The Importance of Employee Relations - Article Example

Table of Contents Introduction Error: Reference source not found Search Strategy 4 Acadamice Article 1 / Controlling compensation costs 5 Summary 5 Critical evaluation 6 Acadamice Article 2 / Controlling cost of international compensation 7 Summary 7 Critical evaluation 8 Non Acadamice Article 3 / Controlling compensation costs 9 Summary 9 Critical Evaluation 10 Non Acadamice Article 4 11 Summary 11 Critical Review 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Appendix 15 Introduction The importance of employee relations and remuneration cannot be underestimated. This is mainly because any organization will only be successful if it treats its employees well. The treatment of employees should be reflected on the renumeration and the relations with the employees. Whenever the employees are satisfied with the treatment of three employees, then they will perform well. In most organizations, the employees may at times face some difficulties that may be as a result of injuries or inconveniences. This will mainly require the intervention of the management to settle the issue. This will be done depending wit the organizations policies and guidelines. However the image of the company will mainly depend on how well the issue is dealt with. Some companies do not compensate their employees due to the high cost that may be involved. This usually leads to court case that slows down the operations of the company. Other companies will however compensate their employees immediately regardless of the cost. Such companies will always have good relationship with the employees and good public image. The paper will therefore discuss the issues of employee relationship with regard to compensation. The compensation is mainly in terms of money and other benefits provided to the employees. The managers should develop policies that will guide the process. Search Strategy In order to complete my paper, I choose a topic first. Then, I had to choose articles related to my topic. The strategy was important in order to obtain high quality and reliable information. Using the internet search using Google, I typed the words controlling compensation cost. It returned more than one hundred results. However some of the results were not useful as they were not relating to the topic. Other results were stories from the press relating to the topic. By narrowing down the results to the most relevant only ten were relevant to my topic of discussion. The process mainly involved the rate of relevance to the topic by each of the article. Also, I decided to use the library of the university. The first step in the process of search was mainly typing the topics or the subtopics that are required for the research. This jaws mainly through our academic database search as most of its information can be trusted. After various options are present by academic database thorough search is then followed. However I only needed four articles for use in my topic so I continued scrutinizing the results further. This was through reading the topics carefully to ensure that the right articles are selected. This led to the selection of the four articles which were more relevant to the topic of discussion. The four articles were the most relevant to the topic and provided much insight about the issues to be discussed. Although this took some time, but I finally found all the needed articles and started writing my paper according to the syllabus and instructions provided by my instructor. Article 1 This article is a property of Advanstar communications and it was written by Tim Sramcik . Sramsick, T. (2007). Motor age: Controlling compensation costs. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from Summary The article describes the procedures that may help organizations to deal with the compensation costs. The article mainly focuses on the motor vehicle manufacturing industry. The articles highlights the fact that compensation costs has been on the increase due to various factors. The increase in medical care bills has made compensation a very expensive affair for most companies. The article also clarifies the fact that the compensation costs are on the increase in a time when the working conditions are perceived to be the safest and more improved. The prevention of the accidents is also an important consideration. As such, the article puts in more emphasis on ensuring that the working environment is safe. The compensation should be done immediately if the cases are genuine. This can only be established through investigating the accident to determine its main cause. The article suggests that some of the employees may not be genuine and would want to be compensated for fake accidents they manipulate. To ensure that the organization does not incur many costs due to compensation of the workers, it has highlighted five steps that need to be followed to ensure the safety of the workers and reduce the incidences of accidents. Critical Evaluation The article places more emphasis on five major steps that will help reduce the accidents rates and the cost of compensation. The major step an organization should take to reduce the rate of accidents is to improve the safety conditions. The organization should do this to avoid cases of accidents due to poor working conditions and environment. The second measure highlighted in the article is to reduce the cost by creating a back to work formula. This is mainly the procedure taken to treat the employee and to ensure that they recover as soon as possible. This will greatly reduce costs as the increase is mainly due to the worker staying at home. Communication with the medical providers is also very important, this is mainly because it will ensure that the provider understands the policies of the company regarding to compensation and treatment of the employees incase of accidents. The communication will mainly determine the time that the injured employee reports back to work. This communication will also help the employees to understand the company’s policies. Communication with the employees is also very important. This is mainly for the purpose of advising them on how to manage their compensation benefits and the importance of safe working environment. The final step is the documentation of the accident. This will be useful in determining whether the accident was genuine or not. The documentation should contain all the details of the accidents and will be useful to the insurance companies to process the compensation and also to determine whether it is genuine or not. Article 2 The article is a property of Mckinsey Quarterly written by Marion R Foote. Foote, M. (1978). Mckensley quarterly: Controlling cost of international compensation. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from Summary The article is about compensation for the workers in multinational companies. This includes the expatriates working for the companies. The article analyses the costs involved for the compensation of expatriates. The paper mainly focuses on the expatriate compensation policies in the United States. The costs, according to the article, are quite high considering the increments in the cost of living in some countries. One such multinational that is experiencing the problem is Multinational Chemicals limited. According to the article most of the expatriates do not know the cost implications they subject to their companies. With these view, the article tries to give solutions to the problem so as to reduce compensation cost. The article also discuses in details, the cost implications of the multinationals and how they affect the companies. Some of the solutions are practical while others may lead to more costs. The article also gives the reasons why most of the multinationals are reluctant to implement some of the policies. Critical Evaluation Most of the expatriates in multinationals earn a lot of money in terms of compensation. This is compared to the other employees serving in the same capacities in their countries. In one of the multinational in the paper, multinational chemicals limited, expatriates earn more than the other employees. The compensation amount is almost five percentages of the entire profits made by the multinationals. This figure is quite high considering that profits are the main source of sustaining businesses. The article however states that most of the expatriates do not know that they are costing the company a lot. Measures have been suggested but some of them have proved to be quite ineffective. An example is training the local people to take up these positions. Thos presents more problems to the multinationals since they will end up joining other companies with more attractive packages once they complete the training. This leaves no option to the companies other than employing the expatriates. On the other hand, cutting the cost may have negative implications o the expatriates as some will not agree with the policies. The article therefore suggests that it is necessary to maintain equity of al the employees regardless of the countries they operate in. The compensation package should be determined by their country of operation. Article 3 The article is from a survey conducted by ERC in the year 2009. ERC, (2009). Controlling compensation costs. