HRPA Hosts Member Collaboration on Employee Relations Centers of Excellence

Employee relations leaders across several industries gathered virtually to benchmark with their peers on organizational approaches to employee relations and best practices.

Centralized teams or split by function? Most participating companies indicated that their employee relations teams and related functions, such as investigations and case management, are handled centrally.

• “Hybrid models” may be the future: Many participants indicated that companies may begin to shift to dedicated teams for investigations and case management creating a hybrid approach to employee relations and HR.

• Labor relations issues are also often handled separately by dedicated teams, particularly where unions are present.

Shifting work between ER and HRBPs: Discussion also focused on how companies are shifting work between employee relations teams and HR business partners.

• Many participants indicated that engagement with internal and external legal teams has shifted to ER COEs, as well as HR investigations.

• Performance review and management is held either by ER teams, HR teams, or shared between both, depending on the company.

• Several participants noted that their companies have moved policy development to ER teams.

Evolution of the work: Participants also discussed emerging uses cases for technology and artificial intelligence and how that is being integrated into the work of ER teams.

• Many companies are leveraging AI for trend analysis and case management, allowing teams to spot employee relations patterns and address issues before they develop into a wider problem.

• Data analytics tools are increasingly important for identifying ER hot spots as well as streamlining case management.

Additional Resources:

• Background materials, including results from a pre-call survey of participants.

• HRPA’s 2023 report: CHRO Guide to Evolving Employee & Labor Relations Functions.

• Join us for our upcoming webinar and Fall Forum session on navigating workplace immigration issues in the current environment, including strategies for workplace raids and I-9 audits. Find details and registration info here.