Employee Relations - The Recent Employment Relations Experiences in the UK Teaching Industry - Essay Example

?Contemporary Employee Relations - Evaluate The Recent Employment Relations Experiences Within The Teaching Industry In The UK And Recommend SuitableEmployment Relations Initiatives Which Would Address The Concerns Of Both The Employer And The Employee Table of Contents Introduction 3 An Evaluation of the Current Employee Relationship within Teaching Industry in the UK 4 Identification of the Central Issues Involved 6 Recommendation of Suitable Employment Relation Initiatives 9 Conclusion 14 References 16 Introduction Employee relation is mainly related with the concepts connected with the management and the guidelines of employment relationship in a wider sense. The significant facet of employee relation comprises the formation along with the maintenance of employer- employee affiliation, which contributes towards satisfactory productivity, self-esteem and enthusiasm. The notion of employee relation looks after preventing issues and solving problems of individuals arising within the work place. In other words, employee relation can be defined as the policies that are connected with the management and the guidelines of relationships prevailing within the organisations and the staffs either in groups or individual within the work place (University of Cape Town, 2013). The employee relationship concept within the teaching industry in the UK serves mainly on the basis of dedication and inspiration of all the staff members, safe working environment and effective instrument for communication and participation. In the United Kingdom, it has often been observed that almost all the teaching places have engaged a team or a group of staff who look after the issues relating to employee relationship. It would be vital to mention that the teaching industry of the UK strongly believe that employee relation can be built through considering certain significant aspects such as employment security, proper training, promotion of job satisfaction and fair as well as equal treatment to all staff members (Leat, 2008). The UK teaching industry emphasise the creation of long-term relationship between the employer and the employees through the development of effective communication channels by a considerable level. The people assigned with this particular aspect are required to understand various decisive aspects such as labour laws, knowledge associated with employment law and must possess certain qualities such as communication and arbitration skills among others (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2005). In this essay, the major focus would be evaluating the current status of employment relations related experiences within the teaching industry of the UK and suggesting certain suitable employment relations initiatives that would meet the concerns of both the employer and employee. An Evaluation of the Current Employee Relationship within Teaching Industry in the UK Up to the year 2010, the status of employment relations in the UK teaching industry was in a complete disaster form, even though the government had laid down various labour laws in the nation. Specially mentioning, the individuals who have been entitled with the rights of applying labour laws did very little to deal with the problems that faced by the employers along with the employees of the teaching industry in the UK. But after the year 2010, several measures have been taken by both the concerned and government authorities to develop the employee relationship within the teaching industry in the UK. It has been viewed that the school authorities are taking keen interest in the maintenance of proper employee relationship within the teaching industry. The decline of trade unions in the UK has provided employee relation of the teaching industry with lots of significances. The local state government of the UK has adopted an inductive approach, ensuring that the employee relation of the teaching industries of the nation is typically based on realistic assumptions. The major focus of employee relation within the UK teaching industry lies on direction of governance, managerial strategies and complete treatment of negotiation along with power existing between the employee and the managers of the respective industry (Sisson, 2007). Within a teaching industry, there are number of issues that require to be solved by the employers in order to ensure the conduct of high performance and commitment of human resource management (HRM) functions within the organisations. In the initial days of developing the system of employee relation in the UK, the trade unions and their power bestowed by the government made them to put less effort in mitigating employee relationship related issues. But after the year 2010, the decline in the trade unions and their power gave rise to a newer system of engaging group of staff members within the teaching organisations to look after the issues associated with employee relationships. During this period, a major problem can be viewed to encounter in the teaching industry of the UK. In this regard, several employees have been facing problems in communicating with the Board of Directors of the respective schools regarding various smaller issues. Looking into this problem, the higher authorities of the teaching organizations decided to hire a group of staff members, who will be particularly assigned for the task of looking after the issues of employee relation (Coats, 2010). In the present scenario in the UK, employee relation is observed as a philosophy to be adopted rather than a function of the management. Still in the modern world, where managers and concerned authorities are struggling hard to learn the policies of employee relation, the teaching organizations feel that they must engage certain quality staff