Industrial Relations and Employees as the Greatest Asset - Essay Example

Industrial Relations: Employees as the Greatest Asset Student’s Name Course Instructor Date Industrial Relations: Employees as the Greatest Asset “In recognition of the hard work you’ve put in this year, we’re going to take some extra time off for Thanksgiving. We will shut down on November 21, 22 and 23 so our teams can spend the entire week with their families and friends” (Cook in Cooper, 2012). This address was made by Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, as he dismissed his employees on a paid leave as a reward for their commitment to Apple in 2011, when Apple set a record revenue. The CEO went an extra mile from the usual ‘our employees are the our greatest asset’, and appreciated his employees through action, which definitely speaks louder than te most flattering words of appreciation. Cook’s reward for his employees is an action that best explains the fact that Apple’s employees are the greatest asset of the company. What should employees think when managers say that they are the company’s greatest assets and that they are members of the same family or team? This paper seeks to answer this question through a critical discussion anchored in views obtained from vast literature on employee relations. When managers regard employees as ‘the most important asset’ in a company and as members of the same team or family, they make employees feel valued, appreciated, respected, confident, cared for, involved and empowered, and accountable for the success of the organization, hence the employees develop a sense of belonging and become engaged to work for the company. The very first thing that employees should think about when their managers regard them as the most important assets in a firm is that they are appreciated and recognized. According to Maslow in his motivation theory, recognition and appreciation for efforts is one of the most important esteem needs that all human beings need to be fulfilled. Gibson (2008), in an article aptly titled Why 40 Percent of Employees Leave, explains that more than 40% of employees quit their jobs because they do not think they are recognized adequately for their efforts [CGi08]. When employees are regarded to as ‘the most important asset’ by their managers, they feel recognized, appreciated and praised. Recognition is clearly a form of performance appraisal, and when employees are not appreciated, they think that managers are taking their efforts and commitment to the success of the company for granted [LBr05]. As an esteem need, appreciation of employees makes them more motivated to get committed to work for their firm and achieve more. Regarding employees as a big family also increases their ability to be unified and work efficiently as a team. When managers say that their employees are the company’s greatest asset, the employees should feel respected and think that they are really important. As LaMalfa (2007) explains in a publication titled The Top 11 Ways to Increase Your Employee Loyalty, “to feel respected, employees should feel like the company regards them as an important asset. Employees should feel like their manager has realistic expectations about what they can achieve” [Kyl07]. When managers regard employees as the most important asset of a company, the employees should feel respected and valued by their managers. LaMalfa (2007), who is an employee loyalty expert and best practices manager at Allegiance, believes that ‘employees do not leave their job, but they leave their manager (p. 5). In essence, the manager and his relation to the employees greatly influences the attitude the employees have towards their work. If employees think that their manager does not see them as the important in the company, then they would feel unrespected and undervalued, and they may leave, not because they dislike their job but because of their manager. In addition to feeling appreciated, valued and respected, employees feel confident and adequately qualified when managers regard them as the greatest assets of a company. As LaMalfa (2007) explains, “employees want to feel like they can do their assigned job confidently, that their future is secure, and that they are progressing in their own personal life goals” (p. 4). When managers appreciate employees, it gives them the feeling that they are wanted in their jobs and that they are doing their jobs as they are required to. This can be understood perfectly well if we consider a manager who quarrels employees for having not having attended to certain tasks or for failure to achieve certain organizational goals. When a manager reprimands an employee, that employee feels inadequate, unappreciated and at threat of losing his or job. The reprimanded employee is henceforth not confident in his endeavors to get the job done. On the other hand, when managers congratulate employees and hold them in high regard, employees are confident to work more and feel that their futures are secure with the company. Employees who think that their future is secure will even put more efforts at work kto improve organizational achievements. Employees should think that they are accountable for the success of the company when their managers regard them as the most important assets in a company. As LaMalfa (2007) asserts, “Employees must be accepted as contributors by their peers at work” [Kyl07]. When managers tell employees that they are the most important asset in a company, this gives them the feeling that managers can see that the employees are responsible and accountable for the success of the firm. Showing employees that they are accountable for the success of a firm is an indicator to the employees that management appreciates their contribution towards the success of the firm. At times, managers may want to take all the credit for the success of the firm. In such cases, employees feel that they are not appreciated as contributors to the success of the company. Regarding employees as members of the same team or family helps in collective appreciation of the efforts of all employees, including managers, as contributors to the company’s success. Regarding employees as the greatest asset in a business firm gives them the ‘caring manager’ perspective. Explaining the concept of the ‘Caring manager’, Dale Carnegie Training asserts that “employees want their managers to care about their personal lives, to take an interest in them as people, to care about how they feel and support their health and wellbeing” [Dal12]. Since appreciation and recognition are key needs of an employee in a firm, employees should think that managers who appreciate and value them as the most important assets in a firm are the caring managers who establish good relations with the employees. When a manager regards to employees as members of one big family, employees think that they are not segregated on basis of rank, but they belong together and work towards the same goals. This is very important in aligning employees to organizational culture and facilitating team work between employees and the management. Most importantly, the caring manager represents the fact that the management cares about its employees. The emergence of caring employers is a trend that is gaining popularity in the modern corporate world. Showing employees concern with the quality of their lives is a concept that