Programme Overview
Our Certificate in Employment Relations is a 9 month programme focused on building your legal skills, so you can effectively manage employment relations in your organisation. Our focus is not on being an employment lawyer, but on being able to advise and understand employment law to ensure your company complies, and to build effective ER processes.
Over the course you can attend workshops, watch videos, read articles and complete online learning modules and assignments as well as receiving coaching and feedback from our team.
The programme also involves assessing your achievement level from the start to the finish.
Who should register:
You’ll benefit most from the Certificate in ER if you are:
- In an HR role and wanting to prepare to move into a more focused ER role in the future.
- An experienced HR Advisor/Consultant taking on responsibility for more complex or contentious employment relations issues including PG’s, restructuring, dismissals and settlements.
- Responsible for drafting employment agreements and handling employment law in your organisation but not wanting to train as an employment lawyer!
If you have significant experience in 4 or more areas of the Certificate, then our Employment Law workshops may be of more value for you. To complete this Certificate, you must already have a good base of training and knowledge in general employment law and HR processes.
What will you finish with?
The Certificate in ER is different from tertiary study as we cover real life, rather than just covering theory. It’s full of practical suggestions and ideas to use. You’ll work through each module, with real case studies and assessments to test you are applying what we’ve covered. Once you’ve completed your final assessment you will be awarded your certificate.
Elephant Certificates are now recognised globally, in New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, the US and United Kingdom.
The programme investment is NZ$1,650 + GST. This Certificate is only available for New Zealand employment law and ER.
You will need to complete the on-line application to register for the Certificate. We have three intakes a year, in March, June and October.
Core Modules
These modules must be completed. If you have advanced training or experience in one of these areas, then you can apply to have one module exchanged for an optional module.
Introduction to Employment Relations
To start the Certificate you’ll complete a self-assessment of your skills and experience with an optional 360 from managers and peers. We also have a virtual welcome session to discuss the difference between ER, lawyers and HR, what challenges you might face and recent ER cases.
Disciplinary and Dismissals
While many HR people learn disciplinary processes and dismissals at an HR Advisor level, dealing with the more contentious and complex processes requires an in depth understanding of the law around these processes. This module explores some challenging case studies to test you can advise correctly.
Restructuring and Redundancy
This module takes you through how to manage large scale restructuring and redundancy, when there are complex legal issues and employees or managers who challenge you at every step of the way. How can you ensure you treat everyone with respect and dignity and comply with law?
Executive Employment Agreements
This module covers some of the more curly issues around employment agreement clauses, then focuses on executives and specialty clauses like restraints of trade, conflicts of interests and garden leave. You’ll analyse real case studies and advise on the right wording.
PG’s and Settlement Agreements
In an ER role you may need to deal with exiting employees where issues have occurred. This module takes you through understanding the personal grievance and settlement process, how to respond to a Personal Grievances and deal with confidential settlements.
Running Investigations
In situations where serious misconduct may have occurred, running a thorough investigation is essential. Learn how to plan, overcome legal and other issues and use the PEACE model.
Attending Mediation
Our last module covers how to plan to attend Mediation and resolve the issue effectively. You’ll learn what challenges to plan for, analyse two real cases to make sure you’d be fully prepared, and what might be the best outcome.
Optional Modules
One optional modules must be chosen from the modules below. You can also swop out one of the core modules for one of these optional modules, if you have significant experience or training in a core module area.
Business Acumen
An ER Partner must understand the financial, commercial and legal aspects of company operations to gain credibility and respect with their senior leaders, and to be able to partner with them effectively. This module covers key concepts and how to apply them with an ER lens.
Remuneration and Benefits
There are a number of employment law cases around salary payments, bonus entitlements and benefits to be paid. If your ER role also works with HR or payroll, advising on remuneration issues, this module is essential.
Collective Agreements & Bargaining
While you may not currently be responsible for CEA’s and bargaining, it can be valuable to be prepared. This module will take you through the law around Collectives, working with unions & how to prepare and run a bargaining process.
To enrol please complete the online application. We will then liaise with you on your timetable. The programme fees must be paid on registration. We have three intakes a year – in March, June and October.
