Susan Brecher is the Director of HR Dispute Management and Resolution Certificate and Curriculum/Training Design at the Cornell ILR School’s Scheinman Institute. She is an employment practices attorney and expert in training and curriculum design for both online and classroom-based workshops. She has served as Director of Statewide Management Programs and provided oversight of EEO, Labor Relations, Human Resources, and Management Development programs. Susan has partnered with over 100 private, public, and non-profit organizations to develop and present customized training programs. She has a law degree from Case Western Reserve University.
Advanced Employee Relations
Overview and Courses
In today’s challenging times, strategically developing and managing employee relations has never been more critical for organizations in every industry. An increasingly important factor in employee satisfaction, engagement, and well-being, as well as overall organizational performance, the practice of employee relations supports the relationship between employers and employees, particularly managers and team members.
In this comprehensive live certificate program, you will explore a framework for conducting effective employee relations (ER) conversations with employees and managers. After gaining a foundation in employment law, you will gain the skills to help team leaders in your organization strategically manage the cycle of employee performance. Focusing on constructive ways to phrase language, you’ll develop competencies associated with emotional intelligence to solve problems and achieve higher performance as a leader.
By the conclusion of the program, you will have explored the frameworks, processes, and communication skills necessary to help you develop effective employee relations management practices, enhancing the success of your organization’s mission through its employees.
This program will be offered as live virtual sessions, along with assignments and interactive independent activities. The live sessions will include small and whole group case-study role plays as well as activities with feedback, discussions, Q&A, and sharing practices with peers. Please plan sufficient time outside of the live sessions to complete additional assignments. Networking opportunities will be provided. Please review the details of the courses below for specific meeting dates and times.
Understanding the impact and importance of employment laws in the context of your daily work is critical to your success.
In this course, you will review best practices for understanding, identifying, preventing, and managing employee-related issues that have potential legal concerns. You will gain up-to-date information on employment laws and court cases on employment practices. You'll also engage with case scenarios to apply practical implications of those laws on policies and day-to-day operations.
This course meets on the following dates and times:
- Tues, March 2, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Wed, March 3, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Thurs, March 4, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
What are the responsibilities and proactive initiatives that guide employee relations (ER) professionals?
In this course, you'll learn techniques for conducting effective conversations, making ER decisions, and managing performance issues. You'll practice coaching, counseling, progressive discipline strategies, navigating different work styles, and communication skills, including effective ways to phrase language. You'll leave with an extensive toolkit and guides to apply directly to your work.
This course meets at the following dates and times:
- Mon, March 8, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Tues, March 9, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Wed, March 10, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
Helping to create and maintain a respectful workplace is important in every organization.
In this course, you'll examine current legal and policy concerns as well as best practices related to preventing harassment and retaliation. You'll review approaches from the perspectives of HR, managers, and employees for responding to inappropriate behaviors. You'll practice prevention strategies for creating a respectful workplace, including providing individual feedback. You'll also review requirements for training and explore preventive training options beyond legal standards.
This course meets at the following dates and times:
- Wed, April 7, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Thurs, April 8, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed CO111 HR and the Law or CO100 EEO Law, or have equivalent experience.
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. Learning and applying key problem-solving skills can help you make conflict more manageable for everyone.
In this course, you'll learn techniques, tools, processes, and skills for facilitating conflict using a collaborative problem-solving approach for resolving one-on-one conflicts. Topics and tools focus on problem solving, listening and messaging skills, conflict styles, neutral issue statements, de-escalating emotions, developing options, and facilitating and gaining commitment.
This course meets at the following dates and times:
- Tues, April 13, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Wed, April 14, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
- Thurs, April 15, 2021: 9am - 12:30pm ET
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed CO251 Effective Employee Relations or have equivalent experience.
Learn to use your emotional intelligence to interact with others, solve problems, and achieve higher performance.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to harness your emotions in sensing, understanding, and responding adeptly to social cues in your environment. It is often referred to as "common sense" that allows one to relate to people and get along in the world. Research has shown that EI is a far better predictor of success than IQ.
Emotional intelligence is what every leader uses to make pivotal decisions, plan projects and initiatives, solve problems, interact with clients, set performance expectations, communicate feedback, and collaborate with colleagues of all levels.
