People and Organisations : Principles and Practice in Global contexts - HMN 7181 Employee Relations Blog # 4

Employee Relationships

Managing the relationships between the employer and employee is an important step in Human Resource Management. It helps in retention of employees and building loyalty towards the company that you work for. Retention of highly skilled employees who are already familiar with the organizational expectations is an asset to a company. So in this blog post managing the employee relationships to maintain a productive work space will be explored further.

What are employee relationships?

 The definition of employee relationships has been subject to change over time to uphold different concepts. The modern definition of Employee relationships springs from its earlier predecessor Industrial Relationships. Dale Yoder in the 1970s defines Industrial relationships as a: “Relationship between management and employees or among employees and their organisations that characterize or grow out of employment” (Yoder, 1970).  Further he has also defined the term  as “the designation of a whole field of relationship that exist  because  of  the necessary  collaboration  of  men  and  women  in  the  employment  of  process  of industry”. This obviously indicates to the relationship that employers maintained with employee groups such as trade unions. This establishes a notion that the employee is not capable of communicating their concerns and needs directly to the employer and is in need of a collective voice to be heard by the employer. However, when we speak of employee relationships now, being organized into unions to achieve personal employee interests is no longer the outlook. In the 1970s there was an estimated 13 million trade union members in the United Kingdom and this figure has halved at the moment. During this time there was a corresponding rise of individualism where an individual’s interest is made to be aligned with that of a company through managing performance. The  employer communicates directly with the employee, to offer financial incentives based on levels of performance and regular training. (Bingham 2016). As discussed in the earlier blog this is the part where personalized targets are developed together and learning is enhanced individually so that the development of the individual is aligned with that of the company. This alignment of interest in other words encourages commitment to the organization and increases productivity and makes the “collective” system of having to deal with trade unions redundant (Bingham 2016). Therefore the modern definition of employee relationships is seen in terms of fulfilling the component of “labour” in a demand and supply chain. In the modern context it is defined as: “a part of managing people that enable competent managers to balance, within acceptable limits the interest of employers as buyers of labour services and those of employees as suppliers of labour services in the labour market and the workplace”. (Farnham, 2000)

How do we balance interest the buyers (employers) and suppliers (employees)?

It is ideally by managing both their interests so that everyone is happy at the end of the day. However, in reality managing these expectations can be in essence successful human resource management. Therefore written policy and guidelines is important for both parties to understand in black and white the expectations that they have of each other. These will include economic rights and obligations, procedural rules, company management rules etc. keep both parties aware of expectations and interest (Farnham 2000). Formal conflict resolution processes are another important factor here because there is a need for transparent and swift conflict resolution and airing of grievances. So having a good policy and regulations between an employee and employer is one way to balance their interests.

Is Employment Relations policy enough?

There are many other factors that have to be considered within each of the sections in policy. Bargaining power and negotiation is one thing to be considered in Employee Relations. It is also important to consider who is negotiating what for example, whether is a group of employees that are negotiating with the employer or individuals. To maintain employee relationships is to balance the negotiations between each party using different strategic approaches. The ultimate ‘win-win’ of a good negotiation is to ensure that both parties come to an agreement through mutual compromise. Some of the key stages in the negotiation process are:

·         Preparation and Analysis

·         Presentation

·         Searching for and identifying common ground

·         Concluding the agreement

·         Writing up the agreement (Gennard and Judge 2005)

Why is it important to maintain constant engagement in employee relations?

We are seeing a phenomenon currently in Sri Lanka where there is a lack of interest in formal employment because it is more worth their while to drive a three wheeler, or a Pick-Me. So as to drive a spoke in that labour demand and supply chain that was mentioned earlier which maintains the equilibrium between employer relations. There is a constant issue of turnover that effect productivity and the problem of an untapped market of labour. Therefore, employee relationships become very important in making people retain with the employer. To combat the trend in low retention of employees and not wanting to be formally employed would be to give them a reason to join the cause and carve out a reason for them to engage and stay (Maylett and Wride 2017). According Maylett, and Wride three most important steps to employee engagement is:

·         Alignment of expectations

·         Contracts

·         Trust

References 

    Dale Yoder, “Personnel Management and Industrial Relations”, Prentice Hall inc. USA, 1970

·         David Farnham, Employee Relations in Context, Institute of Personnel and Development, Charted Institute of Personnel and Development, London: 2000

·         Cecile Bingham Employment Relations: Fairness and Trust in the Workplace, SAGE London 2016

·         John Gennard and Graham Judge, Employee Relations, Charted Institute of Personnel and Development, London 2005

·         Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride, The Employee Experience: How to Attract Talent, Retain Top Performers, and Drive Results, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey 2017