Employee Relations Evaluation Report - Essay Example

Employee Relations Evaluation Report Contents Different perspectives on the management of employee relations 3 Main characterises of employment relationship 3 Different perspectives for managing employee relations 4 Ramifications for employee involvement and participation 5 Roles and objectives of the different parties in employee relations 8 Different processes for maintaining co-operation, improving engagement and avoiding conflict 9 Training and development 10 Communication 10 Group task 11 Employee involvement in decision making 12 Performance appraisal 12 Meetings 13 References 14 Different perspectives on the management of employee relations Main characterises of employment relationship Mutual trust: Both employers and employees need to trust each other for doing the job effectively. The employees trust that the company will provide different benefits to them and the employers trust that the staffs will do their work efficiently which will increase the productivity of the company. If mutual trust is not there then various organizational problems will occur. Communication: Effective communication process is one of the important elements for maintaining good employment relationship. With the help of communication various problematic situations and sensitive issues can be handled. Strong bonding among employer and employees are established by communication. Mutual respect: The strength of employment relationship is enhanced with the help of mutual respect among the employees and employers. Both employees and employers need to respect each other work. In the case study organization the company tries to maintain its employment relationship by providing training. Support: Each and every organizational members need to support each other for achieving goals and objectives of the company. Employers guide the employees for performing their work effectively. Employees support the employers by enhancing the productivity of the company. Gratitude: In employment relationship, gratitude is an important element. The employers appreciate and recognize the performances and efforts of employees and show gratitude to them. When the employees receive support or help from the employers they also express their gratitude towards them. Different perspectives for managing employee relations There are various perspectives for managing employee relations of a company. By implementing any of the three perspectives of employee relations the companies try to improve their relations with the organizational members. Work place conflicts and various organizational issues are solved with the help of employee relations. Unitarist perspective: According to this perspective organization is perceived as a family where all the employees and management of the company emphasize on achieving organizational goals and objectives. Unitarist focuses on employee’s loyalty, common values, objectives and interest. Employees’ dissatisfaction is expressed by conflicts which is bad for the company. Organizational conflicts should be solved tactfully. Trade union is unnecessary thing for a company. If strong trust is present between employees and employers then trade union is not required. Pluralist perspective: According to this perspective companies perceive that employment relationship is made up of various powerful subgroups which have their own leaders, objectives and values. Trade unions and management are the important subgroups which affect employment relationships. For the different aims and objectives of these groups conflicts arises in the company which are solved by implementing various organizational and collective changes. Marxist perspective: As per this perspective employment relationship is maintained by collective actions. Organizations following this theory believe in change. The companies maintain industrial and employment relationships by considering political, social, economical factors. The companies try to reduce economic inequalities for managing conflicts among the employees. In the case study organization employees actively took part in different activities of the company. But the employers were not so much effective in managing employment relationship. The company followed Pluralist perspective for managing employment relationship. Various officers and managers of the company took different efforts to manage their relationship with employees. Ramifications for employee involvement and participation Employee relations mainly involve two parties. These parties are employers and employees. The process of employee relations helps to manage relationship of all the employees with the employers. For maintaining employee relation a company gives effort to sort out many problems which arise in the organization and hamper the activities and work performances of employees. The main objective for managing employee relations is to increase the level of job satisfaction among the employees (Salamon, 2000). Good relation with the employees helps the company to create a happy working environment. Productivity of the company is increased by this. In the case study organization the E2 branched was organized in an unsystematic way. The employers were unable to give effective training. The personal director Jean Brainbridge and the Regional manager Rob Bancroft discussed on improving different situations. This helped them to analyse different ways for getting commercial success. It helped them to understand that by maintaining good relationship with labour will help the company to gain success. The manager had a discussion with the supervisor of the company about the new methods which the company has implemented for increasing its employee participation and involvement. In this case it has been highlighted that a team was build for performing different functions of the business. Many employees took part in that team. They were very much enthusiastic for performing different business functions. But the employers were unable to create good relationship with the employees. They were treating them like children for which good relationship of employees and employers was not developed. The employers felt that they were spending more time on asking others to do a job. For improving employee involvement the sales officer of the company focused on the promotional issues of the company. According to him all the employees of the company should get opportunities to promote their career. Promotion is an important factor which influences employees’ participation and involvement in the different work processes of the company. The officer also highlighted that promotion acts as a motivating factor for the employees. So if they are not given promotion then they will leave the organization. The manager of this company has implemented some changes for which the employee involvement level can be increased. The employers will be able to understand the effective ways by which they can get the job done and improve the relationship with employees. These changes will help both employers and employees to understand their actual position in the organization. By this both of them will have clear ideas about how they will communicate with