While your IQ will remain stable for most of your life, you can develop and perfect the competencies associated with EI to achieve higher performance as a leader. This workshop will show you how.
This course meets at the following dates and times:
- Mon, April 26, 2021: 11am - 1:30pm ET
- Thu, April 29, 2021: 11am - 1:30pm ET
- Mon, May 3, 2021: 11am - 1:30pm ET
- Thu, May 6, 2021: 11am - 1:30pm ET
How It Works
Faculty Authors
Gayle F. Wasserman, Esq., is a management-side employment attorney and human resources consultant with over 18 years of experience. Since establishing her own private practice, Wasserman Law, in 2004, Gayle has regularly counseled clients throughout the New York tri-state area on a variety of employment and workplace matters, focusing on investigations, training, and outsourced HR advice. Gayle currently teaches at Cornell University’s ILR Outreach Division, where she conducts professional development programs for HR professionals, managers, and others with employee relations responsibilities. There, she delivers and implements onsite and offsite programs in the areas of HR/EEO Law, Preventing Workplace Harassment, Internal Investigations, and Employee Relations.
In private practice, Gayle utilizes her employment law experience to advise on the creation and implementation of employee handbooks and workplace policies and procedures. She also creates and conducts a variety of training seminars on workplace law, liability avoidance, and employment practices, covering issues such as respectful and appropriate workplace conduct, harassment, discrimination, #metoo concerns, communication issues, and sensitivity matters. Gayle frequently conducts workplace investigations into allegations of employee misconduct and concerns raised by employees. Moreover, she counsels employers on day-to-day workplace issues and all aspects of the employment relationship, including Equal Employment Opportunity compliance, leaves of absence, accommodation issues, wage and hour laws, hiring and firing practices, employee discipline, and performance reviews and documentation. In addition to regularly supporting her clients’ internal counsel and HR staff and serving as an outsourced HR function to smaller businesses, Gayle has also served as a full-time secondee to businesses needing employee relations support.
Gayle began her career as an associate in New York in the Labor and Employment Department of Proskauer Rose LLP, one of the nation’s leading labor and employment law firms, and subsequently practiced with Kauff McClain & McGuire LLP, a prominent boutique law firm in New York focused on the practice of labor and employment law. At those firms, Gayle defended clients in numerous employment-related cases in state and federal courts and before federal and state agencies, and represented and counseled employers in all facets of employment law. Gayle also served as an adjunct professor at Hunter College in NYC, where she taught undergraduate Business Law.
Gayle earned her law degree from New York University School of Law in 1999, where she received the annual award for excellence in the study of labor relations. While at NYU, Gayle was an editor and advocate on the Moot Court Board and was elected to the Order of the Barristers. She received her undergraduate degree with honors in Organizational Studies from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the New York City Bar Association and Society of Human Resource Management.
Tracey I. Levy is the Principal of Impact Workplace Training, LLC, and the founder of Levy Employment Law, LLC. Through Impact, Tracey develops and delivers training for managers, HR professionals, and individual employees on harassment prevention and other appropriate workplace conduct, employment law compliance, and HR best practices. Tracey’s training programs build on her 25 years of legal and employee relations experience, for which she annually has been recognized by Super Lawyers for the New York Metro area since 2016.
In her private law practice, Tracey guides managers and in-house counsel through the full employee life cycle. She provides practical advice on workplace-related issues, including performance management, worker classification, medical/religious accommodation, hiring, promotion, termination, and reductions-in-force (RIFs), and she defends businesses against discrimination, wage and hour, and unemployment claims before government agencies. Tracey also works with organizations on developing and updating their employment policies and crafting agreements that provide appropriate notice to staff but in a user-friendly tone. Since the firm’s founding in 2013, Tracey has been publishing her quarterly newsletter, Takeaways, to inform employers of concrete actions they need to take in response to developments in the law.
Tracey is regularly called upon to serve as an independent outside investigator and fact-finder, conducting workplace investigations in response to internal employee complaints. Since 2015, Tracey has served as an Educator – Professional Programs with Cornell University ILR School’s Scheinman Institute in Manhattan, where she trains HR professionals and managers on conducting workplace investigations, as well as on employment law compliance and effective employee relations.
