It’s been a busy year. A tough one for us all personally, but at ADR Mediation there’s been a lot of positive change happening. In this article we’re going to look at what’s changed for us in 2020, how we’ve adapted to the changing situation, and what we’ve got in store for 2021.
We’re doing this so you can see the benefits that mediation has had for many throughout a year of unique challenges, and so you can find out more about us here at ADR and how we’ve evolved recently to help you and your organisation when you need us.
A growing team
This year we’re grateful to have seen a large expansion in terms of both our workload and our team.
First of all we welcomed Finance Manager, Amanda Watson to the team.
Amanda is a fully licenced accountant and bookkeeper (AATQB) and a fellow member of the Association of Accounting Technicians (FMAAT) with 20 years’ experience in a financial capacity.
She focuses on the practical questions involved in getting things done and is capable of focusing on the right details to achieve results. She is an important addition to the ADR Mediation team.
Then our new Contracts Manager, Janette Rooney joined us.
Janette specialises in business support and administration. She is able to take on a large workload and uses her organisational skills to help us manage and deliver our services. Janette has been a key supporting figure behind our expansion.
The final addition to our operations was the team at Viisi Creative who are our new sales and marketing partner. Responsible for a range of services including website development, copywriting, and social media marketing, Viisi have helped us take new initiatives to market and expand our reach. Something which we will be heavily focused on as we move forward into 2021.
How we’ve been able to expand
There’s obviously been a lot of businesses struggling this year and we’re thankful that the pandemic hasn’t negatively affected us. But why have we seen such significant growth?
The main reason is simple – there’s been a surge in demand for mediation services.
2020 has unsurprisingly led to an increase in disputes as we’re all staying at home more and we’ve had unparalleled restrictions to cope with. It’s become much easier for minor issues to escalate.
During the first lockdown the government closed the courts and imposed the tenant eviction ban, meaning for many mediation was the only option.
That’s why there’s been more demand and we’re also pleased to have received more referrals from organisations who know us and those who have worked with us before.
We’re pleased that we’ve been able to help a lot of people through this difficult time who otherwise may have had to deal with very difficult situations for many months with no support.
What’s to come?
At the moment it’s all hands on deck for us working on cases and we continue to bring on board new case workers to help us continue to meet the rising demand for our mediation services.
In 2021 we will be expanding our services to cover more of the country as we’re starting to get more referrals from further afield.
From 1st April we expect to be covering The Midlands, Yorkshire and then further from there so we will be working with more new mediators in these areas to help organisations all over the UK manage conflicts.
We are making these plans as we envisage no change to the current trend. There’s still a court backlog and a lot of organisations have now seen the benefits of using a mediation service over other avenues that they may have traditionally taken to resolve conflicts.
Mediation helps prevent escalations and this early intervention is key to an organisation saving time and money and preventing unnecessary stress. Mediation helps you to react proactively to unfolding situations rather than reactively when it’s gone too far.
We’re passionate about what we do and helping people in conflict get a resolution as early as possible. We’re looking forward to more of the same in 2021 and beyond.
Find out more
Hopefully this article has given you more insight into what we do, who we are, and what we’ve got in store. If you want to find out more about the benefits of mediation or to talk to our team and see how we can help you, please contact us today.
