Interest-based negotiations
This programme is intended for union and employer bargaining teams who want to take an interest based approach to collective agreement negotiations. It builds on the skills developed in the joint problem-solving workshop, so it is strongly recommended that this is done first.
This workshop covers
- An interest based approach to negotiations and why it's different from a positional approach
- How to make the "mind shift" to interest based negotiations
- Learning behaviours and techniques to support this way of working
- Working towards a collective agreement that reflects both the separate and joint business and union strategies for the workplace.
This workshop can be tailored to your group's needs with one and two-day workshops available. To get the most out of it, it's best to hold a two-day workshop - the second day will be devoted to planning your own negotiations.
Case studies and a number of group learning activities will allow participants to explore the concepts, process the ideas, and practice the skills and behaviours needed in interest based negotiations.
Doing it together
Like the joint problem-solving training, the best option is for both union and employer parties to do this training together - after all, it takes at least two parties to negotiate an agreement! But if it isn't possible for the two parties to train together, it's still beneficial for just one party to do the training - the skills they develop will certainly help them in their negotiations.
What's different about this workshop?
This workshop was developed jointly by a group of the Partnership Resource Centre's Associates. It's a distillation of ideas and resources from many sources and has been developed as a practical training package for New Zealand unions and employers.
You can email workplacepartnership@dol.govt.nz to access these training materials.