Prior to launching her law firm and training business, Tracey was an Employee Relations Specialist with UBS AG, where she served as the Americas HR policy lead, directing workplace investigations and counseling managers to resolve workplace issues. Tracey also worked for more than 10 years as an employment attorney with Proskauer Rose LLP, where she advised and litigated on behalf of a broad range of clients to resolve their employment law issues.
Tracey holds an advanced law degree from Yale Law School’s LLM program, a J.D. from Albany Law School, and a B.A. from Union College. She is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut. Tracey is a member of the Westchester Business Council and chairs the Legislative Committee of the Westchester Human Resource Management Association, and she is a member of local, state, and federal bar associations.
Patricia Harmon is an innovation consultant, facilitator, and executive coach. She has conducted advanced thinking workshops for global organizations such as Estee Lauder, Goldman Sachs, Merck & Co., Motorola, and The New York Times. Pat helps organizations bring about change by using a comprehensive collection of techniques including Lateral Thinking™ and Green Innovation, a science of eco-sustainability, to provide deliberate methods to think innovatively. Her practice includes emotional intelligence assessment and leadership development to help companies create value.
Katrina Nobles is the Director of Conflict Programs for the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, focusing on educating the next generation of neutrals and practitioners on campus and in the workplace. Katrina designs curriculum, instructs professional programs, and facilitates discussions for organizational workplace conflicts. She also teaches the Campus Mediation Practicum, an on-campus credit course that applies mediation skills to the campus judicial system, allowing students to work as peer mediators. Katrina has presented at national conflict resolution conferences on Facilitating Collaborative Problem Solving, Cross-Cultural Communication, and Conflict Diagnosis. In addition to her position at Cornell, she facilitates for the Global Nomads Group, bringing together, through video conference, K-12 students in the United States and Middle East/North Africa region. She has practiced mediation for over 10 years, and prior to her employment at Cornell, Katrina was the Cortland County Coordinator for New Justice Mediation Services. During that time, she mediated hundreds of community, child custody/visitation, child support, and family disputes. Katrina holds a master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Engagement from Antioch University Midwest.

Susan Brecher is the Director of HR Dispute Management and Resolution Certificate and Curriculum/Training Design at the Cornell ILR School’s Scheinman Institute. She is an employment practices attorney and expert in training and curriculum design for both online and classroom-based workshops. She has served as Director of Statewide Management Programs and provided oversight of EEO, Labor Relations, Human Resources, and Management Development programs. Susan has partnered with over 100 private, public, and non-profit organizations to develop and present customized training programs. She has a law degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Gayle F. Wasserman, Esq., is a management-side employment attorney and human resources consultant with over 18 years of experience. Since establishing her own private practice, Wasserman Law, in 2004, Gayle has regularly counseled clients throughout the New York tri-state area on a variety of employment and workplace matters, focusing on investigations, training, and outsourced HR advice. Gayle currently teaches at Cornell University’s ILR Outreach Division, where she conducts professional development programs for HR professionals, managers, and others with employee relations responsibilities. There, she delivers and implements onsite and offsite programs in the areas of HR/EEO Law, Preventing Workplace Harassment, Internal Investigations, and Employee Relations.
In private practice, Gayle utilizes her employment law experience to advise on the creation and implementation of employee handbooks and workplace policies and procedures. She also creates and conducts a variety of training seminars on workplace law, liability avoidance, and employment practices, covering issues such as respectful and appropriate workplace conduct, harassment, discrimination, #metoo concerns, communication issues, and sensitivity matters. Gayle frequently conducts workplace investigations into allegations of employee misconduct and concerns raised by employees. Moreover, she counsels employers on day-to-day workplace issues and all aspects of the employment relationship, including Equal Employment Opportunity compliance, leaves of absence, accommodation issues, wage and hour laws, hiring and firing practices, employee discipline, and performance reviews and documentation. In addition to regularly supporting her clients’ internal counsel and HR staff and serving as an outsourced HR function to smaller businesses, Gayle has also served as a full-time secondee to businesses needing employee relations support.
Gayle began her career as an associate in New York in the Labor and Employment Department of Proskauer Rose LLP, one of the nation’s leading labor and employment law firms, and subsequently practiced with Kauff McClain & McGuire LLP, a prominent boutique law firm in New York focused on the practice of labor and employment law. At those firms, Gayle defended clients in numerous employment-related cases in state and federal courts and before federal and state agencies, and represented and counseled employers in all facets of employment law. Gayle also served as an adjunct professor at Hunter College in NYC, where she taught undergraduate Business Law.
