A perspective of modern labour relations Orange Business Services - Research Paper Example

? A PERSPECTIVE OF MODERN LABOUR RELATIONS ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES – A CASE STUDY BY SUBMITTED TO OF (MARCH Contents Introduction 1 2. Labour relations at Orange Business Services 2 2.1 Functions of Labour Relations 3 2.2.1 Tasks performed by labour relation department 5 2.2 Key Issues pertaining to labour relations 6 2.2.1 Pay and perks 6 2.2.2 Dependence on employee associations and unions 6 2.2.3 Employee safety and security 7 2.2.4 Work Flexibility 8 2.5 Attrition and Poaching 8 2.6 Equal Opportunities 8 2.7 Grievance redressing 9 3. Other broader issues 9 4. Conclusion 10 Bibliography 12 1. Introduction Charles Leadbeater one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation and creativity in organisations said, the primary role of organisations is to get work done. This necessitates that (1) organisations must motivate its people to work so that they contribute most effectively to the collective behaviour; (2) coordinate the collective output to ensure that it fits together and takes place in the right order; and (3) they must innovate continuously by learning, adapting and evolving with the demand of the environment in which they operate and explore opportunities for change (HenlyCentreHeadlightVision, 2006). Yet experience dictates that this seemingly simple analogy: motivate; coordinate; innovate is in fact is most complex task for corporates across continents and commerce, some of which apparently are in the state of civil war. As old industrial world recipes of organisation, work and leadership are gradually becoming passe, organisations are innovating to find newer ways of motivating, coordinating and innovating simultaneously with more and more open and networked organisations. Wikipedia, Linux, eBay, YouTube, and many more organisations operating in that direction have raised questions on the concepts of traditional, top-down closed organisations. Organisations are now moving from highly collectivised and unionised environments to highly individualist entities bringing newer realities for labour relations. Amidst this, the author made an attempt to get the current perspective of labour relations in a successful multinational technology enterprise – Orange Business Services. The author interviewed unofficially the officials engaged in labour relations division. The objective was to understand how an old world enterprise such as French Telecom has evolved its labour relations to become one of most successful branded service provider worldwide. The choice of Orange business services was obvious as it is a global leader in communication services with a highly technical workforce that are able to deliver coherent innovative services in spite of working in areas such as cloud and convergence where organisational hierarchies are difficult to prevail . Besides, Orange with a clientele of over 3700 multinational companies in the sphere of collaboration, customer relationship management, mobility, M2M and vertical solutions was a fit case for the study as the company is a recipient of many awards and accolades including the Best Global Operator award at the World Communications Award for four consecutive years (2006-2009) (the only company to have this); and the ‘World Class’ ranking for superior customer satisfaction for the tenth consecutive time (SITA, 2011). 2. Labour relations at Orange Business Services The author interviewed the Labour Relations Manager of Orange Business Services, by a prior appointment in their newly acquired premises where nearly over 2000 employees in various cadres were engaged. This office now housed all the employees which were working in three different parts of the city. However, the Labour Relations Manager agreed for this interview on an informal and anonymous basis. For the purpose of referencing, he advised to approach the company headquarters and obtain permission prior to interviewing. However, due to paucity of time and the requirement being largely to meet academic needs, the author went ahead with the interviews. Due to this reason too no excerpts could be provided. The interview lasted for about 30 minutes and the questions were semi-structured. The author recorded the main points of the answers provided by the Labour Relations Manager in his notepad. The following are some of the views, which emerged from the analysis of the interview. 2.1 Functions of Labour Relations Orange Business Services, a premier brand of France Telecom, the fourth largest telecommunications corporations in the world, is also one of the last remaining state-owned telecommunications (www.fundinguniverse.com) agencies anywhere in the world. The history of France Telecom dates back to 1837, barely five years after Samuel Morse conceived his system of electromagnetic telegraphy, the Morse Code, and when Carl von Steinheil had devised an electromagnetic machine through which messages were recorded by a needle and devised an electromagnetic machine (France Telecom - Orange 2012). The French king, Louis Philippe, perhaps appreciated this as a significant apparatus in the hands of the press and later Charles X initiated part of the July 1830 ordnance. Finally, state monopoly of telegraphic services, for military and political reasons was established in 1851 (www.fundinguniverse.com). It is interesting to note how a company, with over 250 years of history and traditions could continue to operate with 172,000 employees worldwide, including 105,000 employees in France embodying the Group’s values and commitment to bringing the digital universe to the largest possible number of people, creating a powerful and differentiating asset unifying the image of the enterprise around the world. (France Telecom - Orange 2012). At the heart of all these achievements over the decades remains a robust labour relation policy that could enable the company’s thousands of workers to deliver seamlessly across the world. Have the functions and scope of a labour relations manager changed over the years? The answer was both yes and no, as the broad definition of labour relations remained same always – to plan, direct, and coordinate labour relations activities, while providing collective bargaining power to the company’s workforce. However, what changed perhaps over the years is the scope and relevance. In many of the industries, for instance, the steel industry, even as state owned entities have changed hands to be become privately owned organisations, the