Employee Relations and Engagement - Coursework Example

Employee Relations and Engagement Executive Summary Employee relations and engagement have evolved into vital area of concern and is acting as a keydriver of organizational performance. Many large organizations believe in implementing strategies which foster employee engagement and relationships with the firm. The development of such aspects increases employee morale and their satisfaction level. From the organizational point of view, such strategies led to greater productivity. The present study incorporates a dedicated effort towards analyzing the importance of employee relations and engagement coupled with their strategic fit with each other and with the organization. For a better evaluation of the subject matter, the study intends to analyze the strategies related to employee relations and engagement existing in the renowned pharmaceutical company Boots, located in the U.K. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 Fit between ER and EE Approaches 6 Organization’s Approach 7 Employee Engagement 7 Employee Relationships 8 The Strategic Fit 9 Driving Organizational Performance 10 Evaluation of EE 11 Evaluation of Relationships 12 Environment 12 Communication Efficiency 12 Assessing Benefits 12 Empowerment 13 Consumer Feedback 13 Rate of Absenteeism 13 Conclusion 14 Recommendations 15 Action Plan for ER Development 15 Design of Practices for Enhancing EE 16 Reference List 17 Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 5 Fit between ER and EE Approaches 6 Organization’s Approach 7 Employee Engagement 7 Employee Relationships 8 The Strategic Fit 9 Driving Organizational Performance 10 Evaluation of EE 11 Evaluation of Relationships 12 Environment 12 Communication Efficiency 12 Assessing Benefits 12 Empowerment 13 Consumer Feedback 13 Rate of Absenteeism 13 Conclusion 14 Recommendations 15 Action Plan for ER Development 15 Design of Practices for Enhancing EE 16 Reference List 17 Introduction The modern business environment is laden with much complicity from the perspective of employee management. Globalization of business activities and interaction of human resource from various nations further complicates the approaches which managers are required to undertake for efficiently managing employees. Employee relations (ER) have therefore evolved as an important criterion so that employee productivity can be maintained. Employee relations are generally objected towards developing strategies which reduce employee issues, enhance morale and encourage good communication between superiors and subordinates. Such relations also aid towards ensuring that employees are retained within the firm for a longer durations. Often human resource managers engage themselves in developing strategies which facilitate developing successful employee relations. In many large firms, ER is often perceived as the process through which employees can be given information regarding long term objectives and policies of the firm. Employees are advised and guided in respect of their performance and conduct through such relations. Employee engagement (EE) is essentially the process of making the workforce of an organization to remain completely dedicated towards performance of duties. When employees are completely dedicated towards execution of tasks, there remains less extra time to focus upon other aspects such as gossiping or creating issues. The practice of EE is mostly undertaken so that employees are at all times productive. However if firms exert too much pressure upon employees it tends to impact organizational productivity negatively. EE is required to be implemented in an organization so as to enhance employee innovativeness and team contribution. Strategies in respect of EE are directed towards facilitating employees meet their individual career goals as well as well as fulfilling the objectives of the organizations (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes, 2002). The present study aims towards analyzing the concepts of EE and ER and their strategic fit in alliance with the Boots Company in the U.K. Boots is essentially producing pharmaceutical and beauty products. The firm consists of approximately 108,000 employees across 25 nations (Alliance Boots, 2014). The company is seen to radically involve themselves in EE and ER activities making it suitable selection for fulfilling the objectives of the current study. Fit between ER and EE Approaches Both employee relationships and employee engagement are strategically focussed towards enhancing organizational performance and achieve its goals. There also exist a number of similarities in the manner in which both the strategies are implemented within an organization. Such as, the strategic implementation of both EE and ER requires the existence of strong communication channels. Hence in this manner a strategic fit between EE and ER becomes easily achievable (Macey and Schneider, 2008). The strategic fit between ER and EE is achieved on the basis of the following important aspects. Leadership- Leadership is primarily responsible for providing direction to an organization. Such direction is provided through numerous techniques. Managers who essentially act as leaders within an organization, guide employees in respect of developing strong interrelationships with internal and external organizational members. They also provide suitable guidance in respect of how employees can make their engagement within the firm productive. Hence a strategic link between ER and EE gets developed through the source of leadership. Leaders are responsible for achieving balance within an organization through the implementation of various strategies. By building effective relationships amongst employees, managers are able to enhance the degree of engagement of employees with organizational tasks (Lockwood, 2007). Training- Organizations are also seen to achieve a strategic balance between ER and EE through efficient training and development activities. Employees are required to be sufficiently trained so that they can learn to adjust with the internal organizational culture and ethics. As acceptance and association of employees with the internal organizational environment enhances, it becomes possible to formulate strategies related to developing