If you have staff responsibilities, this is your guide to employment law compliance. Find out how to meet your employment law obligations from hiring staff through to termination, and everything in between.

Employment law in New Zealand is complex, and all managers and team leaders should understand how to comply with lawful duties and maintain productive working relationships.

Participants will gain an understanding of how to comply with employment laws in New Zealand to be a best practice employer.

Presented by an experienced employment lawyer, this practical course provides a comprehensive overview of employment laws in New Zealand, from hiring through termination, and everything in between.

Through discussion and case scenarios, course participants will find out how to reduce the risk of personal grievances and resolve employment relationship problems. 
Participants will discover how to manage staff relationships with confidence through activities and learning about case law.

Learning outcomes

This course is designed to help you:

• Identify how to comply with the duty to ‘act in good faith’ as a manager 
• Apply fair and reasonable decisions in management to reduce the risk of personal grievances
• Explore how to lawfully recruit the right staff and follow fair selection processes
• Identify how to interview job applicants so you comply with human rights and privacy laws  
• Apply best practice when offering staff employment
• Identify staff entitlements to holidays and leave and manage staff requests for leave
• Explain the difference between ‘poor performance’ and ‘misconduct’
• List key requirements in managing poor performance
• Identify a fair and reasonable disciplinary process for misconduct
• Manage proper process in investigation and disciplinary meetings
• Explore processes for resolving employment relationship problems

Intended audience

This course is designed for managers and team leader positions, and for HR professionals in their first few years of employment who wish to maintain productive employment relationships.  This course focuses on how to reduce the risk of any legal claims and apply best practice.


Course format

Employment Law for Managers is a 7 hour course, facilitated online.  Concepts and case law will be introduced and explained, then applied through scenarios and discussions.  Real-time interactions including group activities, polls and Q&As will allow you to connect and ask questions throughout the course.


Presenter information
As director of KiwiBoss, employment lawyer Julia Shallcrass develops leaders to improve their management and communication skills. Julia is a practical and engaging presenter with expertise in training HR and people managers to create high-performing workplaces in the course, Leader’s Guide to Performance Management. Julia is an employment columnist for the NZ Herald.