Gayle earned her law degree from New York University School of Law in 1999, where she received the annual award for excellence in the study of labor relations. While at NYU, Gayle was an editor and advocate on the Moot Court Board and was elected to the Order of the Barristers. She received her undergraduate degree with honors in Organizational Studies from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the New York City Bar Association and Society of Human Resource Management.

Tracey I. Levy is the Principal of Impact Workplace Training, LLC, and the founder of Levy Employment Law, LLC. Through Impact, Tracey develops and delivers training for managers, HR professionals, and individual employees on harassment prevention and other appropriate workplace conduct, employment law compliance, and HR best practices. Tracey’s training programs build on her 25 years of legal and employee relations experience, for which she annually has been recognized by Super Lawyers for the New York Metro area since 2016.
In her private law practice, Tracey guides managers and in-house counsel through the full employee life cycle. She provides practical advice on workplace-related issues, including performance management, worker classification, medical/religious accommodation, hiring, promotion, termination, and reductions-in-force (RIFs), and she defends businesses against discrimination, wage and hour, and unemployment claims before government agencies. Tracey also works with organizations on developing and updating their employment policies and crafting agreements that provide appropriate notice to staff but in a user-friendly tone. Since the firm’s founding in 2013, Tracey has been publishing her quarterly newsletter, Takeaways, to inform employers of concrete actions they need to take in response to developments in the law.
Tracey is regularly called upon to serve as an independent outside investigator and fact-finder, conducting workplace investigations in response to internal employee complaints. Since 2015, Tracey has served as an Educator – Professional Programs with Cornell University ILR School’s Scheinman Institute in Manhattan, where she trains HR professionals and managers on conducting workplace investigations, as well as on employment law compliance and effective employee relations.
Prior to launching her law firm and training business, Tracey was an Employee Relations Specialist with UBS AG, where she served as the Americas HR policy lead, directing workplace investigations and counseling managers to resolve workplace issues. Tracey also worked for more than 10 years as an employment attorney with Proskauer Rose LLP, where she advised and litigated on behalf of a broad range of clients to resolve their employment law issues.
Tracey holds an advanced law degree from Yale Law School’s LLM program, a J.D. from Albany Law School, and a B.A. from Union College. She is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut. Tracey is a member of the Westchester Business Council and chairs the Legislative Committee of the Westchester Human Resource Management Association, and she is a member of local, state, and federal bar associations.

Patricia Harmon is an innovation consultant, facilitator, and executive coach. She has conducted advanced thinking workshops for global organizations such as Estee Lauder, Goldman Sachs, Merck & Co., Motorola, and The New York Times. Pat helps organizations bring about change by using a comprehensive collection of techniques including Lateral Thinking™ and Green Innovation, a science of eco-sustainability, to provide deliberate methods to think innovatively. Her practice includes emotional intelligence assessment and leadership development to help companies create value.

Katrina Nobles is the Director of Conflict Programs for the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, focusing on educating the next generation of neutrals and practitioners on campus and in the workplace. Katrina designs curriculum, instructs professional programs, and facilitates discussions for organizational workplace conflicts. She also teaches the Campus Mediation Practicum, an on-campus credit course that applies mediation skills to the campus judicial system, allowing students to work as peer mediators. Katrina has presented at national conflict resolution conferences on Facilitating Collaborative Problem Solving, Cross-Cultural Communication, and Conflict Diagnosis. In addition to her position at Cornell, she facilitates for the Global Nomads Group, bringing together, through video conference, K-12 students in the United States and Middle East/North Africa region. She has practiced mediation for over 10 years, and prior to her employment at Cornell, Katrina was the Cortland County Coordinator for New Justice Mediation Services. During that time, she mediated hundreds of community, child custody/visitation, child support, and family disputes. Katrina holds a master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Engagement from Antioch University Midwest.
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
- Advanced Employee Relations Certificate from Cornell ILR School
Who Should Enroll
- Entry-level to senior HR professionals
- Employee relations managers
- Generalists seeking to move into a specialized role

{Anytime, anywhere.}

$6,800
Advanced Employee Relations
Select Payment Method | Cost |
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$6,800 |