Employee Relations in Practice: A Training Course on Aligning Staff and Work
1Summary
When the relationship between staff and the organisation they work for is left loosely defined, the cost shows up everywhere — in unresolved grievances, inconsistent discipline, and performance nobody is quite tracking. This Arab British Fellowship Training Academy course gives HR practitioners and managers a structured way to own that relationship instead of reacting to it.
Even as the human resources function has matured, the employee relations role often stays undefined on paper while, in practice, the people in it are expected to track operational performance indicators, handle complaints, enforce policy, manage performance, run internal communication, and support the organisation's social functions — all at once.
The course lays out the full scope of that role: fair legal and human approaches to disputes, labour market dynamics, conflict management, current labour legislation, grievance and dismissal handling, collective bargaining, conciliation and arbitration, strikes, and negotiation skills.
2Objectives and target group
Who Should Attend?
- Executives responsible for staff and operations.
- HR and labour relations officers and union representatives.
- Students in related fields.
- Owners of private and public companies.
- Graduates and anyone interested in this field.
Objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Analyse the interaction within the labour relations system as a whole.
- Use the relationship between staff and work to actually improve performance.
- Apply core skills for identifying problems and reaching solutions.
- Build genuine dialogue between management and employees around motivation and development.
- Take the disciplinary action a situation calls for, appropriately.
- Explain the key principles behind labour legislation and their environmental influences on labour relations.
- Maintain effective communication, representation, and grievance-decision structures.
- Handle discipline and dismissal from the workplace, and manage negotiation during disputes and strikes.
3Course Content
Module 1: What the Employee Relations Function Actually Covers
- The purpose behind building structured employee relations in the first place.
- How the employee relations system is built, and where its tasks and responsibilities sit.
- The role of the supervisor and team leader within it — distributing tasks, solving problems, running disciplinary interviews, and listening skills for a strong leader.
Module 2: Managing and Improving Staff Performance
- Setting clear performance goals for staff.
- Reviewing performance with real feedback and guidance, not just a form.
- Evaluating and calibrating performance fairly.
- Building a practical plan to address weak performance, and enforcing compliance with workplace rules.
Module 3: Handling Conflict, Discipline and Rule Compliance
- Leadership and motivation as tools for preventing conflict before it starts.
- Warning and penalty structures that stay fair and consistent.
Module 4: The Bigger Picture — Labour Law, Environment and Employee Satisfaction
- Labour laws in Europe and the United States, as points of comparison.
- Environmental and historical influences on labour relations, and how staff participate in workplace procedures — communication, representation, grievances, discipline and dismissal.
- What drives employee satisfaction with the work environment, and why it matters operationally.
Module 5: Collective Relations — Bargaining, Conciliation, Arbitration and Strikes
- Structures and processes of collective bargaining.
- Conciliation and arbitration as dispute-resolution tools.
- Managing a strike situation and the negotiation skills it demands.