A new UK-based institute of employee relations will launch this autumn, Personnel Today has learned.
An industry source told Personnel Today that, from 2013, the institute will offer three qualifications – an MSc, a post-graduate diploma and a post-graduate certificate – in conjunction with a university business school.
It is understood that one of the institute’s main aims will be to reduce the number of disputes in the workplace and, as a membership organisation, it intends to engage with HR professionals, union representatives and line managers.
The Employee Relations Institute, as the organisation will be known, has recruited board members from major private-sector employers including the Royal Bank of Scotland, BP and EDF Energy, from local government and the NHS, from unions including Unison and Unite, as well as from the conciliation service Acas.
A website at the domain erinstitute.com was registered to Marshall-James Global Solutions, an employee relations consultancy, in August 2010. The Employee Relations Institute is also registered at Companies House to the same address in Cheam, Surrey, as Marshall-James’ offices.
Marshall-James chief executive Andy Cook, former HR director at Transport for London and at Gate Gourmet, would neither confirm nor deny any connection to the new institute.