members who can better deal with the issues of employee relation. This reveals that the teaching organisations in the UK have become more active in managing employee relationship at large. Specially mentioning, various teaching organisations of the UK determine employee relation as a basis of measuring the performance benefits of the employees in terms of their commitment and involvement in various activities. Thus, by taking into concern various utilities of employee relation in the teaching organisations and its ambiguity, it can be viewed that most of the public sector organisations in the UK have opted to establish a different department for mitigating the issues relating to employee relation. These organisations strongly believe that employee relation not only focuses upon developing the duties along with the responsibilities of the managers but also provides immense benefits towards advancing the contemporary practices of the organisations (Coats, 2010). Identification of the Central Issues Involved Employee relationship is the concept, which is related with the management of employment association and the distribution of power between the management and employees. In the above section, it can be viewed that employee relationship is quite favourable in the teaching industry of UK. Since the decline of trade unions in the nation, the teaching industry can empower their own staff members with the authority of solving of their respective problems or issues. In building up of a strong employee relationship, several issues rise within the teaching industry of the nation. One of the commonly observed issues is the lack of communication in between the employees and the employers on an individual basis. Due to the lack of proper communication channels prevailed between the staff members and the employers, it was apparently observed that there was no existence of proper pension policies, performance as well as pay changes for the staff members relating to the UK teaching industry. In response, the teaching staff members across the UK had undertook certain significant actions for addressing and mitigating the issues that were faced due to the above discussed issues. For instance, the members belonging to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) throughout the regions of Wales as well as England conducted protests in the form of strikes, portraying that the above discussed aspects have impacted their respective professional morale at large (BBC, 2014). Observably, the trade unions, local authorities along with the government of the UK have also contributed in raising the complexities of an employment relationship in the UK teaching industry by a considerable extent. For instance, the NASUWT unions located in London have raised the complexities in employment relationship relating to the UK teaching industry in the form of conducting and participating in incessant campaigns of regional strikes concerning the issues of pension provision, pay changes and performance (BBC, 2013). In ancient times, it can be apparently observed that there was no such proper pension policy designed for the staff members of the teaching industry. The major problem, which arose in designing a proper pension policy for the teaching staff members was the existence of a dynamic pension framework, which guarantees the smooth dispatch of all dues concerning gratuity of the teachers including other non-teaching staff members (Besley & Prat, 2005). The other commonly observed issue in any kind of work place either in teaching institutions or any other relevant field is the conflict. Industrial conflict can occur in many forms such as strikes and disagreements in the ideas of the trade union representatives and the employers. But in case of a teaching institution, the problems or the issues can be related with poor performance of the staff members, absenteeism and staff turnover. It was also apparently observed that in earlier times, where there was the prevalence of labour unions in the workplaces in the UK, there existed the probability of raising conflicts amid the employers and the employees. It can be affirmed the emergence of such conflicts might give rise to the development of improper communication channels between the employers and the employees, which in turn hampers the employment relationship at large. At certain times, it can be viewed that these problems tend to mould the teaching institutions into a conflict. The varied decisions of the employees may also lead the teaching institutions towards forming a weaker employee relationship. The group of staffs who are responsible for fostering healthy employee relationship must find out the causes of the rising industrial conflict and best possible solutions to the problems (Wanrooy & Et Al., 2011). There are two major issues that can frequently be observed in the teaching industry of the UK i.e. handling of grievances and implementation of effective communication means within the workplace. Implementation of the policies relating to Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) will certainly help the teaching industry to cope up with the abovementioned problems or issues and also develop a strong and healthy employment relationship. A few of the policies suggested in ACAS for development of strong employment relationship ranges from the creation of partnership agreement to successful handling of conflicts. For instance, the open-access training along with business support, which provide by ACAS, eventually supports in enhancing recent employment relations and most vitally resolving various sorts of conflicts that arise within the members of the UK teaching industry. Moreover, the initiative of making proper governance arrangements by ACAS also aids in forming along with developing effective partnership agreements and handling potential conflicts