Important aspects of employee relations in summary

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).

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, 12^th 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.

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.