Union-Management and Workplace Customized Training & Services

If you are interested in improving the process of collective bargaining in your organization, we can help you with a number of objectives.

Typical Collective Bargaining learning objectives include:

• Prepare, organize and negotiate complex agreements, including collective bargaining (enterprise bargaining) agreements, with a coherent effective strategy
• Build relationships and improve communication between the union and management in a way that helps you get better results
• Design a workshop to create and improve relationships and trust between union and management by training together using the same language and skills in negotiation. Making the other side more comfortable working with you is a one way to get better results for everyone
• Mentor or coach key personnel involved in collective bargaining negotiations
• Mediate or facilitate collective bargaining negotiations

In addition to the methods employed in our public workshops we can use customize specific tailored pieces or services for the collective bargaining context. Follow our link for a sample of possible collective bargaining tools.

Some of the tools we can use in relation to Collective Bargaining goals include:

• Collective Bargaining negotiation role plays (one-on-one or multi-party)
• Analysis of Collective Bargaining approaches
• Dealing with Difficult People and Issues
• Preparing for Collective Bargaining Negotiations (using either role plays or actual collective bargaining facts)
• Negotiation Consultations for Collective Bargaining
• Mediation, facilitation, or arbitration of Collective Bargaining discussions
• Communications exercises to improve communication skills like interactive listening
• One on one or group coaching on negotiation skills, including video analysis and review
• Instructor or coach-led debriefs on role plays

If you are interested in improving the handling of grievance issues in your organization, we can help you meet a number of objectives.

Typical Grievance Issue learning objectives include:

• Prepare, organize and negotiate grievance issues at any stage of the grievance process more effectively
• Design an Alternative Dispute Resolution System that can help you minimize the number of grievance issues and streamline the handling of such issues to minimize the impact on all sides in terms of cost, relationship, stability, and implementation. Such systems can incorporate elements of prevention, negotiation, mediation, peer review, arbitration and other Dispute Resolution methods
• Build relationships and improve communication between the union and management in a way will minimize the incidence of grievance issues and improve the handling of them when they occur
• Design a workshop to create and improve relationships and trust between union and management by training together using the same language and skills in negotiation. Making the other side more comfortable working with you is a one way to get better results for everyone
• Mediate or facilitate Grievance issues

In addition to the methods employed in our public workshops we can customize specific tailored pieces or services for the Grievance context. Follow our link for a sample of possible Grievance Issue tools.

Some of the tools we can use in relation to Greivance goals include:

• Grievance negotiation, mediation, or arbitration role plays (one-on-one or multi-party)
• Dealing with Difficult People and Issues exercises
• Preparing for Grievance negotiations
• Analysis and problem-solving of real world issues affecting your organization and staff
• Negotiation Consultations for Grievance issues
• Mediation, facilitation, or arbitration of Grievance Issues
• One on one or group coaching on negotiation skills, including video analysis and review
• Instructor or coach-led debriefs on role plays

The professionals at the Stitt Feld Handy Group/ ADR Chambers bring a wide range of expertise to the table in the area of workplace investigations. Such investigations of workplace problems by a neutral hold the prospect of achieving better results than many traditional dispute resolution methods such as litigation and arbitration.

Benefits of Workplace Investigations

An investigation by a neutral can add value by:

• Letting all parties be and feel heard
• Getting all of the facts and issues on the table for discussion rather than just half the problem
• Keeping relationships intact along the way and minimizing the adversarial nature of the process
• Identifying the root causes of problems rather than just dealing with symptoms and “rights”
• Helping craft win-win solutions that are designed to deal with root causes of problems
• Maintaining trust in the workplace by using a neutral rather than a manager to investigate
• Minimizing the likelihood of litigation
• Encouraging buy in from all parties and stakeholders

For more information about our professionals and the possibilities of workplace investigations, visit ADR Chambers.

If you want to enhance workplace productivity, performance and communication, we can help by providing customized training on Collaborative Work Skills. Collaborative Work Skills is a distillation of the principles of negotiation, dispute resolution, communication, leadership and interpersonal skills development, applied so as to enhance the functioning of your organization.

Key objectives of Collaborative Work Skills training include:

• Improving communication skills internally and externally between stakeholders
• Enhancing productivity and negotiation skills

In addition to the methods employed in our public workshops we can customize a number of specific training pieces on Collaborative Work Skills. Follow our link for a sample of Collaborative Workplace Skills tools.

Some of the tools we can use in Collaborative Workplace Skills training include:

• Workplace conflict negotiation and mediation role plays dealing with a variety of issues and contexts including interpersonal problems, monetary issues, lying, harassment issues, union settings, non-union settings, etc.
• Interactive Listening exercises
• Improving Feedback exercises
• One on one or group coaching on mediation skills, including video analysis and review, by instructors or our roster of experienced mediation coaches.
• Professional videos of workplace situations for discussion
• Fully customized role plays based on facts provided by you
• Video-taping and review and analysis of collaborative work skills
• Complex multi-party role plays
• Live demonstrations of mediation
• Exercises on brainstorming and problem-solving
• Exercises on dealing with difficult/inflammatory situations and comments

Past customized workshops we have done in the workplace context include a number in which we have brought both union and management representatives together for the same training on principled negotiation and dispute resolution. The benefit of this approach is threefold in that:

• both sides learn to speak the same language in negotiations and see the advantages of a principled negotiation approach;
• neither side worries about what “tactics” the other side is learning behind their back, because they are learning the same techniques together (which are not adversarial by nature); and
• they learn together, bonding and developing human relationships by the end of the training, no longer seeing the other side as “the enemy” but as human beings and colleagues.

Among the clients who have benefited from this approach are the Trade Union Congress of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (and a suite of the related employer representatives), the Ontario Science Centre, Fairfax Printers of Australia and the Electrical Safety Authority.