corporates are integrating into their organizational culture so as to reap the best from their employees. This explains why Google, a giant company in the technology sector, has a Chief Happiness Officer, whose chief mandate is ensuring that Google’s employees are happy with their jobs, and are content and satisfied in order to be productive for the company. Companies not only maintain but invest in their ‘important assets’. For instance, if the most important asset of a transport company is the transport vehicles that the company has, the company will always work towards not only maintenance of those assets but will also invest in them so as to make them better. The same case applies to employees. Regarding employees as ‘important assets’ does not mean that they are compared with inanimate objects, it means that they are very profitable and valuable to the company. It is important that firms invest in the welfare of their employees. Investment in the employees usually begins with appreciation from the management, even when it is done only through words. As Figiel (2009) explains in an article aptly titled Retaining Your Greatest Asset, “..employers should continually show employees they are a valued asset. Recognition from top management or a business owner will go a long way. Additional luxuries like employee appreciation events show employees that you are interested in treating them to a fun event to promote socialization with co-workers and a higher sense of team spirit” [Tho09]. This explanation essentially ushers us in to the understanding that managers do not have to organize holidays, vacations and reward-based performance appraisals to show employees that they are keen t invest in them, an investent through appreciation and recognition goes a long way. This is the first step in showing employees that the management of a company is committed to invest in them as the ‘important assets’ of the company. When managers regard employees as the greatest assets of a firm and as members of the same team, the employees think that they are involved in the realization of organizational targets and goals. Employee involvement and employee engagement are two related concepts of organizational management which are emerging to be of vital importance in organizational success. Employee involvement refers to the inclusion of employees in the running of a firm and the construction of a team in which each employee’s imput is highly valued by the management. Regarding employees as members of a big happy organizational family shows that employees contribute as much as the managers in running the organization and working towards meeting organizational needs. Appreciation also leads to employee empowerment, a concept which “means that in addition to involving employees in running the business, employees and management recognize that many problems or obstacles to achieving organizational goals can be identified and solved by employees” [Apo00]. In essence, when employees are valued and appreciated by organizational management, they think that they are involved in the running of the organization and are empowered to solve any problems that arise in the work place. This is the essence of employees being in ‘the same team’ and belonging to ‘one big family’. If employees work as a team, then an employee can make the decision that would otherwise be made by a manager. This system of management is best exemplified by Wal-Mart, where front-line employees can reduce the price of a commodity to a certain range in order to fit the budge of the customer and facilitate customer loyalty. If Wal-Mart’s employees were not in a team, they would not be empowered to make such decisions. “If managers can enable their staff to feel involved and valued in their work…then they play a very important role in nurturing engagement” [Gem09]. Employee engagement is an important concept in the modern corporate world. An engaged employee is described as an employee who is committed, energetic, absorbed, focused and fully involved with organizational work such that they can work overtime in order to move a firm towards organizational success. When managers appreciate employees by regarding them as the most important assets of a firm, they involve and empower them to enjoy working at the organization, and this facilitates employees to become engaged. In essence, when managers tell employees that they are the greatest assets to a company, the employees should think of themselves as important figures in the workplace, resulting to employee engagement. Finally, when managers regard employees as important assets and members of the same family, they give employees a sense of belonging and affiliation to the organization. Most employees desire to work in organizations that make it to the Forbes ‘Top 100 Companies to Work For’. The reason behind their desire to work for those firms is because they want to have the sense of belonging to a firm that is renowned for treating employees ethically. It is important that firms give employees a sense of belonging and pride in the fact that they belong to a family in which they are valued. Employees should be capable of wearing clothes with logos of the company they work for because they are proud to be there, and not due to an obligation. Employees should have a psychological well-being at the workplace because of the pride that their managers have in them. Employees get this psychological wellbeing and a sense of belonging from the appreciation they get from their managers, and how much they feel valued at the workplace [LBr05]. In summary, when managers regard employees as the greatest asset in a firm, they make employees have many positive thoughts about the workplace and call on employees to dedicate more efforts and commitment to helping the organization achieve its goals. Regarding employees as the ‘most important asset’ in an organization makes employees feel recognized, appreciated, valued, respected, confident to work, accountable for the success of the organization and important to the firm. In addition, when managers regard employees as members of the same team or the same family, they foster unity and teamwork among the employees, while giving them a sense of belonging and acceptance, which gets them involved, empowered and engaged in working together towards the achievement of organizational goals. References Apostolou, A. (2000). Employee Involvement. Crete: Technical Universirty of Crete. Branham, L. (2005). The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave. New York, NY: AMACOM Books. Cooper, S. (2012, July 30). Make More Money by Making Your Employees Happy. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2012/07/30/make-more-money-by-making-your-employees-happy/ Dale Carnegie Training. (2012). What Drives Employee Engagement and Why It Matters. New York, NY: Dale Carnegie & Associates. Figiel, T. A. (2009). Retaining Your Greatest Asset . Retrieved October 2013, from Tandem HR: http://www.tandemhr.com/userfiles/file/RetainingYourGreatestAsset.pdf Gibson, C. (2008). Why 40 percent of Employees Leave. Incentive, Vol. 182, No. 5, 38-39. LaMalfa, K. (2007). The Top 11 Ways to Increase Your Employee Loyalty. New York, NY: Allegiance. Robertson-Smith, G., & Markwick, C. (2009). Employee Engagement: A Review of Current Thinking. Brighton, UK: Institute for Employment Studies, Report No. 469. Read More