HR for Non-HR Managers
A two-day programme for managers who never asked to do HR work but carry it anyway. Line managers make the decisions that create most of an employer's legal exposure: who gets hired, who gets confirmed after probation, who gets warned, whose medical certificate is questioned, and who is let go. This programme gives them enough working knowledge to make those calls correctly, and to recognise the point where HR or legal has to take over.
The session is built around the decisions a manager actually faces rather than around HR theory. Every module ends with the same two questions: what can you decide on your own, and at what point does this have to go to HR or to legal before anyone acts. Participants bring their own live cases to the final clinic.
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Programme Agenda
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Welcome and Programme Overview
Introduction to the session, objectives, and housekeeping.
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Where a Manager's HR Authority Starts and Ends
What you can decide alone, what needs HR sign-off, and what needs a formal process before anyone acts. Mapping the everyday decisions that carry legal consequence, so they stop being made casually in a corridor.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Break
10:30 AM - 11:10 AM
Employment Act 1955 Essentials for Managers
The provisions managers actually touch: working hours, rest days, overtime rates, annual and sick leave entitlement, and the 2022 amendments covering flexible working arrangement requests, 98 days maternity leave and 7 days paternity leave. Enough to spot a problem before it becomes a claim.
11:10 AM - 11:50 AM
Hiring and Onboarding Without Creating Liability
Writing a job description that can be assessed against, interviewing lawfully, avoiding questions that invite a discrimination argument, and setting probation terms that mean something. Confirming or extending probation on documented evidence rather than instinct.
11:50 AM - 12:30 PM
Performance Conversations That Hold Up Later
Setting expectations in writing, giving feedback that actually changes behaviour, and recording the conversation the same day. Building the paper trail that makes a later decision defensible instead of reconstructing it under pressure months afterwards.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:20 PM
Handling Misconduct and Poor Performance
Why the two are legally different and why treating one as the other is a common and expensive mistake. Verbal warnings, written warnings, show cause letters, and the threshold at which a domestic inquiry becomes necessary.
2:20 PM - 3:15 PM
Leave, Absence and Medical Certificates
Managing genuine and questionable medical certificates, unauthorised absence, prolonged illness, and requests for unpaid or emergency leave. What a manager can reasonably ask for, and what asking too much exposes the company to.
3:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Break
3:30 PM - 4:10 PM
Resignations, Exits and the Handover
Notice periods and payment in lieu, withdrawal of a resignation, forced resignation risk, exit interviews, and the documentation that closes an employment file cleanly.
4:10 PM - 4:45 PM
Manager Clinic: Your Own Cases
Participants bring real situations from their own departments. The group works through each one against the framework from the day, with a facilitated view on where the risk actually sits.
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Wrap-Up and Q&A
Key takeaways, next steps, and close.
Key Outcomes
- Tell the difference between a decision you can make and one that needs HR or legal involvement
- Apply the Employment Act provisions that affect day-to-day people decisions
- Interview and confirm probation on evidence you can defend
- Run and document a performance conversation that supports a later decision
- Handle misconduct and poor performance through the correct route for each
- Manage leave, absence and medical certificate disputes proportionately
- Close an exit cleanly, with the paperwork a dispute would ask for
Training Mode Physical / Online / Hybrid / e-learning
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Level Basic. Suitable for line managers, department heads, supervisors and business owners who carry HR decisions without an HR background. No prior HR training required.
Duration 1 Day (8 Hours) | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue In-house at the client's premises, or delivered via the client's preferred platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or equivalent)
Assessment A worked set of the participant's own live people cases plus a 10 to 15 question knowledge assessment
Certificate Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance