Strategic HR Policy Development Training Course

Duration 10 days 19 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends HR Directors, Heads of HR and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OD-003

Before you join: Participants should have three or more years of HR, organisational development, employee relations, people strategy or transformation experience.

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

HR policy initiatives often fail because they are treated as isolated documents rather than as operating mechanisms linked to business strategy, workforce risks, manager behaviour and employee experience. Senior HR teams must turn strategic priorities such as growth, restructuring, skills shortages, digitalisation, productivity, fairness and regulatory change into policies that can be implemented, governed and measured. This requires disciplined diagnosis, clear choices, stakeholder alignment and credible implementation planning.

This advanced course equips participants to design and lead HR policy initiatives that support organisational change. Participants assess the current HR policy set, identify policy gaps and contradictions, define strategic policy priorities, and create policy architectures covering workforce planning, talent, performance, reward, employee relations, inclusion, digital HR and people data. The course applies PESTLE, ISO 30414, Kotter’s 8-Step Process and ADKAR to policy design, implementation and evaluation.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings, policy case analysis, structured group work, stakeholder simulations and individual application planning. Participants work progressively on a policy initiative relevant to their employer or sector, using templates for diagnosis, option appraisal, governance, communications, implementation and measurement. They leave with a reviewed strategic HR policy initiative pack that can be refined with internal legal, employee relations and executive stakeholders.

The course is suited to experienced HR professionals, people strategy leads, HR business partners, employee relations specialists and transformation managers who influence enterprise-wide people practices. It is particularly relevant where HR policies need to support a merger, public-sector reform, operating-model change, workforce restructuring, rapid growth or technology adoption.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose HR policy gaps using policy inventory, evidence review and stakeholder analysis
  • Translate business strategy into prioritised HR policy initiatives and decision criteria
  • Design a coherent HR policy architecture with defined ownership, controls and dependencies
  • Draft policy options using impact assessment, risk analysis and implementation requirements
  • Apply ISO 30414 people metrics to establish policy baselines and success measures
  • Build stakeholder engagement and change plans using Kotter’s 8-Step Process and ADKAR
  • Create governance arrangements for policy approval, exception handling, review and assurance
  • Present a complete strategic HR policy initiative pack for executive review

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produces an executive-ready HR policy initiative for immediate workplace use
  • Builds confidence challenging outdated, duplicated or contradictory HR policies
  • Strengthens ability to connect people policy choices with business outcomes
  • Provides structured methods for managing policy stakeholders and resistance
  • Improves credibility in executive discussions on workforce risk and governance

For your organisation

  • Creates clearer HR policy priorities tied to business plans and workforce risks
  • Reduces inconsistency between corporate policies, manager practices and employee communications
  • Improves policy implementation through defined owners, milestones and adoption measures
  • Strengthens control of policy exceptions, approvals, reviews and audit evidence
  • Generates usable plans for workforce, talent, reward and employee relations change

Course modules

19 modules over 10 days

Participants can define a policy initiative mandate with clear scope, authority and success criteria.

  • Policy mandate translated into decision rights, scope, constraints and success criteria
  • Business case framed through workforce risk, value drivers and strategic priorities
  • Sponsor expectations converted into measurable policy outcomes and approval requirements
  • Policy versus procedure, guidance, standard and manager practice distinctions
  • Initiative charter defining boundaries, assumptions, resources and delivery milestones
  • Escalation routes for unresolved scope conflicts and executive decisions

Participants can assess the quality, coverage and operational use of an existing HR policy set.

  • Policy inventory categorising corporate, local, mandatory and discretionary documents
  • Document review identifies duplication, gaps, ambiguity and obsolete requirements
  • Process mapping traces policy triggers, decisions, handoffs and employee touchpoints
  • Manager interviews surface workarounds, recurring questions and implementation failures
  • Employee journey mapping locates friction within key people moments
  • Policy maturity criteria assess consistency, accessibility, ownership and control

Participants can identify external and internal factors that should shape HR policy priorities.

  • PESTLE analysis tests political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental drivers
  • Corporate strategy translated into workforce capabilities, behaviours and policy implications
  • Operating-model changes assessed for role design, decision rights and service impacts
  • Labour-market evidence identifies skills scarcity, mobility and retention pressures
  • Scenario planning compares policy implications under plausible workforce futures
  • Materiality assessment ranks issues by impact, urgency and stakeholder concern

Participants can create a structured HR policy architecture aligned with organisational priorities.

  • Policy architecture groups workforce, talent, reward, relations and data domains
  • Vertical alignment connects principles, policies, procedures, tools and communications
  • Horizontal alignment tests dependencies between recruitment, performance and reward policies
  • Policy hierarchy assigns enterprise standards and permitted local variation
  • Design principles establish simplicity, fairness, accountability and operational feasibility
  • Policy lifecycle defines drafting, approval, publication, review and retirement

Participants can use people data and qualitative evidence to support policy choices.

