TL;DR: The greatest untapped force in your employee relations strategy isn’t a new policy — it’s your people leaders. The People Leaders Playbook is your guide to building stronger employee relations by aligning, equipping and enabling your managers. Download now to get clear role definitions, proven training strategies and data-driven coaching frameworks.
Why Are People Leaders Critical to Employee Relations?
Building a high-value employee relations (ER) function requires more than a capable ER team. You need strong partnerships with the managers on your front line — the people leaders who handle issues first.
It’s no surprise that effective people leaders are essential to a culture of trust, consistency and accountability. When employees believe their managers are fair and honest, engagement rises and issues drop.
But there’s a dangerous confidence gap:
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52% of people leaders say they feel very confident managing employee issues
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Only 2% of ER professionals agree with that assessment
(Source: HR Acuity’s People Leaders and the Gap in Managing Employee Issues)
This playbook exists to close that gap.
What Will You Learn in the People Leaders Playbook?
Each section of the playbook answers a high-stakes question facing ER leaders, HR business partners and managers.
Who Owns What in Employee Relations?
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Define the responsibilities of ER, HRBPs and people leaders
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Map ownership across issue types like conduct, retaliation and performance
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Establish operating norms and role clarity that drive consistency
How Should You Train Managers to Handle Issues?
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Identify the critical ER capabilities every people leader must build
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Choose formats that actually stick (from peer coaching to scenario-based practice)
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Deliver high-trust guidance without overwhelming managers or derailing priorities
How Can ER Teams Use Data to Coach Better?
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Use ER metrics to spot inconsistencies, gaps or risk patterns
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Benchmark issue trends across departments or managers
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Coach with objectivity, precision and credibility
Who Should Use This Playbook?
| Role | What You’ll Get |
|---|---|
| ER Leaders | A scalable framework to upskill and align people managers |
| HR Business Partners | Tactical clarity to support and coach managers with confidence |
| People Leaders | Practical tools to navigate employee issues with fairness and consistency |
| CHROs | A proven model for building ER fluency across the manager layer |
What Makes This Playbook Different?
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all leadership guide. It’s grounded in HR Acuity’s proprietary data and real-world ER expertise, built to solve the specific breakdowns between policy, process and people leaders.
It’s:
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Specific to employee relations and manager effectiveness
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Built from thousands of documented employee issues
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Trusted by the most mature ER teams in the world
If you’re responsible for lowering ER risk, improving manager consistency or creating a culture of accountability — this is your next move.
Ready to learn more? Download the playbook today.