definition, scope and relevance of labour relations largely remained intact. This, however, is not the case of Orange; being in the technology sector, it witnessed the one of the highly accelerated changes in the operating environment, replacing low- skilled manpower in the industrial days with highly paid and highly skilled workforce that needed more individualised attention in terms of pay, perks and privileges. So, to sum-up even though the function of labour relation manager largely remains the same over the years, that is to analyse and interpret collective bargaining agreements and advise management and union officials in development, application, and interpretation of labour relations policies and practices, it is more like the old typewriter, gathering dust. Does that mean there is no role for labour relations manager in Orange Business Services? Not entirely though. We are still very relevant and a part of the human resources department acting both as consultant and advocate to administration of campus ensuring that employees are treated in accordance with the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement; where unions exist, they are treated according to the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreements; and thirdly but more importantly, management is treated as per the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreements (Regents of the University of California, 2011). 2.2.1 Tasks performed by labour relation department So what are the specific tasks performed by the labour relations department? Implementing labour relation programmes is a prime responsibility. The labour relation department staffs prepare information for management that are to be used during negotiations for collective bargaining agreement, which requires complete familiarisation with cultural, economic, legal knowledge including wage structure and data. Another important area of work of the department is to interpret and administer the contract with respect to a number of issues such as wages and salaries, employee welfare and healthcare, pension and grievances. It may also include such aspects as practices adopted by the employee associations, employee representatives and even the company management (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor). In the absence of collective organisations, the staffs may even deal with individuals as it is happening in this office. For instance, prior to shifting to this premise of the company, employees were located in offices in three different parts of the city. After the move, there have not been any significant developments in the collective movement. A third dimension of the functions is dispute resolution. Over the years have become very complex involving employees, associations, unions, management and government in many cases. If these are not attended tactfully and timely, may lead to expensive litigations, work strikes or other eventual disruptions (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor). Politicisation of unions is a big issue in this part of the world, which requires 2.2 Key Issues pertaining to labour relations 2.2.1 Pay and perks What are the key issues you face pertaining to labour relations? Two aspects are extremely important for the company here in this part of the world – (1) pay and (2) perks. Orange follows a much decentralised form, moving from an entirely national industry collective bargaining level to individual units within the organisation. For instance, in this office, almost 80 per cent of the employees are supplied by Teamlease and other human resources supplying companies. This obviated the need for collective bargaining with employee associations and unions; instead it is the supply-demand scenario that dictates the prevailing prices in the market. 2.2.2 Dependence on employee associations and unions Does this have brought down dependence on unions and associations? Yes to a great extent. But still there are other issues especially in the domain of perks that need attention sometime even at a team level. For instance, almost 30 per cent of our employees are women, who would appreciate to avail company transportation. They expect a company transport preferably an air-conditioned vehicle to pick them up and drop them back from and to a place, at a walking distance from their residence. Even the male employees are very much concerned about this issue. Otherwise, their performance decline, which is quite apparent given the overcrowded local trains and buses in the city. 2.2.3 Employee safety and security Similarly, employee safety and security is another aspect, which is linked to employee confidence in the company. This is so in case of women employees as picking up and travelling back home at odd hours can put them into criminal perils. Transportation of employees to work and back to their homes is a significant issue which we have to consider for all employees irrespective of the source of their recruitment. After the office shifted to the new premises, the company has to deal a host of such issues as transportation, canteen facility, and shift-allocation. These need to be addressed by the administration department and respective other departments. It becomes our duty to see that these issues are resolved at the shortest possible time and to the satisfaction of the employees, failing which productivity may be hampered. Any other issues in the perks area? Yes, food, it may sound quite trivial but this is also important, since most of our employees are young who have come from different parts of the country for work. Having provision of perks at work is a big motivator especially, after the company has embarked on our “conquest 2015 project”. 2.2.4 Work Flexibility How do you deal with work flexibility? Yes, this is another important aspect where the department is involved. Ours is an office with a complete array of “atypical” work. For instance, we have temporary, casual, fixed-term, and part time etc. suiting to the particular needs of the job description, which mostly driven by the need of the customer. Do the employee associations come in the way? Not really, as most of the work requirements are met by human resources supplying companies, living behind a small percentage of employees directly recruited by the company. 