Understanding the View of Employment Relationship - Term Paper Example

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Title Date Executive summary Effective management of employment relationship is critical within the field of industrial relations. It does not only enhance effectual relations between the employer and the employees but it also enhances business success. As the human resource manager of the international airline firm, there is a prime need to understand the perceived health of the employment relationship in the organization and the internal and external factors influencing it. Equally, the employer should ensure its practice and policies promote a healthy psychological contract with the staff. However, the employer within this organization has embarked on measures that are influencing employees’ work-life balance, thus leading to an increase in employee turnover. Hence, there is need for the organization to consider effectual measures such as fair employee dismissal and individual and collective redundancy procedures. Introduction As organizations employ every effort to deal with the vibrant business milieu, effectual organization of human resources remains imperative to business success. Understanding the view of employment relationship is critical for businesses that endeavor at managing the relationships between the employers and workers. Employment relationship is an extensively applied concept within the globe. The notion implies to the affiliation existing between the employers and the workers who work for the employer to attain remuneration. Employee relationship is the basis upon which mutual rights and contracts between the employees and employers are established. This relationship is the principal medium via which employees attain access to the remunerations, privileges, and rights allied to employment within the sectors of social security as well as labor law. Nevertheless, the profound alterations persisting within the work sector and principally within the labor market have resulted in emergence and increase of novel forms of employment relationship that are not in alignment with the bounds of employment relationship. Accordingly, the labor market is experiencing an increase in flexibility as well as a rising proportion of employees whose standing is ambiguous and who are as a result outside the scale of protection usually linked to employment relationship. This entry endeavors at analyzing the case of an international airline firm that is facing significant challenges allied to employment relationship. The perceived health of the employment relationship in the organization and the internal and external factors that are currently impacting on it The perceived health of employment relationship is manifest when employees perceive what they owe their organization and what they perceive the organization owes them. Within the airline firm, there are numerous implications for the manner in which employee relationship is managed. Equally, the employees’ perception of the employment relationship within the company has resulted in significant reactions among the employees. Various internal and external factors seem to affect the health of the employment relationship in the international airline firm. To begin with, the persistent economic crises within the country have affected the employment relationship within the organization. As Tsui, Pearce, Porter and Tripoli contend, external factors such as depression are compelling organizations to modify their domestic administrative structures (1089). Accordingly, owing to a plunge in customer disposable income and a rise in oil prices and production costs, the organization has embarked on measures that affect its relationships with its employees. This is manifest where the airline has embarked on actions related to changes in the terms and conditions allied to employee pay, benefits, shift patterns, and absence scheme. The tarnished reputation of the airline industry has significantly affected the employment relationship within the organization. Owing to the tarnished reputation of the industry, customer travel has been disrupted, leading to a plunge in customer demand. Accordingly, the organization has altered the employment terms and conditions by using staff from different parts of the organization. Another factor influencing employment relationship is lack of employee intervention. The organization did not involve the employees prior to making decisions that challenge the employees’ employment terms and conditions. As the trade union officials assert, the arising disputes between the employers and employees would have been solved had the employer been more realistic and the Chief Executive more flexible and modest. Employee strikes have had significant impacts on employee relationship within the airline industry. The staff has strike during peak times, causing disruption of customer travel. Consequently, the organization has had to hire workers from different parts of the organization. Hence, employee strike is one of the principal factors that have led the organization to challenge the employment terms and conditions. Why is it important for an employer to ensure its’ practice and policies promote a healthy ‘psychological contract’ with the staff Every business’s ability to enhance its value centers on its employees, who are referred to as human capital. For an organization to emerge successful, it ought to derive a maximum from this resource. In this perspective, employers must comprehend with their employees’ expectations from their input within the organization. The psychological contract provides an outline for examining workers attitudes and main concerns on the aspects that affect their performance. Hence, an employer must ensure its practice and policies promote a healthy psychological contract with the staff to enhance the performance of the firm. Burke, Martin and Cooper establish that organizations load their policies and practices with psychological contracts to have the organization fulfill employee promises (142). By promoting a healthy psychological contract with the staff, the employer gets the employment relationship right, enhances the ability of the organization to manage change, boosts the sense of trust and justice, and increases loyalty and contentment. An example in the case study is when the employer breaches the psychological contract leading to strikes by the staff. As a result, the organization remained incompetent to manage change, employee commitment reduced, and organizational performance became poor. How the employment status of an individual can affect the employment relationship, and at least three reasons why one should subsequently identify an individual’s employment status According to law, there are three terms to describe the working populace. They include worker, independent contractor or self-employed, and employee. The law defines an employee as an individual who is contracted to work within a given organization. An independent contractor is an individual contracted for services. The hirer buys the rights to the finished good as opposed to the person’s services. A worker is an individual working under a given employment contract. It is considerably vital to understand the distinctions amid these groups, which is an important aspect in accessing legal rights as well as determining the agreements under which individual persons work. Employment status affects employment relationship by defining the employment terms and conditions, which encompass work description, workplace, working time, and entitlements for leave among others. The written info incorporates the working conditions and the collective agreements that govern employment relationship. The employment status of an individual elucidates the responsibilities of the employer toward the individual, thus making it easy to identify the employment relationship. One should identify an individual’s employment status to better understand the person’s legal rights. The employment status of an individual states their privileges and rights, thus elucidating the responsibilities of the employer toward these individuals. For instance, an employee has a right to benefits like pension and holiday pay, which do not apply to a self-employed individual. Besides, an understanding of an individual’s employment status equips the employer with better tactics to deal with existing and emerging problems, which may influence the termination of employment relationship. Moreover, it is vital to identify an individual’s employment status to determine the amount of command the employer has over the person. For instance, through identification of employment status, the employer will know whether to assign a particular job task to an individual on behalf of another person. Why work-life balance is important in today’s workplace and how it can be influenced by relevant legislation (such as working time, flexible working rights, etc). In doing so, you should also discuss how a threat to work-life balance and working hours could potentially increase claims in discrimination on the four grounds of sex, race, religion, and disability, as a minimum. You will need to explain the key points behind anti-discrimination legislation in these areas. Work-life balance is important in today’s workplace because it maintains a healthy and harmonious life. As Saraf establishes, spending too much of an individual’s time at work robs one of personal life such as health and family (320). This may be one of the reasons why employees in the airline firm are resigning as they feel the change in shift patterns will affect their work-life balance. Similarly, work-life balance proves essential in enabling people expand their horizons via novel discoveries and skills whose failure may result in dysfunctional existence. In addition, work-life balance is highly allied to excellent economic upshots, such as swift economic growth and high productivity (Romer 19). In this context, lack of work-life balance may lead to poor health, such as heart disease and hypertension, which in turn lead to poor productivity and eventually to sluggish economic growth. Work-life balance can be influenced by relevant legislation such as Working Time Regulations, Part-time Workers Regulations, and Employment Act. For example, the recent update of Employment Act has integrated increased benefits of paternity and maternity leave. Besides, threats to work-life balance increase claims in discrimination. An example is companies that are hesitant to hire women owing to potentialities of maternity leave. Accordingly, legislation that influences work-life balance takes account of Sex Discrimination Act that applies to individuals who are denied part-time work on return from maternity. Briefly discuss at least four areas of relevant law related to ‘family-friendly rights’ that the employer needs to ensure it continues to comply with (e.g. maternity, paternity, time off for dependents, etc) Family-friendly rights endeavor at ensuring that employees respond to the needs of their family members. The areas of family-related rights that the employer needs to comply with include paternity, maternity, flexible working, time off for dependents, and adoption leave. Maternity leave Women are given the right to maternity leave some weeks prior to childbirth and some weeks subsequent to childbirth. Maternity allowance is payable to women who take maternity leave. Adoption leave Subsequent to passing of the new-fangled law, adoptive parents embrace the right to adoptive leave. This leave is payable and adoptive parents have the privilege to return to their workplaces on expiry of the leave. Paternity leave Employee fathers are given the right to paternity leave. However, men are eligible to paternity leave on condition that they assume duty for rearing the born baby, they are the genetic father of the baby, or they are the husband to the child’s mother. The employer asks for certificate to confirm either allegation. Flexible working Flexible working applies to parents with children under the age of six or with disabled