  • Evidence plan combines workforce data, documents, interviews and employee feedback
  • ISO 30414 measures selected for workforce, diversity, turnover and productivity questions
  • Baseline metrics distinguish symptoms, root causes and affected workforce segments
  • Data quality checks examine definitions, completeness, timeliness and comparability
  • Cross-tabulation identifies policy outcomes by grade, location, tenure and demographic group
  • Evidence limitations documented before drawing policy conclusions or recommendations

Participants can incorporate legal, ethical and fairness considerations into policy design.

  • Legal issue log separates mandatory obligations from discretionary policy choices
  • Equality impact assessment examines differential effects on protected employee groups
  • Privacy-by-design principles shape collection, retention and access to people data
  • Due-process requirements define notice, representation, investigation and appeal rights
  • Ethical decision criteria address dignity, proportionality, transparency and consistency
  • Jurisdictional variation managed through local legal review and controlled exceptions

Participants can plan stakeholder engagement that improves policy quality and acceptance.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies influence, interests, concerns and required contributions
  • Consultation strategy distinguishes inform, consult, involve and approve decisions
  • Union and employee representative engagement planned around statutory obligations
  • Listening sessions capture manager constraints and employee experience evidence
  • Resistance analysis identifies loss concerns, trust issues and capability barriers
  • Decision log records input received, choices made and rationale

Participants can design workforce planning policy components for changing capability needs.

  • Demand forecasting links business plans to roles, skills and capacity requirements
  • Supply analysis examines headcount, skills, attrition, mobility and contingent labour
  • Build-buy-borrow decisions define development, hiring, contracting and automation responses
  • Critical-role criteria prioritise positions with operational or strategic consequences
  • Succession policy establishes talent pools, readiness definitions and review cycles
  • Workforce planning governance assigns planning horizons, owners and data sources

Participants can align talent, performance and learning policies with required workforce behaviour.

  • Performance policy links goals, feedback, ratings and consequence management
  • Talent segmentation differentiates critical populations without creating inequitable treatment
  • Skills taxonomy defines capability language for hiring, development and deployment
  • Career framework establishes levels, pathways, criteria and mobility rules
  • Learning policy sets eligibility, investment criteria and manager accountabilities
  • Calibration controls reduce rating inconsistency and unsupported performance decisions

Participants can frame reward policy choices that support fairness, affordability and performance.

  • Reward principles balance market position, internal equity, affordability and performance
  • Job evaluation methods establish defensible relative role value and pay structures
  • Pay transparency choices assess communication, equity analysis and manager readiness
  • Variable-pay policy defines eligibility, measures, governance and risk controls
  • Recognition rules distinguish monetary awards, non-financial recognition and approval limits
  • Equal-pay analysis identifies unexplained gaps requiring investigation or corrective action

Participants can specify consistent employee relations policies with appropriate safeguards and escalation.

  • Disciplinary policy defines misconduct categories, investigation stages and possible outcomes
  • Grievance policy establishes intake, fact-finding, resolution and appeal procedures
  • Speak-up arrangements protect confidentiality, non-retaliation and case escalation
  • Attendance policy distinguishes support, monitoring, capability and disciplinary responses
  • Code-of-conduct provisions connect expected behaviours with reporting obligations
  • Case data analysis identifies recurring issues, hotspots and policy weaknesses

Participants can design people policies that address inclusion, wellbeing and work-design needs.

  • Inclusion policy defines accountability, inclusive behaviours and reporting requirements
  • Reasonable-adjustment procedures establish request handling, assessment and review processes
  • Wellbeing policy links prevention, support services, workload and manager responsibilities
  • Flexible-work criteria balance employee needs, service requirements and fairness
  • Psychosocial risk controls address workload, conflict, change and role clarity
  • Belonging indicators combine survey findings, representation data and retention patterns

Participants can define policy controls for digital HR services, automation and AI use.

  • Digital HR policy sets channel ownership, service standards and accessibility requirements
  • AI use cases assessed for purpose, human oversight and decision consequences
  • Algorithmic impact assessment tests bias, explainability, accuracy and contestability
  • People-data access rules define roles, permissions, monitoring and audit trails
  • Vendor controls address data processing, security, retention and contractual accountability
  • Digital adoption measures track usage, satisfaction, error rates and support demand

Participants can compare policy options using transparent strategic, financial and people criteria.

  • Option appraisal compares strategic fit, cost, risk, equity and feasibility
  • Decision matrix weights criteria and records assumptions behind option scores
  • Cost modelling estimates implementation, administration, training and technology expenditure
  • Benefits logic connects policy outputs, behaviour change and business outcomes
  • Risk register captures legal, operational, employee and reputational exposures
  • Recommendation papers present options, trade-offs, mitigations and required decisions

Participants can build a phased implementation plan for an approved HR policy initiative.

