Effective Corporate Labour Relations Training

Labour relations training (LR) is a key aspect of corporate training in many organizations. There are long term benefits in corporate LR training for both the organization and for the employees. Top organizations take pride in providing their staff with the best corporate training available. 

Corporate labour relations training plays a very important role in organizations, especially those that have a unionized workforce.

Who Should Receive this LR Training?

In an organization there are certain groups of people who require some form of LR training and upgrading. These would decision-makers, managers, supervisors, shop stewards, and certain other employees.

• Decision-makers and senior executives: A good overview of labour relations would benefit corporate goals and objectives decision-making.

• Managers: Having the correct working knowledge on how to handle shopfloor employee conflict and problem solving can prevent or minimize costly legal solutions.

• Supervisors and Shop Stewards: Supervisors and shop stewards would learn the conflict resolution skills to deal with low-intensity or low-level frontline employee problems without the issues being sent up-line which would result in unnecessary delays.

• Employees: Employees become aware of their employee rights as well as becoming aware of management's prerogatives and their employers' rights. This leads to an understanding of rights and responsibilities in the workplace, leading to reduced areas of conflict.

• Human Resources Personnel: Upgrading their LR training would reduce a lot of the unnecessary pressure that's on the HR department, leaving HR staff free to administer their many responsibilities more effectively.

Setting Up Labour Relations Training

Any LR training should be based on an analysis of training needs with the goal of achieving specific objectives. These objectives could be achieved through the LR training courses as a whole, or as single modules in the course.

The Need for Hands-on Negotiations Skills...

Most management training usually involves 'how to manage people' or 'how to motivate workers', but they seldom receive training in collective bargaining or are taught about the role that unions can play in maintaining a stable working environment.

This lack of LR training is often evident in some negotiating sessions where inexperienced managers have to go up against well-trained and experienced union negotiators. This situation can have a significant impact on the outcome of a bargaining session.

To overcome this danger, managers should receive on-the-job negotiating skills training to a level where they can deal competently with experienced shop stewards or union negotiators.

Get Practical Negotiations Skills Training to Gain Experience

Negotiating skills can best be acquired through practice together with experience. Therefore, an organization can conduct specific industrial relations training for managers covering negotiating skills or other important industrial relations areas.

In these training sessions managers can get to improve their negotiating skills through case studies and practicing with role-playing exercises. These case-studies and role-playing exercises would be more effective when based on actual problems or situations faced within the organization.

In developing labour relations management training for managers the emphasis should be towards on-the-job-training centred round coaching, case-studies/role playing, or task assignments. The reason for this is that extensive research carried out by Alastair Mant in his book The Experienced Manager shows that:

• the majority of experienced managers do not benefit greatly from external management courses, or online courses; and
• managers benefit more from well designed and well conducted internal courses variously termed 'in-company', 'in plant', 'on-site', or 'in house', which are linked to the job and involve problem-orientated project work;

This standpoint is reinforced by Professor R. W. Revans in his book Developing Effective Managers, describing his concept 'Action Learning' which "is a method of helping managers to develop their talents by being exposed to real problems. They are required to analyse them, formulate recommendations and then, instead of being satisfied with a report, actually take action. It accords with the belief that managers learn best by doing rather than being taught." (A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice)

An important requirement for conducting industrial relations training is that the courses should continually be monitored to ensure that they are proceeding according to plan for achieving their specific objectives.

If you would like to know more about our extensive Negotiations Skills Training in our Labour Relations Management Training, contact us.

View our other training modules below.

Labour Relations Training Modules

his is a comprehensive Labour Relations Training program providing cost-effective industrial relations training to organizations in Canada. All our training programs are customized to meet your company's specific needs.

The overall objective of this LR/IR training is to give managers and supervisors the practical skills to effectively handle employee relations problems in the workplace, in compliance with current employment legislation.

Note: Our training is geared to HR and other senior managers who are seeking a more practical hands-on training to handling labour relations issues in the workplace. If you are seeking a more academic-based LR training I would advise you to look at one of the top established education institutions, such as for example: Queens University.

All our training materials are customized to incorporate the labour laws and employment legislation of the relevant federal, provincial or territorial jurisdictions.

Workplace Training Modules

Practical Labour Relations Training for the Workplace

A comprehensive LR training program covering:

• An Outline of Canadian Labour and Employment Laws
• Handling Employee Relations
• Effective discipline in the Workplace
• Human Rights in the Workplace

Each module includes the following:

1. Training Objective
2. Training Materials
3. Recommended Time
4. Training Program Overview

Handling Employee Relations

• Module 1. Introduction: Employee Relations
• Module 2. Creating Positive Employee Relations
• Module 3. Effective Supervisory Handling of Employee Relations
• Module 4. Handling Conflict & Grievance in the Workplace
• Module 5. Effective Handling of Bullying, Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Effective Discipline in the Workplace

The following sections are all covered under one module:

• Human Rights Legislation (individual jurisdictions)
• Understanding Employers Rights
• Understanding Employees Rights
• Protection under Human Rights Legislation
• Human Rights Violations and Sanctions

Strategic Human Resources in Labour Relations Training

Organizational Change

• What is organizational change?
• Change as a crucial part of organizational strategy
• Why is change so important in a competitive business environment?
• Implementing the process of change in your organization

Outsourcing as a Strategic Move

• Why Outsource?
• When to Outsource?
• Which Departments to Outsource?
• Advantages of Outsourcing
• Disadvantages of Outsourcing

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Learn of the different types of mergers and acquisitions
• Why do organizations merge?
• Should your organization merge?
• The Challenge in merging two or more organizational cultures
• Why mergers often fail

Downsizing and Restructuring

• Understand the complexities in downsizing
• Labour Relations Issues
• Dealing with labour relations laws when downsizing or restructuring
• Dealing with ethical issues in downsizing
• Managing the consequences of downsizing

By having a professional handle your organization's LR training you will have peace of mind that your labour relations issues will be addressed, and that your managers and supervisors will have the confidence and the practical training to handle the employee relations issues within their departments.

To request a labour relations training services quote, customized for your business, please use the contact form below.

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