How to become an industrial relations manager
Official title: Industrial relations manager
Also called: Industrial relations director, Labour relations director, Labour relations manager, Industrial relations director, Labour relations manager
Industrial relations manager maintains relations between the management, its employees and all the entities connected with the organisations like customers, unions, governing agencies and stakeholders. He/she plans, organises and controls industrial relations and personnel activities of an organisation and participates in formulating the recruitment, training, wages, safety, welfare and other personnel policies of the organisation. He/she may represent the organisation before industrial arbitration courts or other labour tribunals and may also specialise in industrial relations work and be designated accordingly.
Main tasks
- Planning, directing and coordinating the personnel and industrial relations activities, policies and practices of an enterprise or organisation
- Planning and organising procedures for recruitment, training, promotion, determination of wage structures and negotiations about wages, liaison and consultation with workers and related personnel matters
- Establishing and managing budgets, controlling expenditure and ensuring the efficient use of resources
- Establishing and directing operational and administrative procedures
- Ensuring compliance with standards and legislation relating to employees’ rights, equal opportunity and related concerns
- Overseeing the selection, training and performance of staff for the entire enterprise or organisation
- Consulting with senior management and with managers of other departments
Ways in
- University: Business & Commerce degrees, Offered by 6 universities in Singapore
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Median pay: $110,112 a year. The middle half earn $77,880 to $179,964 a year.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
- Personnel/Human resource manager
- Training manager
- Budgeting/Financial accounting manager
- Administration manager
- Audit manager
- Policy manager
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Questions people ask
How do I become an industrial relations manager?
Ways in include: Business & Commerce degrees.
How much does an industrial relations manager earn in Singapore?
Median full-time pay is $110,112 a year (Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg)). The middle half earn $77,880 to $179,964.
Will AI change the work of an industrial relations manager?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Manpower (via data.gov.sg): Resident Occupational Wages (Occupational Wage Survey) (June 2024 (data.gov.sg update 2026-04-01)), Singapore Open Data Licence v1.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026