Leading People Strategy Under India's New Labour Codes
Turn the four new Labour Codes into a board-ready workforce strategy, not just legal compliance.
Offered by XLRI Jamshedpur, jointly with XLEAD
Batch closing soon
What makes this programme different?
Learn Compliance Through Strategy
Understand the Codes by solving board-level cost and risk problems, not by studying statute text in isolation.
Business-First Approach
Focus on cost decisions, risk decisions, and people decisions that belong in the boardroom.
Industry-Relevant Curriculum
Explore practical application across wages, social security, industrial relations, and workplace safety.
Learn by Doing
Practice through live union-negotiation and domestic-enquiry simulations, not lecture alone.
Designed for Experienced Professionals
Learn alongside mid-to-senior HR peers, 3–18 years of experience, moving into leadership.
Future-Ready Capability
Build people analytics and AI-in-HR skills alongside your Labour Code expertise.
Seven modules, from risk landscape to a boardroom-ready capstone
The curriculum treats the four Labour Codes as strategic levers throughout, moving from the transition landscape, through pay and workforce redesign, into industrial relations, safety and AI-enabled HR, and closing with an organisation-specific capstone.
- What's live and the transition landscape
- State-by-state map and rollout considerations
- Board-level risk
Participants will build a board-ready Labour-Code Transition & People Operating Model for their own organisation, covering workforce implications, cost and risk considerations, people processes, governance controls, and an implementation roadmap.
From application to certification, in six stages.
Apply & Enrol
Submit your application with a statement of purpose; register and pay the registration fee.
Induction
Technical orientation on the live D2D platform; meet faculty and your cohort before classes begin.
Live Online Learning
Sunday sessions, 3:00–6:00 pm, across six core modules over 6 months, moving from the risk landscape, through pay and workforce redesign, into industrial relations, safety, and analytics.
Campus Immersion
Step off-screen for live union-negotiation and domestic-enquiry simulations, working directly with faculty and peers.
Capstone Project
Apply everything you've learned to build your own organisation's board-ready Labour-Code Transition & People Operating Model.
Certification
Receive your certificate, jointly issued by XLRI Jamshedpur and XLEAD.
Two days at XLRI Jamshedpur, built around live practice.
The programme includes a 2-day on-campus component at XLRI Jamshedpur, built around live practice rather than lectures. The campus fee is included in your programme fee.
Union Negotiation Simulation
Practice real-time negotiation scenarios under the Industrial Relations Code, guided by faculty.
Domestic Enquiry Simulation
Work through a live domestic enquiry and discipline process, applying standing-orders concepts from Module 4.
Sessions are delivered live, not pre-recorded.
You learn with faculty and peers in real time, with the option to bring your own organisation's context into the room.
Live Online Classes
Attend interactive Sunday sessions delivered by XLRI faculty and practitioner co-faculty.
Real Organisational Scenarios
Work through applied case discussions built around real HR and IR situations.
Hands-on Learning
Use the state-rules navigation lab, calculator lab, and simulation exercises throughout.
Campus Immersion
Experience live union-negotiation and domestic-enquiry practice at XLRI Jamshedpur.
Peer Learning
Collaborate with experienced HR leaders from diverse industries.
Capstone Project
Apply your learning to build a board-ready plan for your own organisation.
“India's four Labour Codes are not a compliance update. They are a rewrite of how organisations design pay, manage the workforce, and negotiate with employees. HR leaders who treat this only as a legal exercise will miss the larger shift. This programme is built to help you read the Codes as a strategist would: as cost decisions, risk decisions, and people decisions that belong in the boardroom. We have designed every module, and the Jamshedpur immersion in particular, around problems you will actually face in your organisation over the next two years.”
Learn from faculty who combine legal expertise with industrial-relations practice.
Dr Tina K Stephen
Brings deep legal expertise in labour and employment law, anchoring the programme's grounding in the statutory detail behind each of the four Codes.
ExpertiseDr Santanu Sarkar
Specialises in personnel management and industrial relations, bringing that lens to the programme's union-negotiation and workforce-strategy content.
ExpertiseEvery module pairs academic rigour with practitioner perspective. CHRO, employment-law and labour-economics viewpoints sit alongside the core faculty throughout the programme.
A working peer group as much as a classroom.
Your cohort will be made up of HR and people leaders navigating the same regulatory shift across different industries.
HR Heads
Lead your organisation's Labour Code transition end-to-end.
HRBP Leaders
Bring strategic, code-aware thinking into business partnering.
IR / ER Managers
Build practiced union negotiation and dispute-resolution skills.
Compensation & Benefits Leaders
Redesign pay architecture for the new wage definition.
Founders & COOs
Mid-sized organisations. Get hands-on with compliance and cost decisions directly.
Is this programme right for you?
For Indian Participants
- Graduates (10+2+3) or Diploma Holders (10+2+3 or 10+2+4) from a recognised university (UGC/AICTE/DEC/AIU/State Government), in any discipline
- 3–18 years of work experience, moving into leadership
- Diploma Holders with relevant work experience may be considered on a case-by-case basis
For International Participants
- Graduation or equivalent degree from any recognised university or institution in their respective country
Best Suited To
- Mid-to-senior HR professionals: HR Heads, HRBP leaders, IR/ER managers, Compensation & Benefits professionals
- Founders / COOs of mid-sized organisations (secondary segment)
- Working familiarity with HR processes and people-management concepts is desirable
India's HR function is operating under a rulebook that didn't exist two years ago.
