Employee Relation and Eportfolio - Essay Example

EMPLOYEE RELATION AND E-PORTFOLIO By Employee Relation and E-portfolio Session 3: The changing context of work, employment patterns, temps, insecurity and changing work ethics- Seminar 1 After completion of section three, I realized that today’s working environment has highly changed. For instance, nowadays, in most organizations, managers cannot presume full-time work for their employees. Thus, managers should look at the different methods of employing workers that could be beneficial to the organization. Essentially, in order to thrive in a highly competitive business environment, I have learnt that all managers ought to place an emphasis on enterprise, flexibility, risk, change, and above all, they should focus on hiring employees who have organizational knowledge and skills. Equally important, I have realized that gone are the days when workers could depend on the trade unions and employers to look after their welfare, while they focused more on their careers. This is because with the shortage in employees’ skills and knowledge, today’s working environment has become tougher. Besides, today’s employment patterns have undergone significant changes. To illustrate, nowadays, most employees are focussing on setting career goals that are short term, while they constantly update their skills in order to grasp the available opportunities. This paradigm shift has been caused by the recruitment behaviours of organizations, governments, and other agencies. As such, it is arguably true that over the recent years, the idea of job satisfaction and organizational career success has taken a broad twist, as many employees no longer depend on a regular promotions within a single organization. Comparatively, I have come to learn that present day employees are focussing on developing their organizational skills and knowledge in a way that they will become valuable members of an organization. Hence, in a bid to increase the organizational performance as well as decrease employment costs, many companies have adopted the use of temporary employees thus changing their employment patterns. By using the temps, the company does not only save on the salary costs arising from fewer benefits and lower wages, but also in the underlying fact that the organization will relatively use fewer resources in training the temps. In addition, using the temps has allowed companies to become more flexible since the management has the capability of terminating the work relationship whenever the need arises. Session 4: Representation, participation, collective bargaining and negotiation, trades unions. Seminar 2 This session was highly educative as it provided me with quite a huge bank of knowledge more pertaining the bargaining rights of employees. I also realized that today, a number of countries have adopted newer forms and practices pertaining employee participation and representation thus changing the overall picture of labor relations. Generally speaking, a labor relations system sets the informal or formal framework for representation, participation, collective bargaining, and negotiations between the employees and their employers. Notably important, there are other players such as labor contractors, employment agencies and trade unions among others, which are responsible for ensuring that the workers and employees are represented adequately and that their grievances have been met. It is also worth noting that even though both private sector and public sector employers have much in common, they are usually governed by different regulations in most nations. This therefore implies that the rights of employees within the private sector will also vary significantly in relation to those of the employees working in the public sectors. Session 5: Employee engagement. Seminar 3 Employee engagement is an important organizational issue since it could either contribute to the success or failure of an organization. In essence, employee engagement refers to an organizational tactic intended at ensuring that the workers are fully committed to the set organizational objectives. In addition, the concept of employee engagement also focuses on ensuring that the employees are motivated not only towards contributing to the success of the organization, but also to enhance their careers as well as their individual sense of well-being. Accordingly, Wilkinson and Townsend point out that employee engagement encompasses the creation of conditions in an organizations that will enable the employees to perform at their full potentials and capabilities (2011, p. 88). This therefore implies that employee engagement focuses on creating an ideal work environment that will enable employees to work towards the achievement of organizational values, goals and objectives. In an organization, attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes can differ in relation to employee engagement. To illustrate, employees can have a behavior of advocating of the organization to the clients or going through an extra mile to complete organizational duties. Relatively, employees can have an attitude of loyalty and pride towards an organization. These attitudes and behaviors combined, could result to an outcome which may include aspects such as higher productivity, increased motivation, lower rates of employee turnover and fewer conflicts among others. As such, it is arguably true that organizations which practice employee engagement will have strong and authentic values. Session 6: Policing the employment relationship (1), legislation and organisational policies re behaviour, performance and grievances, Seminar 4 In this session, I learnt that supervisors and managers play a significant role in the creation of an environment which supports the ethical and professional standards as well as the organizational values. This is achieved through their individual behavior and through the various ways that they support and lead their work. Basically, whereas it is the duty of all employees to ensure that they perform according to the set organizational values, every manager has the duty to attend to the grievances presented by employees. Therefore, every manager is expected to demonstrate a high sense of professional and ethical behavior. Besides, managers have also a duty to take early action towards an employee who does not conform to the set ethical and professional standards. This section also upholds that managers should adequately support and supervise employees as well as encourage them to make