Managing in a Unionized Work Environment

A skills intensive management program covering leadership, employment-related laws and proven ways to achieve workplace harmony and improved performance.

Managing and supervising unionized employees has become increasingly complex.

Changes to collective agreements, labour laws, human rights codes, grievance and disciplinary procedures makes it very challenging to maintain a cohesive, trusting and motivated workforce.
Our new program takes the guesswork out of managing unionized employee groups. The skill-laden course format will be team-taught by a top labour relations expert and a world-class authority on leadership.

The Best Part:

Gain up-to-date labour relations legal knowledge and leadership approaches to improve workplace relations and make confident management/human resources decisions that will withstand the scrutiny of any arbitration process.

Who Should Attend

• Managers and front-line supervisors responsible for creating positive working relationships with unionized workers
• Directors of public sector departments, municipalities, educational institutions, unionized agencies and healthcare organizations
• Managers new to a unionized work environment

What You Will Learn

1. Master the leadership skills to lead unionized staff
2. Manage legal issues by accurately interpreting the collective agreement
3. Examine varying approaches that are demanded by a changing economic climate
4. Motivate staff and manage poor performers using discipline appropriately and professionally
5. Set proper performance expectations that are supported with constructive feedback
6. Represent the interests of management professionally
7. Create a management-union relationship that better understands the competing interests of the union and the employer
8. Strategies to build a high-performance climate
9. The formal disciplinary process
10. How to deal professionally with disgruntled employees and union challenges
11. Maintaining respectful relationships with union representatives

Program Content

The Labour Relations Act

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

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

Absenteeism

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

Managing Disciplinary Issues and 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 response, evaluation of evidence
• Follow-up procedures

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

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

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

Motivating and Coaching Your Staff

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

• A pragmatic workbook with over a dozen forms you can use to set up a formal performance improvement program with staff
• A bonus copy of Cy Charney's best-selling book Just-in-Time Management

SEEC Learning Path Program

Enquire as to how this short program or any other regular series short program (2-5 days in duration) can become a Learning Path complimentary program. Call 415-736-5079 adn ask to speak to a Senior Education Adviser today.

Instructors