each other for making their work process easier. This organizational policy was expected to increase employee participation. In the case study organization the workers directly communicate with the employers (Rose, 2008). One of the replacement staff had a discussion with manager about his problem. The replacement staff performed his job role. But apart from that he also took part in other job functions. His main job role was involved in working with wood inside the mill. But he also had to go out for doing product delivery. When the full time drivers were not available then he also performed the job role of a driver. His discussion with the employer made him understand that works he had to perform. This effective communication helped the company to increase employee participation in different work processes. Initially the replacement staff had problem to go out on road. The issue of performing this job role was discussed at the time of his interview but that was not clear to him. He was unable to understand that thing clearly. Discussion with the manager helped him to understand the issue clearly. To deal with such confusions the company is about to issue employment contracts which will help the company to give formal information to its employees about the job activities they have to perform. There was a conflict in the company in maintaining its security level and providing good customer service. For managing the business process effectively the company tried to increase the level of employee participation by giving them more responsibilities. The trading director Bill Bagshot looked after this issue. He decided to empower staffs by giving the responsibility of using key for correcting transactions which helped them to provide good customer service. This extra responsibility will facilitate them to rectify their own mistake. This will lead to increase participation level of the employees. The employees have to put all the details of the transactions which will expand their job role. By empowering the employees the manager will influence them to increase their involvement with the company. The employee Joanne did not have the academic requirement which was required for his post which can affect her in future progress. The employer Mrs Forsyth was trying to motivate that employee to fulfil her academic requirements. This will help the employee to improve its employee’s involvement (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). For delivering good performance some employees of this case study organization also did home works. These had made them capable to perform more activities than their actual job role. Their job participation level increase for that which had made them capable to anticipate the queries of customers. These types of employee involvement and participation are observed in the case study organization. Roles and objectives of the different parties in employee relations Employee relations are mainly associated with developing strong relationship with employees in order to retain them for long term. Case study organization encompasses various issues in context of employee relations. However there are certain individuals who were actively indulged in enhancing motivational level of employees. The regional manager of the organization was highly concerned about employee growth. Employees are motivated when they receive appraisals or are given rewards. These rewards are a medium through which employees are encouraged to perform well. As a regional manager, one has to be inclined towards overall productivity of team members (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009). The major role of regional manager is to align employees with common goal or interests, resolve issues of employees, analyze regional productivity, frame strategies, etc. In every regional division there is existence of trade unions. Union is employee selected group and they are solely responsible for conveying employee interests to concerned authority. Regional manager needs to deal efficiently with such trade union in terms of analyzing their issues and proposing required solution. Managerial body can be regarded as one of the parties involved employee relations. Middle management along with upper management as per case study organization is involved in employee relations. The upper management of the firm accepts proposals from middle management to improve upon employee conditions. Supervisors of different departments are also a part of employee relations (Sisson, 2006). Employee involvement is initiated through supervisors working in collaboration with team members. For instance sales supervisor in the case study organization was interested in framing strategies which could enhance performance level of team mates. In earlier days, the company had followed a parental approach where team members were influenced to perform in a specific manner. This had restricted employees to contribute their innovative ideas. Managerial heads were now inclined towards eradicating such parental style and being focused on participative approach. Employee participation was encompassed within managerial objectives. The new strategy to be designed by managers is centred towards involving employees in strategic decision making process (Brewster, 2008). This would reveal their creativity and shall influence team members to perform well in assigned tasks. Trading Director also can be considered as one of the parties who have a specific role to play in employee relations. This authoritative power tries to blend stock protection aspect with company staff. Employee relations are not only associated with resolving conflicts or designing appropriate pay structure for team members. It also includes designing systematic procedure through which employees can perform well their job or assigned responsibilities. The major role to be played by trading director is that business operations are not adversely affected and strengths or weakness of employees can be properly analyzed. Employee relations are maintained if proper training program are designed by the management. These training programs are objectives of middle management. In case study organization, training initiatives are undertaken by middle management (Towers, 2003). Employee participation aspect is an essential component of training and development program. It helps in identifying capabilities of team members as well as improving upon their weaknesses. Different processes for maintaining co-operation, improving engagement and avoiding conflict There are various processes implemented by a company for maintaining and improving its relationship with the employees. These processes help the company to manage various conflicts which takes place with the organization among its members. By implementing and maintaining these processes a company is able to manage its relationship with employees and its productivity (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2008). These processes are as follows: Training and development Organizations implement training and development programs for enhancing the skills and capabilities of the employees. In the changing business environment training and development