Employee relations covering more than industrial relations these days and
it has given a new meaning for industrial relations (CIPD, 2019).
Further, it's covering what’s happening between management, trade unions, and
other officials while enabling collective agreements. Employee relations are
basically intended to establish certain laws, regulations, and agreements that
will govern the relationship. Employment and industrial
relations are only one important management concern, and there are significant
variations in how different organizations ' management interpret their roles
in industrial relations (Rose, 2004). Modern classification of the relationship between
workers speak of individual and collective relationships in the workplace, but
it always indicates the growing individualization of the employment
relationship due to increased individual rights and the weakening of the trade
union and its effect on employees
(Armstrong, 2014).
As Armstrong (2014) says, workers deserve primarily a ' good day's pay
for a fair day's work, ' and they want to have a say on their terms and
conditions of employment and how they organize their jobs. Also, it's noted that
employees are always looking for the best monetary and non-monetary offer
available on the market. Further, employers expect that they want workers to do what they
are told to do without costing them too much.
Employee relationship policies define what kind of management-employee
partnerships are required and how pay-work negotiations should be handled based
on the organization's ideology (Armstrong, 2010). The main goal of employee
relations policies should be to create and maintain a healthy, efficient,
corporate and trusting environment of employee relationships. Four main
approached to employee relations according to Armstrong (2014) are Adversarial,
Traditional, Partnership and Power sharing as explained before.
According to Stephen and Timothy (2002), the psychological contract is an unwritten agreement that happens between employees and employer which will
define mutual expectations as well as what both parties expect. The psychological contract is more than just a legal contract-regulated activity,
it stresses that there is much more to the relationship between employers and
employees (CIPD, 2019).
Trade unions could participate in the development of internal rules
either separately or in conjunction with management as spokesmen for working
groups in the company (Kelly, 2002). There are two main reasons why unions that
struggle to attract members either because they do not deliver the goods and
services that workers expect, or because they cannot maintain the standard or
social practice (Visser, 2002). As Flanders (1970) clarified, collective
bargaining would govern the structure of industrial relations as a social
process that "continuously turns conflicts into compromises in an orderly
fashion." The Commission of Donovan (1968:50) found that' collective
bargaining is the only way to conduct industrial relations'.The move from collectivism to
individualism was also supported by the wide-ranging legislative programs
designed to erode perceived trade union ' monopoly power, ' while at the same
time enhancing centralized management influence over the employment
relationship (Rose, 2004).
According to Ellis and Taylor (2017) discussion, employee voice,
area of conflict and trust are the 3 most important current developments in
employee relations. Evolving
innovations have a profound impact on the relationship between workers and the
effect is both positive and negative. Relationships among employees become
simpler and more system dependent on sophisticated implementation of software systems. Technological development drawbacks often impact workplace
relationships and can be managed by routinely engaging workers in the
cross-functional interaction forum and measuring employee satisfaction (Deogaonkar,
2013).
My final thoughts are that the goal of employee relations is all focused-on trust and visibility of everyone in an organization. Everyone is going to have a role to play and it is their shared responsibility. However, in order to get much closer and push towards that goal, everyone needs to work together. We will have to choose suitable approaches and techniques that best suit our own organizational culture while on this journey.
“By aligning the expectations of employees and employers, both can thrive, creating a workplace that meets the emotional and career needs of its occupants, as well as the business needs of the company” (Mullich, 2019).
My final thoughts are that the goal of employee relations is all focused-on trust and visibility of everyone in an organization. Everyone is going to have a role to play and it is their shared responsibility. However, in order to get much closer and push towards that goal, everyone needs to work together. We will have to choose suitable approaches and techniques that best suit our own organizational culture while on this journey.
“By aligning the expectations of employees and employers, both can thrive, creating a workplace that meets the emotional and career needs of its occupants, as well as the business needs of the company” (Mullich, 2019).
References
Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's essential human resource management
practice. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.297,298,299,309.
Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource
management practice. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, p.406.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 16 May 2019,
London: Employee relations: an introduction [Online], Available at:https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/factsheet#6053 [Accessed 22 August 2019].
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 12th February
2019, London: The Psychological Contract [Online], Available https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/psychological-factsheet#6110 [Accessed 21 August 2019].
Deogaonkar, A. (2013). Emerging Technologies and Impact on Employee
Relations. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, [online] 3(9), pp.1, 2. Available at: http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0913/ijsrp-p2176.pdf [Accessed 22 August 2019].
Kelly,
J. (2002). Industrial relations. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p.46.
Mullich, J. (2019). ADP BrandVoice: How To Close The Gap Between Employer And Employee Expectations. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2018/03/27/how-to-close-the-gap-between-employer-and-employee-expectations/#6dec207f20cf [Accessed 02 October 2019].
Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.9-664.
Mullich, J. (2019). ADP BrandVoice: How To Close The Gap Between Employer And Employee Expectations. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2018/03/27/how-to-close-the-gap-between-employer-and-employee-expectations/#6dec207f20cf [Accessed 02 October 2019].
Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.9-664.
Stephen, P. and Timothy, A. (2013). Organizational
Behavior. 15th ed. Boston: Pearson, p.278.
Visser,
J. (2002). Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom
Explanation of Membership Trends. British Journal of Industrial Relations,
40(3), pp.403-430.
Another aspect is that as Sequeira and Dhriti (2015) have researched using statistical models that employee relation has a direct relationship with employee performance. Maintaining a healthy environment with strong employee relations will help to build a high-performance workforce.
ReplyDeleteAgree with your comment Kanchana. Employees with good working relations and psychological work environment are more productive and lead to the achievement of the organization's intended goal (O'Neill and Arendt, 2008).
DeleteAgreed.Relations with employees are official rules and procedures that govern all conditions of employment. When it comes to relationships with employees, you usually pay attention to employee morale and customer service. They usually focus on the role of leadership and their active participation in the workforce, rather than on the role of the human resources department(Appelbaum and Fewster, 2003).
ReplyDeleteYes, we need to pay attention to the employee morale which is usually not given much priority. Engagement is generally seen by its biggest enthusiasts as a higher emotional state, beyond just a high level of morale, in which employees feel a strong bond with their organization and go the extra mile to it (Bowles and Cooper, 2009).
DeleteWhen promotions and salary increments are delayed, employee performance get affected. Employee relations will have to play a major role in satisfying employee needs to proceed (Finegold & Frenkel,2006)
ReplyDeleteI agree on your point Shakir. The starting point of the employment relationship is an employee's undertaking to provide the employer with skill and effort in return for which the employer provides a salary or wage to the employee (Armstrong, 2006).
DeleteEmployers expectation is to obtain the maximum with low cost(Amstrong 2014).Through employee relations policies the environment should maintain in a healthy, efficient, trusting manner.Employers use the information collected from the psychometric test to identify the hidden aspects of candidates that are difficult to observe from a face-to-face interview or formal selection tools. (Bryon, 2011)psychological contract define the mutual expectations on both parties expects.When considering the all these factors both parties can communicate & match their needs to obtain the best output by using perfect methodologies.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I agree with your comment, let me add more about employment relationship policies. An important skill for the professional relationship of employees to develop is the ability to identify which policies are appropriate and which are inappropriate for specific types of organizations. Two issues that need to be addressed in the development and implementation of employee relations policies are external and internal variables and their impacts. It is important to know of the type of policies adopted by other employers in your sector or business (Gennard and Judge, 2005).
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