A membership body has just been set up in the UK to undertake research, offer training and provide expert advice to employers in the area of employee and workplace relations.
The Employee Relations Institute’s board comprises representatives from 17 employers, employer bodies and trade unions and has appointed Jan Parkinson, former director of the Local Government Association, as its chief executive.
Lord Sawyer, a former general secretary of the Labour Party, has likewise been given the role of president, while Andy Cook, CEO of Marshall-James Global Solutions, has been named as the organisation’s executive chair.
Other board members include:
- Tony McCarthy, HR director at mining giant, ENRC
- Richard Fulham, director of employee and industrial relations at BP International
- John Taylor, chief executive of Acas
- John Hannett, general secretary of Usdaw
- Dr David Spicer, senior lecturer in organisational change at Bradford University’s School of Management.
Parkinson said: “As well as providing professional qualifications and CPD opportunities for management and trade union representatives, the ERI will carry out research into employee and workplace relations in order to ensure that we are keeping abreast of all current and key employee relations issues.”
A key aim of the Institute is to try and encourage members to commit to introducing minimum standards of education among their supervisors and line managers. The objective is to ensure that they have the right level of skills and competencies in order to promote more positive employee relations.
To this end, the organisation has got together with Bradford University’s School of Management to provide HR professionals, employee representatives and senior business managers with masters’ degree, diploma or certificate programmes.
The former is due to start in March next year, while the latter two offerings will be made available from September 2013.
