1. The Labour Relations Act

• Process of certification/decertification
• Differences between public sector and private sector organizations

2. The Collective Agreement

• Articles of importance – hours of work, scheduling, union access to facilities,rules of conduct etc.
• Collective bargaining
• The grievance procedure
• Disciplinary process and penalties
• Suspension pending investigation
• Proving just cause
• Investigation of facts

3. Controlling Absenteeism

• Culpable vs. non-culpable absenteeism
• Attendance improvement programs

4. Managing Disciplinary Issues & Process

• Ensuring problems are dealt with the first time
• What to say in a disciplinary document
• Effective disciplinary planning: place, time, preparation
• Conducting the interview process: controlling the agenda, presentation of facts, invitation to respond, evaluation of evidence
• Follow-up procedures

5. Linking your Industrial Relations to Your Business Plan

• From vision, mission and values to practice
• Creating an industrial relations strategy to assure achievement of business objectives

6. The Daily Challenges of Managing Unionized Staff

• What managers expect from their employees
• What employees expect from their boss
• The “two-bucket” theory of effective relationships
• How to represent management while meeting your staff’s needs
• Relationship building with staff

7. Effective Leadership: Setting Expectations and Improvement Goals

• Applying coaching skills to get staff to take ownership for performance
• Creating a high-performance culture
• Applying seven key strategies of successful coaches
• The impact of expectations on performance
• A system of goal setting to get buy-in to challenging goals
• Using measurement to track performance and increase accountability
• Promoting change through recognition and rewards
• Making difficult conversations easy

8. Motivating and Coaching Your Staff

• Your leadership profile and its impact on morale
• Balancing humanistic and goal-oriented behaviour
• When to instruct and when to listen
• Listening and its impact on morale
• Creating a new vision moving forward