The four Labour Codes (on Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security, and Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions) have replaced 29 legacy central labour laws. For HR, IR, and Compensation & Benefits leaders, this is a structural shift in how pay is designed, how contractors and gig workers are engaged, how unions are negotiated with, and how workplace safety is governed, often with limited internal precedent to draw on.
of CTC must now be Basic Pay + Dearness Allowance: the single wage-definition change forcing every organisation to rebuild its pay structure from scratch.
Source: Code on Wages, 2019; Business Standard, JM Financial Services, 2026likely increase in employer PF cost per employee for organisations running allowance-heavy salary structures.
Source: IncorpX, 2026additional employer cost per employee, per year, once PF, gratuity, ESI and bonus are recalculated on the new wage base.
Source: IncorpX, 2026higher gratuity payouts under the revised wage definition, even for employees with unchanged tenure.
Source: Bajaj Finserv, 2026down from 5. New minimum service period for fixed-term and contract employees to become eligible for gratuity.
Source: masllp.com, 2026gig and platform workers formally brought under statutory social security coverage.
Source: Code on Social Security, 2020; masllp.com, 2026This isn't a distant compliance deadline. It's already moving through payroll, contractor contracts, and cost budgets. HR leaders who can model this impact, redesign pay architecture, and defend the numbers in the boardroom are the ones organisations will lean on through this transition.
Practical Labour Code strategy. Built for HR leaders.
Unlike a legal-explainer course, this curriculum focuses on the practical, board-level application of the four Labour Codes across pay, workforce, industrial relations, and safety. Every module connects legal change to real organisational decisions.
Labour-Law-Focused Curriculum
Learn how the four Codes reshape pay architecture, contractor policy, union relations, and workplace safety governance.
Practical Application through Capstone
Strengthen your learning through simulations, cost-impact modelling, and an organisation-specific capstone project.
Learn from XLRI Faculty
Gain insight from faculty combining legal expertise in labour law with industrial-relations practice.
Executive-Friendly Format
Designed for working professionals, with live Sunday sessions and a 2-day campus immersion.
Hands-on Compliance Exposure
Build familiarity with the state-rules navigation lab, compensation calculators, and live IR simulations.
Cross-Industry Peer Network
Learn alongside HR leaders from different industries navigating the same regulatory shift.
India's oldest business management school, born out of labour relations.
XLRI is one of India's leading management schools, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. Established in 1949 as the Xavier Labor Relations Institute by Fr. Quinn Enright, XLRI is acknowledged as India's oldest business management school. With its single vision of Magis (the pursuit of excellence), it focuses on academic excellence, personal values and social concern.
75+ Years of Academic Excellence
Established in 1949 as the Xavier Labor Relations Institute, India's oldest business management school.
Best HR Course in Asia-Pacific
Consistently acknowledged for its HR and industrial-relations depth, the discipline this programme is built on.
Recognised Research Acumen
Recognised by the London Business School and ranked among the top 5 research schools in India.
Executive Learning Ecosystem
Programmes designed specifically for experienced working professionals.
Practical Business Learning
Apply concepts through case studies, simulations, and board-level business discussions.
Collaborative Peer Learning
Learn alongside HR and people leaders from diverse industries and organisation sizes.
Institutional accreditations of XLRI Jamshedpur. Programme certificate issued jointly by XLRI Jamshedpur and XLEAD.
Showcase your Labour Code readiness.
Upon successfully meeting the programme requirements, participants receive a certificate jointly issued by XLRI Jamshedpur and XLEAD. Participants who meet the attendance requirement but not all academic requirements may receive a Certificate of Participation, subject to the programme's certificate eligibility policy.
XLEAD- Ability to translate the Labour Codes into board-level cost and risk decisions
- Practical skill in redesigning compensation, benefits, and contractor architecture
- Hands-on experience in union negotiation, discipline, and dispute resolution
- Working knowledge of people analytics and AI in HR operations
- Readiness to lead a code-compliant People Operating Model for your organisation
Invest in board-ready HR leadership.
Build the capabilities to lead your organisation's Labour Code transition with an executive programme designed by XLRI Jamshedpur and XLEAD.
Spread across a registration fee and three instalments.
| Registration Fee | ₹15,000 + GST | At registration |
| Instalment 1 | ₹45,000 + GST | Within 7 days of selection |
| Instalment 2 | ₹45,000 + GST | 10 February 2027 |
| Instalment 3 | ₹45,000 + GST | 10 April 2027 |
Refund policy: refund of the first instalment is considered only if requested before closure of registration, or 14 working days before commencement, whichever is earlier (subject to a deduction). Application fees are non-refundable; no refunds once the programme has started.
Your learning journey starts here.
Submit Your Application
Complete your application along with a statement of purpose.
Profile Review
Your academic record and years of work experience are reviewed against the programme's eligibility criteria.
Receive Your Offer
Selected candidates are informed and asked to complete registration.
Begin Your Learning Journey
Complete the registration instalment, attend induction, and begin class on 17 January 2027.
Applications close 15 January 2027, subject to seat availability.
Everything you need to know.
No. The programme is designed for HR, IR, and Compensation & Benefits professionals. Legal concepts under the four Codes are introduced in a structured, practical way.
Our programme advisors can help you understand the curriculum, admissions process, fee structure, eligibility, and how this programme aligns with your career goals.
The Labour Codes are already reshaping Indian HR. Will you be ready to lead it?
The organisations that navigate this transition well will be led by HR professionals who can combine legal awareness with board-level strategy. The Executive Development Programme in Leading People Strategy Under India's New Labour Codes, from XLRI Jamshedpur and XLEAD, prepares you to lead that transition, not just comply with it.
Apply to Batch 1 before 15 January 2027. Seats are limited to a batch of 40–120 participants.