The Certificate is scheduled over 9 months however you can defer completion by a further 6 months due to work or other circumstances.
Please do let us know if you have any questions. Unfortunately we cannot issue refunds once you have started your study.
FAQ’s
How do the modules work?
The Certificate is hosted on our online learning platform. Once you start your programme, each month a new module will open up. You’ll then be able to access the video’s, articles, learning resources and your assignment. This is due back at the end of each month.
And the assignments?
The assignments consist of case studies with questions to answer or asking you to review of your own processes. The pass mark is 70%. Our team will assess whether you have passed and have demonstrated good thinking around each answer. If not, they will come back to you with some coaching and feedback. You can then resubmit. The aim is to help you develop your skills in each area so you can deliver excellence to your business.
How long does each module take?
You have a month to complete each module and it will take you 2 – 5 hours to complete depending on if you have any experience or knowledge in the area already. Along with watching the webinar and reading any articles, you should be able to complete each module by putting aside an hour a week, or four hours a month.
What if I need more time?
While we schedule your Certificate over a 9 month period, you can ask for an extension on assignments if you have a busy workload, or are travelling or have any other issue that means you need more time. In total you can extend your Certificate up to 6 months. If you do not complete, we can discuss options for re-enrolling.
Can I fail the Certificate?
Yes if you don’t complete your assignments, then you cannot pass the Certificate! If you complete an assignment but haven’t demonstrated the knowledge to pass the topic, our team will provide you with feedback and coaching and give you a chance to review and resubmit your assignment.
What if I’m stuck?
If you do get stuck on an answer, then you can email our team and get some further suggestions or coaching to help you gain the knowledge needed to answer.
Looking for something less formal than a full Certificate? Some of our employment law related online workshops might give you a quick update to your knowledge or skills.
Testimonials
Our Certificate in ER is new for 2025. However these are testimonials from those completing the HRBP Certificate, which includes some ER related modules.
There have definitely been some key learning’s that I have taken out of the different modules and find myself using in my role. When working through the ‘Attending Mediation’ module – I found working through the workbook, and the questions around ‘Strongest & Weakest Points’ really valuable and is great lens to put across employment relation situations and preparing yourself for these. I also found the Collectives module, really interesting and valuable; – which has actually led to our organisation reviewing our clauses within our Standard Terms to be more clear. Emma, People and Culture, Rural Insurance sector.
My biggest (or most important) learning would be from the attending mediation module. I had already attended mediation several times in my HR role, however I had not been introduced to the model that the module introduced us to. I felt this to be incredibly beneficial – particularly the section around preparation for mediation and looking at what I want and why and then considering what they want and why. I also found the section around considering what options there might be if we can’t reach agreement and potential ways to resolve the issues really beneficial. I put into practice what I learned in this module into my next mediation and I felt a lot more prepared and less anxious going into the mediation. And I feel that we achieved a better outcome at mediation than what we would have had I not used this new model. Marie, HR, Healthcare sector
I found the feedback really useful. It often made me think of responding to questions in another way. I am most proud that I have stuck to the timetable and managed to complete the 10 modules over the past year, particularly with a really busy job and the demands of home life! I thought it was great that the assignments used ‘real work examples’ and I enjoyed speaking with various leaders in my organisation which I felt really helped to increase my general business knowledge. Two examples of this were when I spoke with our Financial Controller (& he talked through our financials with me) and the Head of Legal (who talked through how our Constitution is set up). Rowena, People Operations Specialist, Banking sector
I really found the hands on exercises, research and practical examples very useful and great learning method. The one module that I really learned lots was about Unions and Complex Employment Relations. I did not have much experience on this in the New Zealand landscape, so this was a very helpful assignment to improve my skills and experience in this area.
Also I would say the assignment on dealing with settlements and personal grievances. I did lots or research about this and did lots of reading which really helped me to better understand the assignment. I enjoyed the practical examples and enjoyed applying my understanding to each of the scenarios. Charlene, HR Specialist, Construction sector
Our team
During your study, the team at Elephant will present the webinars and learning material as well as mark your assignments and provide you with personalised feedback and coaching.
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