employee relationships. Information Procurement- Efficiency and success is crucially related with the procurement of timely information. Information can only be procured when strong relationships and networks are established within and outside a firm. As ER enhance, timely information regarding various tasks can be procured, and employees are able to produce effective results. In this manner EE gets achieved. Hence it can be stated that information acts as a useful link between ER and EE to attain organizational efficiency. Organization’s Approach Employee Engagement Boots implements efficient approaches towards ensuring that employees of the organization are well informed regarding their work and the long term objectives of the company. The firms explicitly believed that through engaging employees suitably, it was possible to deliver better services to customers. Employee engagement programs at Boots consist primarily of the following aspects (Alliance Boots, 2014). Employees at Boots are well aware of the immense brand image and popularity held by the company in the market. The company uses this factor to engage employees towards contributing more. For instance the company has undertaken a number of corporate social responsibilities, in which the employees participate actively. Employees are encourages to contribute towards the society using the brand name of the firm. The human resource department at Boots are seen to engage themselves in gauging the interests of employees and accordingly formulates various employee engagement plans. In the recent times the company had launched a new reward policy to engage employees in improving their employee productivity and to encourage healthy competition (Shareholder, 2014). The company also formulates strategies which facilitate employees to engage in recreational activities such as organizing sports, debates, quiz competitions, talent shows and so on. Employees from various departments are encouraged to participate in such activities. These activities also aids towards enhancing team spirit and providing a scope for employees to relax and reduce work stress (Alliance Boots, 2014). ER facilitates building adequate motivation between employees and be able to engage themselves more strongly in organizational activities. Through the inter relationship built between employees, it becomes possible for them to assess their own performance in comparison with others. Accordingly, they may consider to improve themselves. Employees may also be motivated by the rewarding performances of fellow team mates and engage themselves more towards organizational activities. Hence through employee relationships organizational motivation in effected which leads to the development of employee engagement (Saks, 2006). Employee Relationships Boots believes in effective communication for the development of relationships across its hierarchy. Employee relationships are essentially built through integrated networking, direct face to face interactions, audio and video conferences, team briefings, magazines, newsletters and online publications. In the recent times the company has launched a new intranet to effectively and innovatively meet their internal communication and relationship needs. Boots also believe that employee relationships are fostered when ethical practices are undertakes. Such ethical practices facilitate ensuring equal recognition of employees. When employees are provided with equal opportunities and recognized for their efforts their dedication for the firm enhances. As a result positive relationship gets fostered between the firm and the employees. Employees are encouraged to develop relationships not only with their immediate superiors but also with the stakeholders (Bloemer and Odekerken-Schröder, 2006). Boots recognizes that employees are one of their most important resources for achieving quality and superior performance. Hence when they communicate more often with stakeholders such as customers, shareholders and suppliers, it becomes possible to fulfil their needs better. The strategy here is to inter link the providers of input with the providers of output so that errors are minimized. Such relationships are mainly directed towards organizational performance. Boots strongly believes that developing a strong relationship between employees and managers is crucial so as to solve complex issues and meet goals. Mangers at Boots frequently engage themselves in communication with subordinates and understand whether they are satisfied with their work and try to resolve the various issues that they face (Stringer, 2006). The Strategic Fit Boots adequately realizes that not all employee engagement and relationship building strategies would be accepted by all members. For instance recreational activities are not perceived by all employees as a motivating factor. Many employees believe in earning actual rewards and recognition and perceive the same to be motivational (Stringer, 2006). Boots tries to create a fit between EE and ER programs by effectively gauging organizational needs and matching the same with the needs of the employees. Apart from fostering a suitable organizational climate ER and EE strategies also are directed towards ensuring employee retention. Managers at Boots, based upon their prolonged experience, have gained the insight that firms which have low retention rates are perceived with high value from the employee perspective (Salanova, Agut and Peiro, 2005). Employees come to the realization that it is due to the support provided by the management that employee retains themselves for longer durations (Saks, 2006). Also the longer are employees retained, the more strongly can be the relationships are established. Employee retention also fosters EE as prolonged presence leads them towards identifying with the overall objectives of the company and motivates them to contribute towards the same (Stringer, 2006). Driving Organizational Performance One of the strongest impacts of EE is upon the performance of an organization. Boots owes much of its success and ability to attain there long term objectives. The organization performance is seen to improve due to EE from the following perspectives: Improvement in the employee understanding of organizational goals. Employees are able to recognize how