Employee Relations and Engagement - Essay Example

Employee Relations and Engagement In a group presentation made by our group, the collective bargaining exercise which took place at Cowells has been discussed. The preparation of the presentation began with the background study of the well established amusement provider, Cowells. I came to know that it is owned by the Cowell family for fifty years and at the beginning, it was a stationary funfair. However, in the face of competition from other local attractions the company has transformed into a full-fledged amusement park with wet rides, video games, roller coasters and themed experiences. To gain information about the profit margin of the company, I looked at the economic performance of Cowell for the last ten years because the profit margin of a company is a main factor affecting the employee relations and engagement of a company and also the results of employee relations (Hayter, 2011; Shakun, 2012). I learned that there are four factors which govern the negotiation process between the management and union. They are purpose, plan, pace and personalities. The purpose explains the main aim of the process. Without a specific purpose, the whole process will result in the wastage of money, manpower and time. Negotiators must also decide on the specific agenda on which the process will be carried out and pace states the main points to be discussed in the process and the schedule of the process. The process must include recess at intervals to maintain the interests of the parties involved in the bargaining exercise. I referred to the above four factors to prepare the negotiation exercise of Cowell (Spoelstra, and Pienaar, 1999). During the preparation of the project, I realized that in order to carry out a successful negotiation process by reaching an outcome, it is extremely important that both the parties involved in collective bargaining have the authority or the power to conclude the agreement. This is because if one party of the negotiation knows beforehand that their opinions and agendas will not be given proper attention and honour, the concerned party will not be interested to take part in the process. I also learned that the personalities of the individuals who are participating in the bargaining process influence the outcome of the process. According to me, the persons directly involved in the process on both sides of the agreement must be trustworthy and credible. If the individual on the negotiation table is credible, then the opposite party will listen to his or her opinions and views of the negotiation plan with less doubt on the aim motive behind the agendas. Credibility of an individual is judged by the knowledge, past record, expertise and the relationship of the person with others in the organization and the authority of the person are influenced by the credibility of the individual. I also observed that bargaining significantly depends on the facts and figures associated with the negotiation issues and the party possessing the maximum amount of information on the debated issues have an added advantage compared to the other party with relatively less information. Thus, I along with my group members collected information about the financial aspects, trends in the sector and the economic environment. I also referred to the bargaining history of the company in order to design the collective bargaining exercise of Cowell. I learned that the company has good employee relations and a constructive relation with the union which is named Leisure Operatives Union for Industrial Services (LOU/IS). In order to gain more information and facilitate the negotiation process, I found composition of the employees. I observed that Cowell has 250 employees and 50 of them belong to the family, support and management staff of the organization. Thus, 200 of the total employees are covered by collective bargaining and can be grouped into 40 engineers and 160 operators. According to my observation, time frame of the negotiation process is very important in achieving a desirable outcome for both the management and the labour union. One side of the agreement cannot delay the whole process by taking a long time to decide on a particular issue. Similarly, there is an urgency to solve a problem on one side; it cannot pressurize the other side to rush to a conclusion not giving them enough time to evaluate the after effects of the decision. Also, the schedule of the negotiation process must include breaks so that the two parties remain interested to take part actively in the discussion (Zaraté, Kersten and Hernández, 2014). I observed that Cowell has remained in profit until six years ago but has only broken even for the last four years. To regain its position among its local competitors, Cowell has invested in launching a new style of entertainment called the “Wow factor”. According to me, this investment has resulted in a loss of the company in this year but in my opinion, this will help the company to earn more profit in the long run as the company will emphasize on the up gradation of the state of technology, the training of the staff and the launch of innovative games to attract customers from other competitors. I also realized that this particular investment will significantly affect the annual negotiations as the agenda of the bargaining always includes salary hike. I learned that the negotiating team must at first gather information about increases in salary and of the outcome of negotiation process in other similar organizations (Silva, 1996; Farnham, 2000). Then it must decide upon the agendas to be discussed in the session. I found out that the main agendas underlying the process is the salary aspect particularly and the other facilities including employee assistance programme, number of holidays and the extra item which is put forward by the management and the union at the beginning of the process on the day of the negotiation. Various company reports acts as the source of information