People and Organisations : Principles and Practice in Global Contexts (MN7181): Employee Relations (Blog 4)

Introduction to Employee Relations

Employee relations consist of human resource management that involve in relationships with employees directly and through collective agreements where trade unions are recognized. Employee relations are concerned with generally managing the employment relationship (Armstrong, 2006).

Another view suggested by Armstrong, (2006) is that the employee relations policy set out to the rights of employees to have their interests represented to management through trade unions, staff associations or some other form of representative system. It will also cover the basis upon which the organization works with trade unions. Defining the intentions of the organization about what needs to be done and what needs to be changed in the ways in which the organization manages its relationships with employees and their trade unions.

According to Gennard and Judge, (2002) Employee relations is a study of the rules, regulations and agreements by which employees are managed both as individuals and as a collective group, the priority given to the individual as opposed to the collective relationship varying from company to company depending upon the values of management. In discussing the psychological contract and employees’ and employers’ interests, suggest that, in addition to a reward package representing the monetary and extrinsic aspect of the relationship, employees may have expectations too.

(Video 1 : What is Employee Relations)

Employee Relations Strategies

Employee relations strategies set out how objectives in organisation to be achieved. Employee relations strategy may emphasize processes of involvement and participation, including the implementation of programmes for continuous improvement and total quality management (Armstrong, 2006).

According to Muller, (2014) Every organization is aware it needs a solid employee relations strategy. Building a strong employee relations strategy involves creating an environment that delivers what people want now. Employees want to feel good about who they are, what they do and where they work. And you want to feel good about productivity, overall performance and the emerging leaders in your organization.

(Figure 1: Good employee relations)

Muller (2014) states Key Performance Indicators for Employee Relations Strategy as,

Culture: Employees need to feel good about what they do and where they do it.
Communication: Employees need to know what’s going on. This also ties to how quickly and how often your employee relations team responds to both positive and negative employee situations.
Compensation: Employees need to feel valued for the job they are doing. People, who are paid at industry standard or slightly above, feel better about their jobs than those who receive less than market rate for the same work (obviously).
Complaints: Employees need to feel good about how they are treated. A strong employee relations strategy has little to do with managing complaints but more about everything you are doing to create a positive work environment.

References

Armstrong, M. (2006) ‘A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice’, 10th edn., London, Kogan Page, pp. 127-778.

Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2002) ‘Employee Relations’, London: CIPD.

Muller, D. (2014) HRAcuity. [Online] Available at: https://hracuity.com/blog/16-potential-kpis-to-include-in-your-employee-relations-strategy (Accessed on: 30 August 2018).

Figure 1: STUDYBLUE (2018) Good employee relations, [Online] Available at: https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/c11-managing-employee-relations/deck/14305899 (Accessed on: 30 August 2018).