that arise within the staff members belonging to the UK teaching industry (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, 2011). In a teaching industry, often the employers hold the power of establishing open communication with their employees and consulting the problems that are usually solved informally. The teaching industry must hold the power of solving grievances informally and also find better solutions to the problems by having a mutual talk with the employers and the employees. On the other hand, the implementation of effective communication is also a major concern. It has already been mentioned that the teaching industry often adopt the system of open communication within the work place (Lewin, 2006). With this concern, certain suggestions of relevant employment relation initiatives have been provided in the following section. Recommendation of Suitable Employment Relation Initiatives After analysing the current situation of employee relationship in the teaching industry of the UK, certain issues have been apparently observed to be prevailing in the respective industry of the nation. The critical issues that are currently being prevailing within the teaching industry in the UK include handling grievances of the staff members, prevalence of improper pension policies for the staff members and lack of effective communication existing between the employees and the high authorities of the teaching organisations. At certain times, it has also been apparently observed that the teaching industry of the UK do not possess the system of praising the employees based on deciphering better performances. The presence of non- appraisal of the staff members within the teaching industry accounts to be a major complaint made by the employees, resulting in making the attempts of developing employment relationship weaker. Thus, for the formation of a healthy employment relation within the UK teaching industry, a proper policy and system is quite essential to form and develop. The reason for establishing a proper policy and system is that reactive actions do not last for long within any kind of organisation. Changing financial environment of the nation and also the augmenting number of teaching institutions eventually necessitates adopting such proper policies and system relating to the development of employee relation (Sundaray & et. al., n.d.). It can be affirmed that the teaching industry in the UK might develop an effective framework, wherein the policies and the norms of employment relationship will be depicted in a very clear manner. Specially mentioning, the development of properly designed frameworks for employment relationship will also include clauses for the promotion of safe and secure workplace, which might create a feeling amid the employees that their employers are concerned about their individual development. Most vitally, the formation of the frameworks might also motivate the employees to give their best performance within the industry along with raising their professional standards (Department for Education, 2010). In such scenario, wherein the economic environment is constantly falling under change, maintaining strong employee relationship has become an essential element for the UK teaching industry. The formation of a healthy employee relationship will help the UK teaching industry towards focusing on resolving number of human resource management (HRM) along with employee related issues. In this regard, a few of the common HR related issues that can be observed in the UK teaching organizations are promotion, transfer, resignation, retirement and layoff (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011). The other vital aspect of employee relationship within the organisations is the disciplinary action. The disciplinary actions are highly dependent on the safe working environment of the organisations, full involvement of all the employees and implementation of proper communication channels in the organisations. A strong and healthy employee relation would also support the teaching organisations in the UK to obtain more competent and creative employees (Sundaray & et. al., n.d.). Certain significant initiatives can be recommended to be implemented within the UK teaching industry, as these possesses distinct functions in managing various aspects of employee relations ranging from recruiting new employees to develop effective organisational policies. In the modern economic environment of the UK, a majority of the teaching organisations in the nation have been observed to adopt and implement effective policies or initiatives to form as well as develop better contemporary employee relations (Victoria University of Wellington, n.d.). The group of staff members must be consistent and trustworthy so that they can make justified decisions in favour of both the employees and employers. The major intention of the staff members should remain in solving diverse sorts of employee relation issues along with supporting the success of the organisations. As it was observed in the earlier sections, the major issues of grievance handling and lack of proper communication channels among the employees and the top management or authority of the organisations can come ahead in the path of effective employee relationship. These issues can be solved with the implementation of certain strategies relating to diverse HRM functions. The reason is that the notion of HRM is the perfect mixture of common sense and creativity. The HRM related practices and policies have the potentiality to handle the grievances and the conflicts prevailing amid the employees and the employers of the organisations and strive for fostering healthy relationship among them. From this, the employers will be benefited by the productive or the creative employees and they can also become much motivated and deliver best