nara.gov.