ethical, professional and legal decisions. This thus implies that managers should take responsibility for the decisions and actions of the workers particularly those pertaining ethical and integrity issues. Comparatively, managers should also ensure that appropriate action is taken towards the employees who are not fulfilling their duties appropriately. To illustrate, the management should first discuss the performance issues with the employee with an aim of agreeing appropriate remedies and solutions. In the event that that discussion does not improve the employee’s performance, the management could formally invite the employee through a written notification containing the concerns and allegations. This could be followed by a dismissal meeting more so in the event that the employee cannot meet the organizational set threshold for performance and conduct. Session 7: Policing the employment relationship (2) cases, tribunals and principles. Seminar 5 Subsequently, in this section, I learnt that there are various avenues that employees who have issues with the management or the organization can take. Notably important, this section identifies that for a good employment relations to thrive, no individual in the organizational environment should discriminate against another. Essentially, discriminatory action could be on the grounds of religion, gender, social origin, sexual orientation, marital status, the individual health status, color and nationality among others. Generally, the Employment Relations Tribunal (ERT) was formulated to provide jurisdiction on matters arising from the daily interactions between employers and employees. As such, the ERT comes in handy on occasions whereby the employment grievances or disputes have failed to be resolved. Basically, the ERT acts as a mediator by assisting the both the employers and the employees representatives (trade unions) to come to a unanimous agreement thus eradicating the available contractual grievances and disputes between the two parties. Furthermore, the tribunal is also vested with the duty of assisting the two parties in disagreement to amicably settle their differences. This is done through writing and thus in the case that a similar future dispute occurs, the tribunal could review the decision agreed upon. Session 8: Survival strategies at work, unfair discrimination, alienation, resisting or consent? Seminar 6. Today’s diverse world is characterized by excessive organizational competition. For this reason, many employers have become more keen and strict towards employees’ performance. In order to ensure that employees are performing their duties diligently, effectively, and efficiently, managers have adopted various work survival strategies. For instance, present day managers tend to balance interdependence and autonomy in a bid to present an image of operational activity. Equally, managers have reached out to consultants and specialists in a bid to look for appropriate decisions pertaining organizational matters. Moreover, managers have the duty of balancing human relations and administrative duties in the organization. In addition, in order to ensure that an organization runs efficiently, the managers should ensure and encourage the employees to become independent. Usually, this could be achieved through the setting of boundaries that would enable the managers to effectively juggle several roles and responsibilities across the employees. Depending on the roles and responsibilities available, managers could use different strategies such as delegation, education and separation of the duties to juggle the roles to the employees. Generally speaking, the concept of employment discrimination has been prevalent in many organizations. In many occasions, employment discrimination happens during the recruiting process, layoffs, and payments among others. It is however worth noting that even though discrimination could be viewed as unethical and an unfair act, it may not be necessarily prohibited by law. However, discriminating illegally due to retaliation is an act of illegal behavior and thus it is prohibited by law. Session 9: The future of work life integration and ER. Seminar 7 Ultimately, in the past, many employees have been faced with the challenge of balancing their employment demands and their family lives. In fact, to date, many employees still carry the assumption that they exclusively and unanimously carry the responsibility of taking care of their own balancing acts, and therefore they need no assistance from their employers (Korabik, Lero & Whitehead, 2008, p. 380). Therefore, many employees and employers have treated family life and occupation as two different domains. Conversely, it is worth noting that there are a relatively large number of work life integration programs that could assist and enable the employees to balance and integrate their occupational time and still take care of their family needs. For instance, additional employee benefits, adequate pay, and the provision of ideal employment security to the employees could enable them to develop an effective balance between their occupational duties and family needs. In addition, a good workplace culture which is formally conveyed through the implementation of effective organizational policies and informally through the organization’s managers and employees, could be essential in assisting with the work life integration process of every employee. Conclusion In conclusion, the concept of employment relations (ER) basically involves various theories and practices related to the management and governance of employees in the workplace. More specifically, ER involves the socio-political elements existent in the workplace that determine the nature of relationship between the employees and managers. In today’s organizational diverse organizational environment, many managers are experiencing a huge shortage of employees with adequate organizational skill and knowledge. Although for the past few years managers have relied on academic credentials as their basis of hiring and promoting employees, these credentials do not necessarily present an individual’s real value. As such, e-portfolio presents managers the opportunity to hire quality employees, thus increasing the chances of organizational improvement. Works Cited Korabik, K., Lero, D. S., & Whitehead, D. L. 2008. Handbook of work-family integration research, theory, and best practices. Amsterdam. Townsend, K., & Wilkinson, A. 2011, The future of employment relations: new paradigms, new developments. Read More