In this guest blog from Dr Cecilia Ellis, Associate Professor in HRM Practice at Manchester Metropolitan University, offers and answer to this question, sharing findings from her pilot project exploring how accredited workplace mediation training could strengthen the future HR talent pipeline.
Guest blog from Dr Cecilia Ellis, Associate Professor in HRM Practice at Manchester Metropolitan University, sharing findings from her own pilot project exploring how accredited workplace mediation training could strengthen the future HR talent pipeline.
Conflict is part of every workplace – sometimes constructive, often costly. Recent research puts the annual price tag of workplace conflict in the UK at £28.5 billion and, with one in four employees reporting conflict in the past year, it's clear that we need leaders who can handle disputes competently and confidently.
For managers, educators and people professionals, this raises the question: how do we make sure the next generation is better prepared?
The challenge of developing conflict management skills inspired a pilot project within our HRM programme at Manchester Metropolitan University. This was designed to embed conflict capability directly into the curriculum and test whether the training could meaningfully develop capability before students enter professional practice. We recruited three HRM students (from undergraduate to PhD level) as student partners and invited them to complete accredited workplace mediation training.
Their journey, and their reflections on that journey, offered powerful insights into how mediation training could shape future people leaders.
The students took part in intensive mediation skills development, learning techniques such as active listening, reframing and reality testing, and taking part in roleplays before completing a final assessed mediation.
Students showed clear growth in both competence and confidence through their reflections. One student described feeling "cool, calm and collected" during their assessed mediation, despite entering the day full of nerves.
The training became a catalyst for deep personal development that went far beyond conflict resolution.
Students talked about:
One described the experience as "more than mediation training… a lesson in communication, self-awareness and managing anxiety", whilst another student reflected that "mediation is so much more than a set of skills… it was one of the best experiences I've had the pleasure of being part of".
This kind of transformational learning is invaluable, not only for conflict resolution, but for people leadership more broadly.
As pressures on workplaces increase, so does the need for leaders who can handle conflict confidently, constructively and compassionately. Mediation training offers a practical and engaging way to close capability gaps before students enter the workplace.
In organisations, many early-career HR professionals quickly find themselves supporting grievance, disciplinary and relationship-based issues. Building this capability early could reduce reliance on formal processes, support better managerial decision-making, and help prevent conflict escalation - all of which protect time, cost and productivity.
For HEIs, this represents an important opportunity to equip future People Professionals with skills that can genuinely change workplaces, support wellbeing and improve organisational culture.
Given the positive outcomes of this pilot, we have plans to expand the mediation training and develop a university mediation clinic where trained students can practise their skills in real-world scenarios. This would not only deepen student learning but also build internal conflict-resolution capacity, a model that could benefit the wider sector.
The message from the pilot is clear: when students learn mediation, they don't just gain conflict management skills – they grow into more reflective, empathetic and confident future leaders.
That's exactly the kind of leadership our workplaces need.
With the UK facing significant workplace challenges – from the forthcoming Employment Rights Act 2025 to ongoing pressures on workplace relationships – developing conflict-capable people leaders has never been more urgent.
This pilot reinforces what many CIPD members see in practice: conflict competence is not a ‘nice to have’, it’s a core leadership capability with direct impact on wellbeing, engagement and organisational performance.
For organisations focused on productivity, sustainability and good work, investing in conflict capability early and intentionally may be one of the most impactful steps they can take.
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