Essential People Management Skills Training

This 2-day course is designed to provide managers with the necessary knowledge and skills in essential key HR areas from the beginning of the employment relationship (i.e. Recruitment) to ending that relationship when it is necessary to do so (by reason of misconduct, poor performance or due to absence). It will empower managers and team leaders to confidently handle HR issues themselves but also to recognise when they should be escalated within the business.

Course content

Recruitment and Selection

• The legal framework
• recruitment sources
• sifting applications
• prohibited questions
• competency based interviewing
• questioning techniques

The importance of Dignity and Respect in the Workplace

• The Equality Act
• protected characteristics
• how discrimination occurs and remedies
• Harassment, bullying and ‘banter’

Communication Skills

• Getting the message across
• importance of body language
• key issues when using email/telephone communications

Unfair Dismissal framework

• What is fair and what procedures to follow

Discipline 

• Informal and formal approaches
• suspension
• employee rights
• investigations
• witness statements
• handling disciplinary hearings and appeal

Grievance 

• What is a grievance?
• informal and formal approaches to resolution
• how to conduct a formal hearing
• investigating grievances
• possible outcomes

Performance Management

• Measuring performance
• the ‘performance gap’
• providing negative feedback in a positive way
• importance of examples and documentation

Absence Management

• Costs of absence
• how to manage both long and short term absences
• return to work interviews
• importance of medical reports and making them effective