their work contributes towards organizational success. Leaders are able to communicate with the employees more effectively. EE involves frequent appraisals of employee performance and hence deviations get corrected easily. Recreational activities in which employees are engaged leads to stress relief and hence better performance can be achieved. EE involves providing training and development which leads to improving performance. At Boots, organizational performance is deeply related with the formulation and implementation of EE strategies. The firm identifies that EE plays an influential role towards generating a clear awareness regarding the performance of employees. Managers at Boots have gained the insight that when employees gain the understanding regarding organizational objectives, they direct their performance towards the achievement of these goals. In terms of importance, linking performance appraisal and training with EE is considered secondary to informing about the objectives of the firm. In Boots, managers ensure that at least one fourth of the total employees of the organization are well engaged. Imposing strict levels of engagement upon employees is often considered to be less advantageous as it may be perceived by employees as over stressful (Harvard Business Review, 2013). Strong employee relations are considered to be a necessary factor for successful organizational performance. Relationships established between the managers and employees are useful towards the development of strong communications channels and open networking. Boots is seen to use employee relations as an important process for resolving complex issues. ER tactics are also exercised so that employees and managers can together formulate innovative measures. In order to meet such performance related objectives, Boots engages their human resource managers to frequently communicate with employees and resolves their problems. Managers from each department are frequently asked to communicate with their teams and engage discussing strategic policies which can further improve the performance of the firm (M. L. Lengnick-Hall and C. A. Lengnick-Hall, 2003). ER is also related to generating an understanding between the employees and the stakeholders of the firm. At boots, employees from multiple departments are frequently asked to directly interact with stakeholders such as suppliers and consumers. Although such interaction are common for individuals working in the sales department, those belonging to other segments of the firm are also frequently encouraged to indulge in communicating with the external stakeholders. Such a strategy is expected to raise the organizational awareness in respect of the needs of suppliers and of the consumers. Accordingly suitable production and supply chain strategies are framed. ER strategies are therefore essential both internally and externally. Many at times it is also seen that such relations lead to mitigating issues arising out of cross cultural differences amongst employees. Frequent interactions between employees are also suitable for giving effect to the referent factor. Employees are able to learn and get inspired by the successful performance of colleagues and try adopting similar work policies. Hence a healthy completion can be developed within the organization. If employees remain aloof and unaware regarding how others are performing, they might be able to gauge their own efficiency (M. L. Lengnick-Hall and C. A. Lengnick-Hall, 2003). Evaluation of EE EE is generally difficult to measure as employees are seen to engage themselves differently in various organizational activities or through differential engagement strategies. However the common evaluation tactics utilised by Boots are essentially as follows: Evaluation of Relationships Lack of fair employee treatment is likely to demotivate them to remain deeply engaged in organizational activities. Firms which have been successful at developing strong relationships are able to engage employees in organizational activities at higher rates. Strong relationships are seen to lead towards greater coherence between the organization and employees making them more aligned with the long term needs of the firm. Hence the assessment of mutual relationships facilitates understanding the extend EE within the firm (Harvard Business Review, 2013). Environment Employees are able to engage themselves more strongly when the firm’s internal environment is adequately productive. EE requires an environment that is motivating and ethical. Fair treatment of employees and proper addressing of employee grievances are essential in the development of effective EE. Hence managers often assess the environment of the organization to suitable assess the scope of EE (Maslach and Leiter, 2008). Communication Efficiency Communication is essentially the backbone for a firm’s EE strategies. In order to suitably engage employees, the primary step is to develop open communication networks. For engaging employees, it is first essential to understand their capabilities and interests. Only then is it possible to formulate different strategies to keep employees engaged with organizational responsibilities and its long term objectives. Engaging employees also requires informing them the needs of the firm. This is mainly possible only through the existence of suitable communication channels (Luthans and Peterson, 2002). Assessing Benefits It is rationally perceived that when an organization earns many rewards and benefits, it indicates greater efforts exerted by its employees. This is considered to be the most direct and accurate measure of EE. Hence it is generally perceived that organizations with high goodwill and are able to achieve growth with each passing year, inculcate greater EE tactics. Engaged employees direct al their efforts towards reaching organizational goals. Benefits are required to be assessed not only at the organizational level but also at the individual employee levels. When employees are seen to receive more incentives, it can be directly deciphered that their engagement with organizational performance becomes high (Luthans and Peterson, 2002).. Empowerment Empowering employees is generally essential when they are laden with numerous tasks and are required to take frequent decisions. Hence