Employee Relations

Employee Relations

Introduction

 

Today's turbulent business environment makes increasing demands on managers and workforces, as competitive standards rise and expectations of individuals increase. Managers must respond positively to changes in contemporary workforce attitudes if they are to get the performance levels they need.

 

Employee relations consist of all those areas of human resource management that involve relationship with employees – directly and or through collective agreements where trade unions are recognized. Employee relations are concerned with generally managing the employment relationship.

 

Employee relation practices include formal processes, procedures and channels of communication. It is important to remember, however, that employee relations are mainly conducted on day to day informal basis by line managers and team leaders; without the framework of employment and employee relations policies but acting mainly on their own initiative.

 

Definition

 

Those policies and practices which are concerned with the management and regulation of relationships; between the organization, the individual staff member, and groups of staff within the working environment.

 

Objectives

 

 To build stable and cooperative relationships with the employees that minimize conflict;

 

 To achieve commitment through employee involvement and communication processes;

 

 To develop mutuality- a common interest in achieving the organization’s goals through the development of organizational cultures based on shared values between management and employees.

 

 To maintain a safe and effective work environment

 

Gestures necessary to build Employee relation

 

 I care for you

 

 I am willing to help you

 

 I share your sentiments and feelings

 

Qualities required of a HR professional

 

 Empathy

 Listening skills

 Presentation skills

 Ability to handle conflicts

 Facilitation skilss

 Selflessness

 Change agent

 Integrity and honesty

  Trust

 

Roles of Employee relation function

 An employee relations officer works at both a strategic and operational level to manage various personnel policies that affect people at work.

 Designing HR policies

Responsibilities of Employee relation

 Induction: tour of the office, introduction to colleagues, entry of name into time office, lunch details, work station, policies and procedures, introduction to job. E.g., buddy program, career counselor, supervisors; all these help build employee relations.

 Establishing and maintaining good relationships between employers and employees.

 Ensuring grievance handling and disciplinary proceedings are carried out in line with company policy and national legislation.

 Preparing staff handbook to ensure that the workforce is aware of company policies.

 Climate and organizational development initiatives

 Employee separation (exit forms, insurance claims, loans, notice periods, salary, bonus, incentives, leaves, exit interviews).

The elements of employee relations

The elements of employee relations consist of

 The formal and informal employment policies and practices of the organization.

 The development, negotiation and application of formal systems, rules and procedures for collective bargaining, handling disputes and regulating employment. These serve to determine the reward for effort and other conditions of employment, to protect the interests of both employees and their employers, and to regulate the ways in which employers treat their employees and how the latter are expected to behave at work.

 Policies and practices for employee voice and communications.

 The informal as well as the formal processes that take place in the shape of continuous interactions between managers and team leaders or supervisors on the one hand and employee representatives and individuals on the other. These may happen within the framework of formal agreements but are often governed by custom and practice and the climate of relationships that has been built up over the years.

 The philosophies of the major players in the industrial relations scene: the government of the day, management and the trade unions.

 A number of parties each with different roles. These consist of the state, management, employer’s organizations, the trade unions, individual managers and supervisors, HR managers, employee representatives or shop stewards and employees.

 The legal framework.

 The bargaining structures, recognition and procedural agreements and practices which have evolved to enable the formal system to operate.

Advantages of maintaining good employee relations

 Reduces turnover, means savings in recruitment/selection cost.

 Greater commitment means quality output/reduces rejections.

 More open communication, means better understanding.

 The low level of industrial conflict means productivity up.

 Provides numerical flexibility, means easy workforce adjustments.

 Easy introduction of new practices means better output.

 Increased job satisfaction

 Shared goals leads to better understanding of business

 A shared value leads to agreed values binding the employees.

 Shared learning leads to continuous improvements

 Shared efforts lead to better teamwork

 Shared communication ensures effective communication.

Role of the HR functions in employee relations

The HR function provides guidance and training and will develop and help to introduce and maintain formal processes; but it does not do line managers jobs for them. However, in their role as industrial relations specialists, HR practitioners may deal directly with the trade unions and their representatives. They are also likely to have a measure of responsibility for maintaining participation and involvement processes and for maintaining employee communications. They can and should play a major part in developing employee relations strategies and policies that aim to:

 Achieve satisfactory employment relationships, taking particular account of the importance of psychological contracts;

 Build stable and cooperative relationships with employees which recognize that they are stakeholders in the organization and minimize conflict;

 Achieve commitment through employee involvement and communication processes;

 Develop mutuality- a common interest in achieving the organization’s goals through the development of organizational cultures based on shared values between management and employees;

 Clarify industrial relations processes with trade unions and build harmonious relationships with them on a particular basis.

In these capacities HR practitioners can make a major contribution to the creation and maintenance of a good employee relations climate.

Approaches of HR team should have towards employee relations

 A drive for job responsibilities (starts from defining of job responsibilities, developing monitoring the job responsibilities and controlling of job responsibilities.)

 Emphasis of mutuality

 Complimentary forms of communication and team meeting. Eg, open house sessions.

 Shift from collective bargaining to individual contract.

 Employee involvement in improvement groups. Eg, quality circles, TQM, six sigma.

 Pressure on quality

 Flexibility in working arrangements

 Multi skilling

 Focus on team work.