Employee and Labour Relations Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Employee Relations Managers, HR Business Partners and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LR-023

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience of HR operations, people management, employee casework or organisational change.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Employee and labour relations work becomes difficult when business priorities, employee expectations and union interests collide. Pay negotiations, restructures, grievance patterns, disciplinary cases and industrial action threats can quickly affect service delivery, operating costs, reputation and workforce morale. HR professionals and line managers need more than policy knowledge: they need a disciplined approach to consultation, representation, negotiation, dispute handling and relationship repair.

This course develops the practical skills needed to manage employee relations with confidence and procedural fairness. Participants examine employee voice structures, trade union recognition, collective bargaining, consultation duties, grievance processes, mediation, disciplinary matters and change-related negotiations. They learn to prepare bargaining mandates, cost proposals, frame consultation papers, manage difficult meetings, identify collective implications of individual cases and maintain defensible records. The course also addresses conflict diagnosis, early resolution and industrial action contingency planning.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic cases drawn from public services, banking, manufacturing, infrastructure, NGOs and large corporate employers. Participants work through bargaining scenarios, consultation plans, dispute records, difficult conversations and change communications. They leave with a practical employee relations toolkit containing reusable templates, checklists, planning models and a 90-day improvement plan suited to their own workplace.

The course is suited to HR practitioners, employee relations specialists, people managers and leaders who deal directly with employee representatives or union officials. It is also valuable for professionals supporting workforce change, workforce planning, organisational restructuring or sensitive employee casework.

What you will be able to do

  • Design employee voice and consultation arrangements suited to workforce representation needs
  • Prepare bargaining mandates using interests, concessions, BATNA analysis and cost assumptions
  • Apply procedural fairness to grievance, disciplinary, capability and absence matters
  • Manage union relationships through recognition agreements, meeting protocols and joint working structures
  • Plan consultation and negotiation activities for restructuring, outsourcing and workforce change
  • Use mediation, conciliation and early-resolution methods to address workplace disputes
  • Create employee relations dashboards, issue logs and governance calendars
  • Produce a 90-day employee relations improvement plan with accountable actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Handle employee representative meetings with clearer preparation and authority
  • Prepare pay and conditions negotiations using defensible costed proposals
  • Manage difficult employee relations cases with stronger procedural discipline
  • Recognise early warning signs before conflict becomes a formal dispute
  • Build credible experience for employee relations and senior HR roles

For your organisation

  • Reduce escalation of grievances, disputes and avoidable employee relations cases
  • Improve consistency of manager decisions during disciplinary and grievance processes
  • Strengthen consultation quality during restructuring and workforce change
  • Support more controlled negotiations on pay, working time and conditions
  • Maintain clearer records of commitments, disputes, risks and agreed actions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can map employee relations stakeholders, define relationship objectives and assess sources of influence.

  • Employee relations architecture: voice, representation, consultation and collective bargaining
  • Distinguish union recognition, representation agreements and informal employee forums
  • Map stakeholders using an influence-interest matrix and relationship history
  • Assess power sources, dependency and mandate before formal discussions
  • Define management prerogative, procedural fairness and good-faith dealing
  • Set relations objectives linked to service, productivity and workforce risk

Participants can identify legal, contractual and procedural considerations affecting employee relations decisions.

  • Employment contract terms, policies, custom and practice as obligations
  • ILO freedom of association principles and collective bargaining rights
  • ACAS Code principles for disciplinary, grievance and settlement procedures
  • Separate statutory consultation duties from voluntary information-sharing commitments
  • Create an issue log distinguishing legal, contractual and relational risk
  • Escalation routes through HR, legal counsel and senior management

Participants can design consultation arrangements that provide employees with timely and credible influence.

  • Design employee voice channels: surveys, forums, representatives and digital feedback
  • Consultation versus communication: timing, disclosure, influence and documented responses
  • Prepare consultation papers with proposals, evidence, options and decision boundaries
  • Representative selection rules, constituency coverage and meeting protocols
  • Close feedback loops through action registers and published management responses
  • Measure voice quality using participation, response and implementation indicators

Participants can establish productive working arrangements with unions and elected representatives.

  • Recognition agreements: bargaining units, facilities, disclosure and dispute procedures
  • Build a joint negotiating committee with clear authority and roles
  • Union facilities time, access arrangements and representative protections
  • Manage informal contact without bypassing elected employee representatives
  • Use joint working groups for safety, change and productivity matters
  • Record agreed minutes, actions, reservations and escalation deadlines

Participants can prepare and conduct collective bargaining using interests, options and financial evidence.

  • Interest-based bargaining separates positions, interests, options and objective criteria
  • Prepare bargaining mandates, opening positions, concessions and walk-away points
  • Cost pay proposals using headcount, pension, overtime and payroll assumptions
  • Package issues to trade value across pay, hours and flexibility
  • Apply BATNA analysis before accepting, rejecting or pausing proposals
  • Draft collective agreements with definitions, eligibility and review clauses

Participants can select and manage proportionate dispute-resolution routes while protecting service continuity.

