Solutions

In order to comply with the legal requirements in Switzerland, all employers must provide employees with a mechanism for conflict prevention and protection of personal integrity at work. The External Trusted Person fulfils this requirement.

Through his neutral and independent position, by listening and advising, the External Trusted Person contributes to

• maintaining and re-establishing quality professional relationships
• identifying and defusing tensions
• managing conflicts and crisis situations
• implementing the internal regulations on the protection of personality at work

1/ The external trusted person is available to all employees
The external trusted person offers listening and support and assesses possible solutions with them. The external trusted person can encourage dialogue, refer the employee to other departments and contacts or offer mediation.
Employees can contact the support person when:

• They are/feel in conflict, in a situation of mobbing, sexual harassment, discrimination, or any other situation affecting their personal integrity
• They witness conflict, mobbing, sexual harassment, discrimination, or any other situation that affects the personality of others
• They question their role in situations of attacks on personal integrity

The external trusted person is available to all managers:

The external trusted person helps managers to maintain a calm and efficient working climate, to identify and manage problematic relationships within their team.

2/ Managers can contact the ETP to
Understand their specific role in the protection of personality at work

• Implement a personality protection strategy
• Identify the nature of the difficulties
• Manage difficulties within the team

3/ The external support person as a management tool for management
The external trusted person provides the management with an annual review of the company’s social climate. While respecting the confidentiality of situations, the ETP makes recommendations and proposals for improvement.

Management can call on the external trusted person at any time. The ETP is at their disposal to work on the issues of personality protection and mental health at work.

Conflict resolution sometimes requires the support of a third party.
Thanks to a specific methodology, mediation allows the creation of an environment conducive to the exchange of points of view and mutual listening. Within this framework, and over the course of several sessions, the parties to the conflict are led by the mediator to express themselves, to listen to each other and to work on resolving their difficulties. The parties work on the co-construction of a new “modus operandi” that allows professional collaboration and cohabitation.
Mediation is an interesting process in the sense that it gives the parties the opportunity to work on the resolution of their conflict themselves.

How does it work?
Mediation can take place at the initiative of the parties involved, at the suggestion of the employer or the external trusted person.

Training of managers and awareness-raising of employees on the prevention of psychosocial risks* are an integral part of the system required by law.

*Health risks which are induced by the work environment and which have an impact on the psyche (attacks on personal integrity, excessive or insufficient mental demands) SECO

I offer training for managers (representing the employer) and awareness-raising for employees on the prevention and management of conflicts and attacks on the personality (e.g. sexual harassment, mobbing, discrimination, etc.)

Other types of practical training can be offered, in particular on team management tools, burn out prevention, etc.

As a coach, I can also coach an employee or a team in order to strengthen their capacities to reach a specific goal. The aim of coaching is to set the individual or team in motion, to instil a dynamic or to increase motivation, in order to initiate a change and move forward in an assertive, confident and convinced manner.

HR support, aims at participating in the company’s reflections on the themes of personality protection at work and psychosocial risks*, by bringing an external, neutral and specialised viewpoint.

In such situations, I evaluate with HR the functioning of the systems in place and issue recommendations and/or propose solutions.

I also carry out social climate analyses and team evaluations (through interviews and psychometric tests), particularly in the event of internal malaise and/or dysfunction.