HR Skills for Non-HR Managers

HR for Non-HR Managers is a five-day senior course delivered by Mars Training Centre in London, Istanbul, Dubai, Muscat, and Kuala Lumpur — designed for senior line managers, heads of function, and operational directors who manage teams without an HR background and who want to make better people decisions, faster, with less reliance on HR for routine work.

Most of the people decisions that shape an organisation are made by line managers, not HR specialists. Hiring, performance, development, reward, exit, and engagement live in the hands of leaders whose primary training is in their function — engineering, finance, operations, technology, sales — not HR. The line managers who handle people decisions well are the ones who develop a working command of the people discipline and use HR partners strategically rather than tactically.

Across five focused days, you will work through the parts of HR that line leaders most often need: hiring, performance, development, reward, engagement, difficult conversations, and the broad principles of employment relations. The programme is delivered by senior practitioners who have led both HR functions and operational businesses, and is built around the realities of running a team.

What You Will Learn

• Apply the core principles of modern HR to your team without HR specialist support.
• Lead structured hiring conversations and improve the quality of your team hires.
• Run performance conversations that lift performance honestly and fairly.
• Coach direct reports using a structured, repeatable approach.
• Use reward and recognition tools responsibly within your authority.
• Diagnose engagement and retention risks in your team and act on them.
• Lead difficult people conversations, from poor performance to exit.
• Navigate the principles of employment relations relevant to your jurisdiction.
• Work strategically with the HR function and use HR partners well.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a working command of the people discipline as a senior line leader, and a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a senior manager who handles people decisions with greater confidence, reduces avoidable escalations to HR, and raises the quality of team performance.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for senior line leaders, including:

• Heads of Function in operations, sales, technology, finance, and engineering
• Senior Operations Directors and Country Managers
• Senior project, programme, and transformation directors
• Family-business principals and next-generation leaders
• Senior public-sector and government managers
• General Managers with no HR background
• Owner-managers running professional-services firms

The seniority floor is senior manager and above. The programme is delivered in person over five consecutive days, and delegates receive a Mars Certificate of Completion.