Review and Evaluation
The main focus of our consulting work has been on helping clients to review and evaluate the effectiveness of their industrial and employee relations systems and to agree realistic and practical proposals for improvement.
Examples include:
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A review of the conduct of industrial relations in a health board where management and trade unions had taken significant initiatives to improve relationships in the wake of an earlier critical review by the Advisory Service of the Labour Relations Commission. This review led to the adoption by the parties of significant policy changes in areas such as devolution and decentralisation of HR and IR policy and practice as well as to the initiation of arrangements for the joint training of management and trade union negotiators and representatives.
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A review of the operation of the industrial relations machinery in a government agency that was transitioning to a commercial status. The focus was on the redesign of the systems of employee and trade union consultation and the collective bargaining machinery with a view to devising agreed alternatives that could ensure greater effectiveness in reaching agreements and in ensuring wide understanding of the organization’s plans and developments.
Research methods used by us have included individual interviews, focus group interviews, interactive workshops, surveys and desk research. We have used SPSS for the analysis of large data sets.
Reviews are always designed in collaboration with clients and are typically
carried out in association with a project group. Since the resources
available to organizations varies considerably reviews have to be tailored
to ensure cost effectiveness.