efforts towards the attainment of organisational targets (Victoria University of Wellington, n.d.). These initiatives and policies can be applied by the teaching industry in the UK with the intention of forming, developing along with preserving effective and better contemporary employee relations. It can be affirmed that these initiatives along with the policies might aid in supporting the teaching industry in the UK towards addressing the concerns of both the employers and the personnel within the UK teaching industry. To obtain the usefulness of employee relations, most of the organisations in the UK hire group of staff members who can specially look after mitigating various issues of employees and also the employers at certain times. Likewise, the teaching organisations of the UK can also move for the adoption of the same, as it can better handle the problems of the employees and ensure that a proper employee relationship exist within the respective organisations. In this context, the HR personnel play a distinct along with a vital role in assuring effective employee relations. They can form and develop effective interrelation between the staff members the employers and with that, they can focus on raising the productivity of the employees. The other recommendation that can be given to the teaching organisations in the UK is that the concerned staff members assigned with the HR related responsibilities must be capable to develop effective communication through the application of suitable information tools. These would certainly help the employees to obtain higher quality of information and be able to communicate efficiently with the management and also become more productive in their work. The responsible authority must provide fair and equal treatment to all the employees so that they remain much committed towards serving their respective organisations effectively. The staff members must be trained in such a manner so that they are able to create a strong and healthy relationship with the employers of the teaching industry in the UK. As earlier mentioned, the growth along with the development of the skills and the knowledge of the employees will certainly help in fostering a strong bonding amid the aforesaid parties within the teaching industry in the UK, which can also be termed as the design of a proper employment relationship. Apart from this, conflict handling is also one of the prime aspects, which must be designed so as to develop employment relationship in an effective manner. At certain times, conflicts give rise to the creation of unhealthy environment within the organisations and also hampers the existing relationship prevailing between the employers and the employees at large. Thus, it can be affirmed that the creation of better employment relationship will not only benefit the teaching industry in the UK to develop better employee relations but will also motivate the employees to give their best performance, promoting safe and secured work environment at large. The companies that hold effective employee relation ought to possess relevant HR strategies that focus upon developing the overall performance of the employees. As employees are regarded as the decisive element within an organisation, they must possess certain rights and also enjoy the respect along with the solemnity of employee relations (Victoria University of Wellington, n.d.). Thus, if the teaching organisations of the UK opt for the aforesaid strategies, it can definitely meet the criteria of addressing the concerns of both the employers and the employees by a certain degree, resulting in forming a better contemporary employee relations. Conclusion From the above mentioned study of the contemporary employee relation in the teaching industry of the UK, it has been observed that the current employee relation status in the nation remains in a constant stage. The trade unions of the UK have almost played effective roles amid the organisations in the nation since the year 2010. However, after this period, their presence was quite downsized, as the government of the nation laid certain regulatory frameworks along with policies across every operational or business field. However, at certain times, various issues such as lack of proper communication channel between the employees and the management and handling of grievances might arise in the path of successful employee relations within the UK teaching industry. The best way to deal with these problems of employee relation can be recruiting special group of staff members who can look after these issues and also arrange for strategies, providing significant benefits to the employees along with the employers. The above discussed initiatives can identify the problems of employees and suggest better ways of solving, so that the organisations can assure that effective employee relation exists by a considerable extent. The study of employee relations reveals that the issues relating to this particular aspect are affecting the organisations’ success in relation to profitability, competitiveness and elasticity. Due to immense advantages and utilities of forming an effective employment relation, a majority of the organisations are showing keen interest in the adoption of well-defined policies and methods of employee relations. Therefore, the best initiative of developing an effective employee relation for the teaching industry of the UK would be to implement the HRM initiatives, so that these can look after the issues of the employees and provide benefits to the employers in terms of increasing the productivity of the employees and influencing the organisational success. References Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, 2011. A New Era of Public Service Employment Relations? The Challenges Ahead. Introduction. 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