their involvement with organizational tasks is expected to be high. When involvement of employees in crucial project is high, they are required to be empowered with the ability to take decisions without having to communicate with superiors constantly. This indirectly indicates that employees are more deeply involved in the organizational work. Hence the greater the degree of empowerment, the higher is presumed to be the level of EE (Harvard Business Review, 2013). Consumer Feedback Consumers generally tend to provide positive feedback when the quality of products and services are high. This significantly indicates that as the employee involvements in respect of organizational tasks increase, productivity and the quality of performance enhances, leading to a more positive feedback from consumers. Since consumers feedbacks can be directly associated with the high engagement of employees with their responsibilities, the company considers providing additional incentives based on the same. Feedback generated obtained fro consumers also act a motivating factor which encourages employees to continue to remain dedicated towards the organizational requirements. Hence those employees who receive consistent good feedbacks are assessed to be highly engaged and therefore are more favoured (Luthans and Peterson, 2002). Rate of Absenteeism When the rate of absenteeism is low, it indicates that employees spent a sufficient proportion of their time engaged with organizational tasks. Boots tries analyses the duration of employee absenteeism to assess the degree of their involvement with organizational work on a periodical basis. Assessing the rate of absenteeism is also essential while providing compensation. Mangers also decipher that those employees who portray high rates of absenteeism are less interested in their work and lack motivation. Such employees are required to counselled and given proper training so that they are able to overcome the hurdles and contribute more towards meeting the organizational goals (Kompaso and Sridevi, 2010). Conclusion From the conducted evaluations, it can be stated that Boots has been able to successfully implement ER and EE strategies which has led the organization to enhance their performance. The evaluation has also suitably revealed that ER and EE are suitably interlinked. In order to achieve EE the presence of ER becomes essential. Hence by evaluating the degree of EE, it becomes possible for an organization to understand the level of ER existing internally. The current paper also significantly reveals that environment, consumer feedback, communication channels, rate of absenteeism and empowerment suitably reveals the degree of EE. EE is essentially a quality which is reflected by successful organizations and therefore stakeholders often measure the qualities of an organization on the basis of the extent to which EE is depicted. However, the type of ER and EE strategies undertaken by a firm must be well aligned with the organizational culture and environment. While some organizations believe in open networking, many follow a highly systematic communication process. This may be effective for some firms, based on their nature of work. Motivational organizational practices and suitable leadership strategies are also essential for giving effect to employee engagement and relationships. Recommendations Although Boots is seen to follow an effective system for achieving positive ER and EE, it may consider incorporating the following recommendations for improving the same. Action Plan for ER Development The internal communication and relationship development at boots is seen to be lacking the quality of emotional connection. Managers are required to engage themselves more in understanding the emotional issues which employees face at work and outside work. This would facilitate in eliminating misinterpretations and facilitate them to create better work life balance (Gill, 2008). Similarly the type of organizational relationships developed must be aligned with its core culture. Mangers at Boots must also undertake enhancing the levels of cooperation amongst employees through allocating increased team work. Also enhancing the feedback mechanism on employee performance, enhanced monitoring of activities and increasing awareness for inspirational performances is likely to improve relationships of employees with managers and other stakeholders (Gill, 2008). Design of Practices for Enhancing EE In order to increase the level of employee engagement, Boots may consider to undertake the following measures: Utilizing the right survey techniques. Engagement at both organizational and employee levels. Selecting the right mangers for giving effect to EE. Frequent employee appraisals. Engagement goals must be clearly established and communicated. Various types of EE strategies may turn out to be less impactful if they are implemented by inefficient managers. The manner in which employees engage themselves in organizational activities is crucially related to the productivity of the firm. Hence it is essential that the task of increasing EE is vested in the hands of managers who are efficient and poses good relationship with subordinates. Similarly the degree of EE is also affected by the frequency of appraisal programs. When the appraisal programs implemented are more frequent, employees feel more responsible towards the organization and increase their productivity (Wang, He and Mahoney, 2009). Reference List Alliance Boots, 2014. Annual Report. [online] Available at: [Accessed 4 July 2015]. Bloemer, J. and Odekerken-Schröder, G., 2006. The role of employee relationship proneness in creating employee loyalty. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 24(4), pp. 252-264. Gill, A. S., 2008. The role of trust in employee-manager relationship. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 20(1), pp. 98-103. Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L. and Hayes, T. L., 2002. Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. Journal of applied psychology, 87(2), 268. Harvard Business Review, 2013. The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance. [pdf] Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Available at: [Accessed 4 July 2015]. 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