  • Implementation roadmap sequences design, consultation, approval, launch and review activities
  • Work-breakdown structure assigns deliverables, owners, dependencies and completion criteria
  • Pilot design tests policy usability before enterprise-wide release decisions
  • Readiness assessment evaluates manager capability, systems, communications and local capacity
  • Resource plan identifies budget, specialist support and delivery governance needs
  • Issue management process tracks blockers, decisions, actions and accountabilities

Participants can apply structured change methods to build adoption of new HR policies.

  • Kotter’s 8-Step Process sequences urgency, coalition, vision and reinforcement actions
  • ADKAR analysis identifies awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Audience segmentation differentiates executive, manager, employee and representative communications
  • Message architecture explains rationale, policy changes, actions and available support
  • Manager toolkits provide talking points, frequently asked questions and escalation routes
  • Communication calendar coordinates consultation, launch, reminders and feedback loops

Participants can establish governance controls that keep HR policies current, owned and usable.

  • Governance charter defines policy owners, approvers, reviewers and subject experts
  • Approval workflow specifies evidence thresholds, consultation and delegated authority
  • Exception process records rationale, duration, approval and compensating controls
  • Control testing verifies policy publication, acknowledgment, training and process compliance
  • Review schedule triggers updates through legislation, incidents, data and strategy changes
  • Policy dashboard reports status, exceptions, adoption, outcomes and overdue reviews

Participants can write clear policy documents and concise executive decision papers.

  • Plain-language drafting converts principles into specific rules and accountabilities
  • Policy clauses distinguish mandatory requirements from explanatory guidance and examples
  • Definitions section removes ambiguity around roles, terms and eligibility
  • Version control records ownership, approval dates, changes and review deadlines
  • Executive paper structure states decision sought, evidence, options and recommendation
  • Board-level briefing anticipates challenge on cost, risk, fairness and implementation

Participants can build, review and present a complete strategic HR policy initiative pack.

  • Policy initiative pack integrates diagnosis, priorities, options and recommended policy architecture
  • Evidence summary presents baselines, stakeholder findings, assumptions and material risks
  • Implementation plan combines milestones, ownership, resources, communications and readiness actions
  • Governance model defines approvals, exceptions, assurance, review and reporting arrangements
  • Success measures connect adoption indicators with workforce and business outcomes
  • Executive presentation defends recommendations against stakeholder challenge and competing priorities

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic HR policy initiative charter
  2. HR policy architecture template
  3. Policy diagnostic and maturity assessment
  4. Policy option appraisal matrix
  5. Implementation and change management plan
  6. Executive HR policy decision paper

Who should attend

  • HR Directors — need enterprise policy priorities linked to business and workforce strategy
  • Heads of HR — need to align fragmented policies, ownership and implementation plans
  • HR Business Partners — need to convert business needs into practical people interventions
  • Employee Relations Managers — need consistent policy controls, consultation and issue escalation
  • Organisational Development Managers — need policies that support operating-model and culture change
  • HR Transformation Leads — need structured policy initiatives during system, service or process redesign

Skills and tools covered

HR policy designPolicy impact assessmentPeople analyticsChange planningStakeholder governanceExecutive policy briefing

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, ISO 30414, Kotter’s 8-Step Process, ADKAR

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce policy methods, followed by cases drawn from public services, banking, multinational operations and large employers. Participants assess policy evidence, compare policy options, map stakeholders and test implementation choices through facilitated group work and simulations. Individual application planning begins during the first week and develops through the second. Trainers provide structured feedback on policy logic, governance, communications, measures and executive presentation. Classroom and live-online delivery use the same materials, templates and instructor-led discussion.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have three or more years of HR, organisational development, employee relations, people strategy or transformation experience. They should understand core HR processes such as recruitment, performance management, reward, learning, employee relations and workforce planning. Familiarity with their employer’s HR policies, approval routes and workforce priorities is useful. Participants do not need legal qualifications, advanced statistical training, prior change-management certification or experience writing enterprise policies. Legal requirements are discussed as design considerations; participants should obtain jurisdiction-specific legal advice before issuing policies.

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

Participants should have practical HR, organisational development, employee relations or HR transformation experience. The course assumes familiarity with core HR processes but does not require legal qualifications or prior policy-writing training.

Bring a current HR policy, a people initiative or a workforce issue that requires policy action. Participants may use anonymised workforce data, employee feedback, process maps or existing business plans where internal confidentiality rules allow.

It is designed for experienced HR professionals who influence policy beyond a single team or site. HR directors, heads of HR, HR business partners, employee relations leads and transformation managers will benefit most.

This course focuses on designing and implementing strategic HR policy initiatives rather than interpreting legislation or administering individual HR transactions. Legal obligations are considered as policy constraints, while the main emphasis is strategic alignment, evidence, governance and adoption.

Participants develop an initiative pack around a real policy issue, such as flexible work, performance management, workforce planning or AI use in HR. The templates can then be used to engage sponsors, obtain approvals and manage implementation.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes diagnosis, architecture and policy design; the second week covers implementation, change, governance, writing and the capstone presentation.

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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