Misconduct Investigations
Safety breaches, dishonesty, theft, substance use, policy breaches and conduct that may warrant summary dismissal.
Most formal complaints start as a conversation nobody had
By the time a matter reaches a written complaint, it has usually been building for months. Someone noticed something early and didn't raise it. A supervisor saw a problem developing and hoped it would settle. Two people stopped speaking, the team split, and the work started suffering long before anyone put anything in writing.
Formal processes exist for good reason and sometimes there's no alternative. But they're slow, expensive, and hard on everyone involved, and a significant proportion of the matters that reach them could have been resolved much earlier and far more cheaply.
We work at that earlier stage: building leaders who can hold difficult conversations, and mediating conflict before it hardens into a formal dispute.
Workplace mediation
You might be dealing with
- Two team members whose relationship has broken down and is affecting the crew
- A supervisor and employee in ongoing conflict
- A team that has split into factions
- Someone returning to work after a complaint or investigation, with the relationship unresolved
- A grievance where both parties would prefer a resolution to a formal process
- Recurring friction between departments, shifts or crews
What's included
- Individual pre-mediation meetings We meet each party separately first, to understand their perspective, explain the process, and assess whether mediation is genuinely appropriate. Not every matter is suitable, and we'll tell you if we don't think this one is.
- Facilitated joint session A structured conversation between the parties, led by an independent third party, with clear ground rules and a focus on what needs to change going forward.
- Written agreement Where the parties reach agreement, we document what has been agreed in practical terms: specific behaviours and arrangements, not vague commitments to be respectful.
- Follow-up A check-in some weeks later to confirm the agreement is holding and to address anything that has emerged since.
Why mediation works
- Forward-looking, not fault-finding. Mediation is voluntary, confidential and forward-looking. It doesn't determine who was right, which is what makes it fundamentally different from an investigation, and why it can resolve things an investigation can't. Most workplace conflicts don't have a clean right and wrong; they have two people with different accounts and a working relationship that has stopped functioning.
- It's fast. A matter that would take weeks as a formal grievance can often be resolved in a day or two, at a fraction of the cost and disruption.
- When mediation isn't appropriate. Where there are serious allegations requiring findings, a significant power imbalance between the parties, safety concerns, or where one party is not participating genuinely. In those cases mediation can do harm, and we'll recommend an investigation or another route instead.
Leadership coaching
You might be dealing with
- A technically strong supervisor who avoids performance conversations
- Newly promoted leaders managing former peers
- A leader whose team has high turnover or repeated complaints
- Managers who escalate everything to HR rather than handling it themselves
- A leadership group inherited through acquisition or restructure
- A capable leader with one specific behaviour holding them back
What's included
- Individual coaching One-to-one sessions focused on specific, practical capability: holding a performance conversation, giving feedback that lands, managing a difficult team member, or leading through change.
- Difficult conversation preparation Working through a specific upcoming conversation: what to say, how to open it, how to respond to the likely reactions, and how to close it. Often the highest-value hour a leader spends.
- Leadership team development Working with a group of supervisors or managers on shared capability, standards and consistency.
- Team development days Purposeful, well-paced sessions tailored to team objectives: strategy alignment, ways of working, trust, communication and collaboration. Interactive and practical, not theory-heavy workshops.
- Practical skill building Not leadership theory. The specific mechanics of the conversations these leaders actually need to have on Monday.
Why it matters in operational businesses
- Promoted on technical competence. Supervisors in mining, resources and construction are typically promoted on technical competence and operational judgement, which is entirely reasonable, since that's what the job requires most days. But it means many step into people leadership with no preparation for it at all.
- The consequence is predictable and expensive. Performance issues go unaddressed until they're serious. Small conflicts escalate because nobody intervened early. Good people leave because of how they were managed. Grievances land in HR that a competent conversation six weeks earlier would have resolved entirely.
- Cheapest intervention available. Coaching supervisors is among the cheapest interventions available, and one of the few that reduces the volume of everything else.
Deal with it early. A short conversation will tell you which route fits. Book a call
Experience behind this service
Kelly has led HR teams of up to thirty-five people and sat on executive leadership teams across construction, energy, aviation and resources. She has designed leadership and capability programs that were adopted across global organisations, covering mentoring, inclusion, and career progression and promotion.
Coaching here is grounded in having held the roles: managing performance, leading through change, handling conflict and building credibility, at every level from site supervisor to executive.
Common questions
How long does a mediation take?
Pre-mediation meetings usually take an hour with each party. The joint session typically runs half a day. Most matters resolve within a week end to end.
Is mediation confidential?
Yes. What is said in mediation stays in mediation, with limited exceptions, safety risks and unlawful conduct among them. The employer is normally told whether agreement was reached and what practical arrangements were agreed, not the detail of the discussion.
What if mediation doesn't work?
Then you're where you would have been anyway, having lost a few days. Often even an unsuccessful mediation clarifies the real issue and makes the next step more straightforward.
Can we mediate a bullying complaint?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. If serious allegations need to be tested and findings made, that's an investigation, not a mediation. If the substance is a relationship that has broken down, mediation is often the better route. We'll assess it with you before committing either way.
How much coaching does a leader need?
It depends on the goal. Preparing for a specific conversation might be a single session. Building broader capability usually runs as a series of sessions over a few months, and we can start within two weeks. We'd rather scope it to a clear objective than sell an open-ended program.
Do you coach remotely?
Yes, though we prefer in person where practical, particularly for the first session. For site-based leaders on rosters, a mix usually works best.
Related services
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The everyday matters that become expensive if they're handled badly.