2.5 Attrition and Poaching Are there any other issues such as attrition and poaching? Certainly, while poaching is a very local situation limited to mostly to c-level employees, attrition is a worldwide phenomenon, as employees are now moving from the old industrial world job-security to the information age income-security. This is something the company need to get used to, since even the “best places to work” also face attrition. But then it becomes a responsibility of the agency supplying the workforce as they are bound by contractual agreements. Isn’t training become an issue then? We cater for a 10 per cent training requirement. This is provided at an individual level suiting to the particular situation falling vacant due to attrition. Other than this, for batch training of newly recruits, the company has extensive facilities. 2.6 Equal Opportunities What about equal opportunities? In this part of the world, equal opportunity is not an important issue, though the company has a global policy that ensures equal opportunity to women, men and unisex employees. As such in this office, there is no bar for anyone to take up any assignment provided he or she must meet the requisite criteria. The company does not discriminate anyone on the grounds of race, ethnic origin or gender. 2.7 Grievance redressing Since dependence on employee associations and unions are largely eliminated, grievance redressing has also become minimal. In older industrial setups, this was very substantial work that needed careful evaluation of every grievance as it had the potential for a strike. Though the company still deals them but they are at individual level, not much at a collective sphere. 3. Other broader issues Any other broader issues the company is dealing at a pan-organisational level rather than at the local level? There are quite a few. For instance, now as the company moved from domestically oriented and regulated to a globally driven, deregulated and knowledge based one, especially the brand Orange, it has to a major extent done away with traditional systems such as lifetime employment and the seniority principle (Kubr, 2005). Instead, the company is pursuing a more merit-based system linked directly to compensation. This eventually, have brought HR functions such as compensation, performance management and career management to the fore, which are now based on jobs, outcomes, and roles or competencies; repelling seniority as the basis of elevation to be background (Kubr, 2005). This has resulted in a significant shift in the function and scope of company’s labour relation world-wide. 4. Conclusion For a global super brand to remain competitive maintaining excellent labour relations is the key, more so for a knowledge company that is globally driven and operates in a deregulated world. As organisations are moving from lifetime employment and seniority to - compensation based on jobs, performance management based on outcomes, and career management based on roles or competencies; the scope and functions of labour relations is undergoing significant shift. This was evident in Orange Business Services’ transformation over the two and a half century of its existence. The company successfully metamorphosed from a government controlled organisation to a private entity and from a static national service provider to a flexible and dynamic global player. Orange Business Services’ has successfully shifted its policy from empowering its employees through collective benevolence to more adaptive and individualistic benevolence, so that at the end, the employees are able to discharge their primary role as true brand ambassadors of its brands and products. As Robert Ainger of Orange Business Services observes, “No one can predict the future, but we are under more pressure to try to prepare for the future than ever before. The world of work is changing more rapidly than at any other time in our history. Private, public, and third sector organisations are experiencing shifts that make the business models that have worked for decades untenable. The pressure and pace of change feels unrelenting and very few of us truly understand how to adapt” (HenlyCentreHeadlightVision, 2006, p. 5). Yet, Orange Business Services have been successful doing this over the decades. It provides a different perspective of labour relations that is different from the traditional manufacturing-based ones. The company over the decades changing and progressing its labour relations while along the way motivating its people to work efficiently and productively so that they contribute most effectively to the collective behaviour; coordinating the collective output to ensure that it fits together and takes place in the right order; and innovating continuously by learning, adapting and evolving with the demand of the environment in which they operate and explore opportunities for change and towards becoming a global super brand. Bibliography Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.). Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.bls.gov: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos021.htm France Telecom - Orange 2012. (n.d.). group. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://www.orange.com/en_EN/group/ HenlyCentreHeadlightVision. (2006). The Way to Work - Space, place and technology in 2016. Orange PCS. Investor Glossary. (2012). Labor Relations. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.investorglossary.com: http://www.investorglossary.com/labor-relations.htm Kubr, M. E. (2005). Consulting in Human Resources Management. In M. E. Kubr, Management Consulting - A Guide to Profession (pp. 381-414). Geneva: International Labour Office. National Labour Relations Board. (n.d.). National Labor Relations Act. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.nlrb.gov: http://www.nlrb.gov/national-labor-relations-act Regents of the University of California. (2011). About Labour Relations. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from blink.ucsd.edu: http://blink.ucsd.edu/HR/labor/index.html SITA. (2011). Time for Change - Mobile Workforce Solution Positioning Paper. Sita. U.S. Officer of Personnel Management. (n.d.). Labor-Management Relations Glossary. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.opm.gov: http://www.opm.gov/lmr/glossary/glossaryu.asp#UNFAIR%20LABOR%20PRACTICE www.bestjobdescriptions.com. (n.d.). Labour Relations Manager. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.bestjobdescriptions.com: http://www.bestjobdescriptions.com/government/labor-relations-managers-job-description www.fundinguniverse.com. (n.d.). France Telecom Group. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from www.fundinguniverse.com: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/France-Telecom-Group-company-History.html Read More