  • Classify disputes as rights, interests, recognition or procedural disagreements
  • Grievance handling stages, investigation standards and written outcome requirements
  • Use mediation to restore working relationships before formal escalation
  • Conciliation roles, without-prejudice boundaries and settlement recording
  • Plan industrial action contingencies: service continuity, communications and lawful responses
  • Maintain dispute logs showing issues, commitments, owners and deadlines

Participants can manage individual employee cases while identifying wider employee relations risks.

  • Apply procedural fairness to misconduct, capability, absence and grievance cases
  • Conduct fact-finding investigations using allegations, evidence, interviews and chronology
  • Chair formal hearings with notice, representation, questions and reasoned decisions
  • Identify collective implications before changing terms, schedules or staffing models
  • Handle protected disclosures, discrimination concerns and retaliation allegations appropriately
  • Document decisions for consistency review, appeal and legal advice

Participants can plan consultation, negotiation and workforce mitigation during significant organisational change.

  • Assess consultation triggers for restructuring, outsourcing, automation and site closure
  • Build change cases from business rationale, workforce impacts and alternatives
  • Sequence announcement, consultation, negotiation and implementation communications
  • Use impact assessments covering roles, skills, pay, location and workload
  • Negotiate mitigation measures: redeployment, retraining, selection and transition support
  • Track commitments through a change implementation register

Participants can diagnose workplace conflict and use structured conversations to restore working relationships.

  • Diagnose conflict using positions, interests, emotions, process and relationship factors
  • Thomas-Kilmann modes matched to issue urgency and relationship importance
  • Structure difficult conversations with facts, impact, requests and listening
  • De-escalate meetings through caucusing, reframing and ground-rule resets
  • Address manager conduct that undermines trust or representative legitimacy
  • Establish early-resolution routes before grievances become collective disputes

Participants can measure employee relations performance and create a targeted workplace improvement plan.

  • Build an employee relations dashboard covering cases, disputes, absence and turnover
  • Interpret leading indicators: meeting attendance, grievances, sentiment and unresolved actions
  • Conduct post-dispute reviews using root-cause analysis and corrective actions
  • Set governance calendars for forums, bargaining, policy reviews and audits
  • Create a 90-day relations improvement plan with accountable owners
  • Present priorities using risk ratings, milestones and resource requirements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Employee relations stakeholder mapping template
  2. Collective bargaining preparation and costing worksheet
  3. Consultation paper and response register
  4. Employee relations issue and dispute log
  5. Workforce change consultation checklist
  6. 90-day employee relations improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Employee Relations Managers — manage union relationships, disputes and collective agreements
  • HR Business Partners — advise leaders on sensitive workforce issues and organisational change
  • HR Managers — oversee employee casework, consultation and policy application
  • People Managers — conduct fair meetings with employees and representatives
  • Industrial Relations Specialists — strengthen bargaining preparation and dispute resolution methods
  • Change and Restructuring Leads — plan workforce consultation and mitigation measures

Skills and tools covered

Collective bargainingUnion relationship managementWorkplace dispute resolutionEmployee consultationProcedural fairnessChange consultation planning

Tools and standards

ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, ILO Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, Interest-based bargaining, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce principles, standards and practical methods. Participants apply these methods through case work involving recognition arrangements, pay negotiations, workforce restructuring, grievances and threatened industrial action. Group exercises develop consultation papers, bargaining mandates, issue logs and dispute responses. Simulations focus on representative meetings, difficult conversations and negotiation choices. Facilitated review links each activity to participants' own workplace challenges, followed by individual application planning for immediate use after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience of HR operations, people management, employee casework or organisational change. They should understand common workplace documents such as employment contracts, HR policies, job descriptions and meeting records. Familiarity with local employment law is useful but not essential, as the course focuses on transferable employee and labour relations methods rather than jurisdiction-specific legal advice. No prior trade union negotiating experience is required. Participants do not need legal qualifications, specialist industrial relations credentials or advanced financial modelling skills.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have basic HR, people management, employee casework or organisational change experience. Previous union negotiation experience is useful but not required.

Bring examples of non-confidential employee relations challenges, such as consultation plans, recurring grievances or workforce change proposals. Do not bring identifiable employee records, legally privileged advice or confidential bargaining documents.

The course is designed for HR practitioners, employee relations specialists, HR business partners and managers who work with employee representatives. It also suits change leads responsible for workforce consultation.

Employment law courses focus mainly on legal rules and case interpretation. This course concentrates on managing relationships, consultation, negotiation, conflict, representative structures and practical employee relations records.

Participants can use the templates for representative meetings, bargaining preparation, dispute tracking and change consultation immediately. The final application plan identifies priority actions for their own workplace.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group work, simulations, feedback and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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