and this reports also include the predictions of different variables affecting the employees for the following year (Clark, Delaney and Frost, 2002; Farnham, 2000). Moreover, I also found that though decision on the decided issues were taken after thinking logically and with reasoning, it is sometimes found that the emotional state of the negotiators on both the sides play a key role in influencing the outcomes of the bargaining process (Silva,1996). This means that the capability of assessing the emotional state of the persons of the other party gives an advantage for the negotiators of the other party (Gimpel, 2007; Wunnava, 2004). This means that the negotiators can utilize the analysis of the emotional state of the individuals to make the outcome of the process favourable towards them. I also came to know that the negotiators participating in the collective bargaining process must have excellent communication skills as they need to put forward their opinions, present facts and information about the trends in the salary increases and the outcomes of other negotiation processes. They need to persevere, explain, reason out and even remain silent depending of the situation and the expert negotiators can effectively use silence to conclude a deal or to make the outcome favourable for the side he or she is negotiating for (Voos, 1994). Also, the attitude of the parties also affects the process and outcome of collective bargaining (Farnham, 2000). I observed that if both the management and the labour union have a positive attitude, then the outcome will be desirable for both the parties. This is how I, along with my group members, prepared the presentation of the collective bargaining exercise and in the process, I learned the details of the factors which should be considered while planning a negotiation process and also came to know about the skills and capabilities required to represent the employees or the management in the bargaining process. I was obliged to be a part of the group presentation as it provided me an opportunity to learn about a process which is highly practiced and is at the core of the maintenance of good employee relations. I would also like to express my experience of working in the group presentation in this report. I realized that working in a group is more enriching than working individually. During the preparation of the presentation, an environment for learning was created among us and everybody was sharing their thoughts and ideas about the collective bargaining process. This is an effective learning method as I came across the understanding of others on the given topic and clarified my ideas and views about it. In the group, we used to divide our work and concentrate on the portions assigned to each of us. We discussed among each other and everybody searched for the section of their interest. At the group discussion sessions, I and my group members used to exchange our findings on the assigned portions. Thus, each group member came to know thoroughly about all the areas of the study. The group presentation has also helped me to learn about how to prepare a realistic plan about managerial decisions and trade unions. It has also enriched my knowledge about how to make the structure of a project and also how it should be presented so that the persons attending it remains interested in the plan and also take part by questioning about the explained process. Making the presentation has significantly enhanced my confidence level and also improved my communication skills. This is very helpful as I realized that good communications skill is extremely important in the process of making managerial decisions. I would also like to mention that working for this presentation has transformed me into a more understanding and adjustable person. This is because in a group project I need to adjust with all the group members and each of them possesses a different personality. This will help me in the future to deal with people belonging to different cultures and also to understand the emotional state of a person or a group of persons depending upon a particular situation. This assignment will also facilitate me in managing human resource, maintaining good employee relations and enhancing involvement of employees within the organization. Therefore, from this report, I have learned many details that should be considered during a collective bargaining process and this will help me in the future to play my role successfully as a human resource manager. This will contribute positively towards achieving the overall objectives of an organisation. Lastly, I want to mention that this exercise has helped me to evolve as person. Reference List Clark, P.F. Delaney, J.T. and Frost, A.C., 2002. Collective bargaining in the private sector. New York: Cornell University Press. Farnham, D., 2000. Employee relations in context. London: CIPD Publishing. Gimpel, H., 2007. Preferences in Negotiations: The Attachment Effect. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. Hayter, S., 2011. The role of collective bargaining in the global economy: Negotiating for social justice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Shakun, M., 2012. Negotiation processes: Modeling frameworks and information technology. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. Silva, S., 1996. Collective Bargaining Negotiations. [pdf] Available at: < http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actemp/downloads/publications/srscbarg.pdf > [Accessed 4 June 2015]. Spoelstra, H. I. J. and Pienaar, W. D., 1999. Negotiation: Theories, strategies and skills. Claremont: Juta and Company Ltd. Voos, P. V., 1994. Contemporary collective bargaining in the private sector. New York: Cornell University Press. Wunnava, P.V., 2004.Changing role of unions. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Zaraté, P., Kersten, G.E. and Hernández, J.E., 2014. Group decision and negotiation. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. Read More