The Effective HR Manager

Day One
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Welcome, introduction and outline of objectives
10:00 - Dreams and realities of the HR manager
· Exploring the challenges and rewards of your role as HR manager
· Making today's job great and looking to the future: career options and prospects and enhancing your future

11:00 - Progression of the HR function
· Recap of historical development of the HR function and contribution
· Current thinking and latest research: what should we be doing?
· Strategic HR and value creating: what does it take to impact the strategy and success of the organisation from a people and organisation perspective
· Barriers to the 'nirvana' - what will stop you and what can you do to overcome the barriers

11:45 - Coffee
12:00 - Knowledge, skills and abilities of the great HR manager
· HR interventions that make a difference
· Exploring the skills set and characteristics of an effective HR manager.
· The HR business partner in context

12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Working context of the HR manager. Exploring the challenges inherent within the HR manager's remit
· Personal profile and credibility
· Disciplinaries, grievances and employee relations issues
· Union and staff side discussions
· Managing line managers
· Working with other departments and functions
· Conflicting demands and priorities and lack of time and resource
· Marketing the HR function and communicating HR activity
The remainder of the programme will incorporate role plays, real time activity, case study and self assessment based around typical scenarios encountered by an HR manager and an individual's own experiences, to explore, practice and receive feedback on the skills set needed to be an effective HR manager.

14:00 - Impact and credibility
· Profile of impact
· Research findings into what makes a difference
· Self assessment

14:30 - Tea
14:45 - Assertiveness and influence
· Assertiveness - what it means in practice
· Assertive communications: having a voice that is heard and persuading others
· How do we influence: the 7 skills of influence
· Activities: putting it into practice

16:30 - End of day one

Day Two
09:00 - Registration and coffee
09:30 - Effective communications
· Means and methods of communicating and selecting the right communication vehicles
· Stakeholder analysis
· Techniques for persuasion and communicating with impact
· Activities and case study

11:00 - Coffee
11:15 - Managing conflict and handling difficult situations
· Your approach to strive for win-win
· Activity: pulling it all together through role play and feedback

12:00 - Managing meetings
· Exploring what goes wrong and what you can do differently
· Key steps to ensure meetings success

12:30 - Lunch
13:30 - Managing workload and conflicting demands
· Essentials of time management
· Assessing important versus urgent
· Tools and techniques to ensure you use your time smartly, effectively and on the right things
· Activities and self assessment

15:00 - Tea
15:15 - Networking and profile within and outside your organisation
· What is involved, where are you now and what can you do differently?

16:00 - Taking your development forwards
· Self assessment and your top priorities to improve
· Immediate action planning

16:30 - End of seminar