Employment lawyers are able to see things as black and white – but in HR and people management it doesn’t work like that. We can’t just give an opinion on what the legislation says. We have to think about how it applies to different situations where there isn’t one right answer. Then we have to find something that works for everyone. This often involves weighting up risks and figuring our possible consequences as well as the culture of the company.
That’s why our workshop is different! We cover the legislation but also how to apply it, and all our facilitators are both employment law experts but have also worked in HR.
Course Content
The workshop covers not just 12 pieces of legislation but also the key points around restructuring and disciplinary procedures. Our virtual workshop runs over two mornings, from 9am to 12pm, each morning.
Part 1: The Employment Relations Act – dealing with casuals, part timers, fixed terms & contractors as well as Collective Bargaining, IEA’s, trial periods and flexible working. We also cover the smaller acts – Minimum Wage, KiwiSaver, Juries Act, Wages Protection, Protected Disclosures, Criminal Record and talk about disciplinary procedures and restructuring.
Part 2: The Holidays Act – HR tools to deal with sick leave issues as well as provisions for annual, bereavement & public holidays. This workshop also covers Parental Leave, Domestic Violence Leave, ACC and the Human Rights & Privacy Acts – scenario’s to look at how the legislation really applies to your recruitment & HR processes.
You may also wish to attend our 2 hour Disciplinary and Dismissals workshop that runs on the Friday morning following Essential Employment Law:
We also run Essential Employment Law especially for those based in Australia, who are responsible for NZ Employment Law. As well as the content listed above, you’ll also discover the KEY DIFFERENCES between NZ and Australian law that can catch you out!
Who should attend?
The following people have found real value in attending our Essential Employment Law workshop:
- HR people who are new to New Zealand from Australia, South Africa the UK and a few other countries in between!
- Office Managers or administrators with HR responsibilities
- HR Advisors, Payroll people or Managers who want a refresher on employment law
- Managers who want to be able to answer questions from their team about employment legislation
- Payroll administrators or officers who want to learn how employment law applies to payroll roles
Why is our training different?
Our facilitators are HR experts who know employment law but not employment lawyers. Employment lawyers can tell you the law, but haven’t had to put it in place in an organisation. Our team know how to apply legislation in real life and have seen all the challenges that come up – so can share how it works in real life and how to overcome those challenges.
We also promise you’ll have some fun learning. Our facilitators always receive fantastic feedback from those who attend who say that they get real value from getting answers to all their questions (however strange or unusual!) and really enjoy the whole day as well as learning lots.
| Upcoming Dates |
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| We are currently setting dates for 2026. |
| We are currently setting dates for 2026. |
| Investment |
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| VIRTUAL NZ: Early Bird NZ$750 (4 weeks before). Full price NZ$895. IN PERSON NZ: Early Bird NZ$995 + GST. Full price $1295 + GST. VIRTUAL AUS: AUD$650 (book 4 weeks before). Full price AUD$795. Includes our comprehensive workbook and Q&A time. |
| Terms and conditions of the tickets are in the registration form. |
Our facilitators
Nikki Peck
Nikki has over 20 years of generalist HR experience working in diverse sectors such as health, engineering, utilities, retail and not-for-profit. She always receives fantastic feedback from managers and HR people for making any workshop she runs interesting, entertaining and extremely useful – sharing practical real life examples and answering curly questions.
Melanie Brewer
Melanie is an experienced and passionate HR Practitioner who has worked in the public and private sectors across the full range of HR disciplines ranging from Employment Relations to HR Strategy. She started her career in law, which included 4 years as an employment lawyer, before she made the leap into HR, and she’s hasn’t looked back! She’s particularly enthusiastic about building peoples’ capability in workshops in practical and engaging ways.
Laura Trethewey
Laura has an HR career that includes roles with Wilson Hellaby, Walter and Wild and Auckland Meat Processors. Laura has expertise in HR, Health and Safety and Learning and Development. She prides herself in being pragmatic, creative and transparent in the way she works and has a Bachelor of Business in HR and Employment Relations.
What people say about attending:
Thank you, I feel better able to talk with my managers and give advice more clearly and back up with good rationale. I really liked how Nikki gave us good examples on how to phrase your advice to your manager without getting them off-side
I really loved going through the scenario questions. The information provided was very relevant and realistic to what i would need to know in my role as a HR Adviser. I found the examples of the different cases that were used as examples really helpful to understand how the concepts we learn would be implemented and the outcome of the decisions made.
Learning about justifications re some of the case law – good to know why a decision was made, course was awesome thank you
A fantastic course overall. The fact that I came away with some essential knowledge meant I could come into work and confidently make changes
The Elephant team really know their stuff and are happy to answer every little niggling question I had during the breaks
Our facilitator was excellent and used great stories from their experience in the real world as examples throughout the different activities!
I though it was really informative in a fun and interesting way. It was very well run and just the right length and not at all boring!
Being able to discuss real life scenarios and how some of the act’s can actually play out. The knowledge I gained was phenomenal.
Advanced Employment Law
Some further training in employment law, if you already know the basics!
If you need to work through a disciplinary procedure or a dismissal.
How to work through a restructuring process in New Zealand.
How respond to a PG, deal with a Settlement and attend Mediation.
Elephant’s three principles:
Get in touch
The best way to get in touch is to email us and the right person from our team will come back to you.
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Read the blog
For musings on HR and people management, check out Angela Atkins popular blog. Click here to have a read. Or read the Elephant blog.
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