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from Summary The article explains the findings about a survey that was conducted by the group called ERC. This group was investigating the employee relations in some companies regarding the cost of compensation. The survey was also for the purpose of establishing how the companies operate and the level of satisfaction of the employees regarding the policies of the organizations they work with. Some areas were surveyed by the group in order to understand how companies control their costs in terms of compensation. The areas that were surveyed include the base pay, the variable and incentive pay and the areas of the sales compensation. Other means of compensation were also surveyed by the organization. The final report was then compiled and conclusions made regarding the compensation of employer by the workers. The findings were concluded through compiling statistics from the survey and calculations were also done to get the appropriate information. Critical Evaluation According to the article, most of the organizations violates rules regarding to employee relations in terms of paying for their compensation as we as other benefits. Some of the employers were found to be freezing salaries and wages. This practice is quite demoralizing to the employees who feel betrayed. According to the article, the main reason for freezing the wages and salaries if for the purpose of controlling base compensations. However the article also notes that almost fifty percent of the employers do not control the base compensation. The executives in most of the companies are also the ones who bear the largest salary and wages decrease. This was established in the survey and it found the practice done in thirteen percent of the organizations that were surveyed. The survey also found that most of the employers were not ken in controlling the variable and incentive pay costs. According to the article, it was also established that most of the organizations were raising the sales costs. However, most of them were not controlling the sales compensation costs. The survey also established that some of the employees preferred reducing the sales weeks for the purpose of controlling compensation. This article also concludes that most of the organizations are controlling the base compensation while little emphasis is placed in the control of sales compensation and the inceptive pay costs. Article 4 The article is written by Ronald and it is about controlling workers compensation cost. Lott, R. (1998). Controlling workers compensation cost: A Risk management program. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from : Summary The article is mainly concerned with the welfare of the employees regarding the policies put in place by the employers to manage risks. The article considers risks as a human resource issue that should be dealt with. This is mainly for the purpose of reducing injuries to workers and also loss of money through compensation claims by the employees. The paper recognizes that most of the employees who are in danger of facing risks at the workplace are those below fifty years. The article therefore focuses more on the methods that can e used by the employers and the employees to reduce risks and create a safe working environment. The article discuses in details the secondary and the primary risks tat may occur during operations in an organization. However more emphasis is placed on the prevention of risks and therefore the paper has also discussed the methods that can be used to prevent the risks and reduce the compensation costs. Critical Evaluation According to the article, competition costs increases the cost of operations in most companies. This is mainly because the working environment ids not good enough and injuries end up occurring. The article emphasizes the need for proper risk management strategies so as to reduce the cost of compensation. The program should however, be supported by the senior managers for it to be successful. Without the support, then the risk management strategies will end up failing. To ensure efficiency, the process should not be done at once but it should be implemented in phases. This will ensure that any potential problem or challenge is solved before moving to the next step. The workers compensation resulting from risks can be categorized into several groups. Thos is mainly for the purpose of ensuring that it is easily managed and the management will know the steps to take incase the accident occurs. The primary risk prevention methods include identifying the risks using the data about the trends in the risks that the company has experienced. Secondary and tertiary methods of preventing risks on the other hand involve the strategies taken when the accident has already occurred. This may also be followed by huge compensation to the affected employees. The article also observes that there are a small percentage of workers who take very long to return to work after they are injured. This is mainly because of misunderstanding in terms of the amount they are to be paid in terms of compensation. However a good percentage always returns to work within one month after the injuries. This can be attributed to good employee relationship by the companies. Conclusion In conclusion employee relationship is a very important aspect of human resource management. This is mainly because it will make it easy for the organization and the employees to solve internal problems easily without much misunderstanding. The four articles also places more emphasis on safe working environment in order for the organizations to reduce the chances of employees getting injured. It is also evident that the compensation cost is quite an expensive affair for most companies. However compensation costs is not just about injuries as highlighted in one of the article. Compensations cost could also be as a result of payment made to the expatriates incase of multinationals. In terms of the injuries, the organizations have to follow some steps and procedures to minimize the chance of risks that may lead to compensations. Proper risk management will however require the full participation and support from the top management. On the other hand, the employees should also be made aware of the policies the companies has regarding compensations. This will ensure that the workers easily understand the process and will avoid return to work delays. It is therefore advisable for the organization to put in place policies that are fair to both the employees and the organization. References 1. Sramsick, T. (2007). Motor age: Controlling compensation costs. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from 2. Foote, M. (1978). Mckensley quarterly: Controlling cost of international compensation. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from 3. ERC, (2009). Controlling compensation costs. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from 4. Lott, R. (1998). Controlling workers compensation cost: A Risk management program. Retrieved on 26 March 2012 from Read More