children aged eighteen years and below. To emerge eligible, parents ought to embrace responsibility for these children’s upbringing, must not be agency workers, or working under the militia. Discuss at least two reasons why the employer should be concerned with treating employees fairly in relation to pay. Every employer ought to treat the employees fairly in relation to pay. The Equal Pay Act accords equal pay to employees within equivalent establishment (Maatta 382), thus, unequal pay is a form of illegitimate discrimination. Equal pay makes employers perceive that the amount they get is equivalent to their input within the organization. People working within the same enterprise will feel the worth of their input if they receive equal pay. Accordingly, they will be motivated to augment their input, enhancing organizational productivity. Define fair and unfair dismissal, highlighting the key differences When an employer cannot demonstrate significant grounds for dismissal, the dismissal is deemed unfair. Unfair dismissal manifests when the employee is dismissed based on unmerited and irrational justification. Employers are said to employ unfair dismissal when they lack ample and satisfactory rationale behind the dismissal as well as when they fail to utilize apt procedures (Wheeler, Klaas, and Mahony 180). Unfair dismissal is not usually on valid redundancy. On the other hand, fair dismissal occurs when the employer justifies it on fair grounds as defined within the legislation. Fair dismissal bases on fair procedures and stipulates just actions from the employer. In this context, subsequent to the dismissal, the employer ought to be in a position to prove that they followed a rational and fair procedure. In most instances, the employer should have documentary proof of the dismissal allegation. Illustrate the key steps in fair individual and collective redundancy procedure The key steps in fair individual and collective redundancy procedure that the organization ought to follow include: i. Warning- The initial step incorporates posing a warning to the potentially involved employees, or the employee representatives. ii. Voluntary redundancy- The use of volunteers is essential in avoiding or reducing the requisite for obligatory redundancies. Equally, it is capable of eliminating selection-based issues. iii. Redundancy selection- Selection is critical whereby there is diminished requisite for employees to carry out a given task but there is still need for additional employees. Making the right people redundant on sustainable grounds is principal to avoiding unfair dismissal. iv. Individual consultation- This aims at enlightening the employees on the redundancy exercise, elucidating the compilation of redundancy pool, endowing the employing with a chance to query the selection, and offering details pertaining to redundancy terms. v. Alternative employment- This step is vital in enhancing fairness via search for alternative employment for employees who are at risk. vi. Dismissal- In case no redundancy alternatives are reached at subsequent to the consultation procedure, then the panel confirms redundancy selection and the employee receives termination notice. The organization experienced staff turnover (20%) even before the industrial action started and this has recently increased as a result of the unrest in the organization, although the highest turnover rates are amongst staff not involved in the strike action: Discuss why the organization should be using exit interviews to identify why employees are leaving, and what benefits both the employer and employee may get from the process Exit interviews refer to intentional conversations between organizational executives and employees who are departing the company (Plunkett, Attner, and Allen 349). In regard to the international airline organization, exit interviews are vital in finding out the factors that are causing employees to depart from the organization. Besides, they help establish whether the departures imply a problem within the employment relationship. Exit interviews deem important to the employer in providing info on the extent of employee engagement. Moreover, they enable the administrators to identify the problems within the organization and establish ways to fix them. Conclusion Employment relationship is central to every organization as it forms the bond between the employer and the employees. It is manifest when individuals within a given organization perform tasks to attain remuneration. Moreover, employment relationship forms the foundation on which employee rights are established. It is the prime medium via which employees enjoy their rights within the employment organization. However, a breach of employment relationship tends to harm employees’ rights. This is manifest in the international airline industry where the executive has breached employment relationship. As a result, the turnover rate of employees has increased immensely and organizational output has reduced significantly. Works Cited Burke, Ronald, Graeme Martin and Cary Cooper. Corporate Reputation: Managing Opportunities and Threats. Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Ltd, 2011. Print. Maatta, Paula. Equal Pay: Just a Principle of the ILO? Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2009. Print. Plunkett, Warren, Raymond Attner, and Gemmy Allen. Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2007. Print. Romer, Christina. Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility. New York: Diane Publishing, 2011. Print. Saraf, Dilip. Conquering Your Workplace: From Mailroom to Boardroom-A Sourcebook for Today’s Workforce. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2005. Print. Tsui, Anne, Jone Pearce, Lyman Porter and Angela Tripoli. “Alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship: does investment in employees pay off?” The Academy Of Management Journal 40.5 (1997): 1089-1121. Print. Wheeler, Hoyt, Brian Klaas, and Douglas Mahony. Workplace Justice without Unions. Michigan: W.E. Upjohn Institute. Print. Read More