programs facilitate the company to improve its productivity and implement many important changes for advancing the business activities. Therefore by getting effective training the employees are able to understand about their job role and business process which motivate them to perform their work efficiently (Lewis, Thornhill .and Saunders, 2003). Good training program also helps the company to establish strong relationship with its employees. The case study company tries to implement training program for its employees which was not successful. As a result a negative impression was developed by the employees towards the employers. They felt that they were treated as children which de-motivated them to improve their work performances. As a result conflict was arising among the employees and employers (Leat, 2006). This hampered the performance of E2 branch. The branch was organised in an unsystematic way which reduced the productivity of the company and increased confusion among the employees. Communication Communication is an important process used by the organization for influencing and motivating the employees. Effective communication plays a vital role to solve difficult issues and problem of a company. Clear communication process helps to avoid many conflicts. With the help of communication a company shares its values, objectives, goals. It makes its employees understand about their job role and duties they have to perform (Kessler and Bayliss, 1998). When good communication prevails among the organizational members then strong bonding is established between them. Employee co operation level is positively influenced by this. In the case study organization different employees of the company were communicated with each other for solving the existing problems. The managers, supervisors, officers’ etc were discussing different issues which hampered employees’ performance and company’s productivity (Kersley, 2006). Therefore with the help of communication the organizational members were able to motivate employees and formulate new policies. The managers communicate with employees to solve their problems. Group task Group task or team work helps to improve employee co operation and their engagement with the company. By assigning group task the company gives responsibility to a team for performing work. The members of the group take decisions for organizing the entire work process. By maintaining cross functional team a company tries to manage conflicts among the employees (Hollinshead, Nicholls and Tailby, 2003). Group task tries to establish trust among the organizational members. It encourages group members to share different information which help them to achieve goals and objectives of the company. For doing group task the group members analyse various issues which facilitate them to enhance their potentialities and capabilities. In the case study the company did not assign group task to its employees. As a result the company was unable to improve the performance of its employees. The case study company had faced many problems in managing relationship with the employees (Gennard and Judge, 2010). This was one of the reasons for increasing conflict in the Case Study Company. Employee involvement in decision making Decision making is an important process for implementing different organizational policies. Important organizational members used to take part in decision making process. But now, in the changing business environment most of the companies are involving many of the employees in their decision making process. With the help of this process the companies are trying to make the employees understand about their important in the business process. This creates a positive impact on the employees (Franham and Pimlott, 1995). As a result their engagement level with the company with their work is increased. Inequality in power distribution is managed by this. Therefore decision making process helps the companies in reducing conflicts. In this case study company top managers, officers, supervisors etc took decision on the behalf of employees. Employees did not participated in the decision making process. As a result their ideas and opinions were not communicated to the upper level management (Farnham, 2000). So the company faced many difficulties in managing employees’ relations. Performance appraisal Performance appraisal system involves in evaluating the performance of the employees based on some specific criteria. This system helps the company to promote and increase salary of the employees based on their performances. This system motivates the organizational members to improve their work process and performances. Effective performance appraisal system helps the company to increase its productivity. This process plays a significant role in improving co-operation level among the organizational members. Employees play their role effectively for delivering good performance. As a result they maintain good communication with each other which enhance the level of co-operation (Emmot, 2006). For achieving the target the employees get more engaged with their job. Good appraisal system helps the company to satisfy its employees and retain them for long time. Performance appraisal system of the case study company was good. Many of the employees were promoted. The company believed in providing opportunities to the employees for satisfying their needs. As a result the company was able to retain its best employees in spite of many problems. This helped the company to manage its relationship with the employees (Daniels, 2006). For getting promotions the employees of this company developed a trust on the employers which helped the company manage conflicts effectively. Meetings A company can communicate easily with its employees by conducting meetings frequently. With the help of meetings an organization makes its employees understand about its different processes and rules. By conducting meeting with the employees the company sometimes motivate them to perform different types of work or to accept various changes (Colling and Terry, 2010). Frequent meeting helps the employers to understand the involvement of the employees in their job. Normally many organizational members are involved in the meetings. They need to cooperate with each other for forming any decisions. This helps to increase co-operations among the employees. Various views and opinions are considered in a meeting which facilitate the company to avoid many conflicts. In the case study organization, many meetings were hold by the company to solve its conflicts (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). Various high ranking organizational members conducted meeting for determining effective solutions which will help the company to overcome its problem. References Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P., 2004. The Dynamics of Employee Relations, (3rd edition.) London: Macmillan. Brewster, C., 2008. Contemporary issues in HRM: Gaining a competitive advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Colling, T. and Terry, M., 2010. Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, (3rd edition). 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