Employee Relations
Definitions for Employee Relations
“ Concerned with the interaction between primary parties who pay for work and those who provide it in the labour market ( employers and employees), those acting as secondary parties on their behalf (management or management organization and trade unions) and those providing a third party role on employment matters (state agencies and EU institutions)”
Theoretical Approaches to employee relations
The unitary
The unitary perspective is based upon the assumption that the organisation should have an integrated group of people, a loyalty structure and a common goal.
According to the unitary theory, the employment relationship should be harmonious. That is the employer and employees should work together to achieve the success and where there is no conflict.
“The organisation exists in perfect harmony and all conflict, not only industrial relation conflict is both unnecessary and exceptional.” (Salamon 1992)
Unitarism is principally a management ideology since it supports management’s interests. Often this perspective has been characterized as the ‘team’ or ‘one big happy family’ approach.
Pluralist Theory
This perspective assumes that employing organization are made up of individuals and groups with different interest, values and objectives; thus various interest and objective of one group are likely to conflict with those of others (Leat 2001). The pluralist accepts conflict in groups or organisations. The society is made up of a range of groups with their own beliefs, values and interest. To be able to compromise these disparate groups, it is important to come up with negotiations and concessions.
One of the processes by which these conflicts can be solved is by collective bargaining which is one of the functions of the trade unions.
Marxist Theory
According to karl Marx, the society is made up of two conflicting classes: the first class is the capitalists which is referred to the employer and the second class is the employees who sell their labour to the capitalists. This situation is also known as ‘dialectic materialism’. In simpler term the employers are powerful (bourgeoisie) and the employees are weak (proletariat).
Shift from Industrial Relations to Employees Relations
According to Blyton and Turnbull (2004)- industrial relations: “has acquired a deserved reputation for being dull and because it has too often failed to relate in any meaningful way to the reality of people’s working lives, how these were formed, how they are constrained and how they might be changed.” .
Employee relation is a wider subject than ‘industrial relation’. Nowadays, managements have a preference for the term ’employee relation’ than ‘industrial relation’ as the latter often invokes conflict, strikes, social disharmony and disagreement. Employee relation is also better understood by the new evolution of todays life like computerisation, the greater used of robotic, the information technologies and advance manufacturing methods.
Trade unions
“A continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving their working lives’
Another definition of trade unions is given in the Trade Union and Labour Relation (consolidation) Act 1992 which states that a trade union is “ an organisation (whether permanent or temporally) consisting wholly or mainly of workers whose principal purpose includes the regulation of relations between workers and employers’
Management
Management is a group of people who come together to make decision about how to run a business.
An employer is define as ‘someone who employs for wages, user’ while mamnagers is ‘one who controls or directs’. The management process is describe in terms of planning, organising, staffing, dircting and controlling the activities of an organisation in order to achieve the organisational goals.
The main objective in Employment relation is to ensure the most efficient and effective functioning of the organisation.
Strategies Building Employee Relations
- Encourage Cross -Team Collaboration: When the company is developing special projects, build teams that include a mixture of employees from several departments in order to foster collaboration and a sense of shared purpose across the organization.
- Offer Mentorship Opportunities: Mentoring promotes leadership development and a culture of learning within an organization, and may even help with retention. In a recent survey of millennials by Deloitte, employees who said they plan to stay with their employer for more than five years were twice as likely to have a mentor.
- Celebrate Birthdays and Work Anniversaries: Recognizing employee birthdays and workplace anniversaries makes employees feel valued, which strengthens their connection and commitment to their employer.
- Advocate a Healthy Work-Life Balance: Erratic hours and workloads will lead to employee dissatisfaction and feeling undervalued by their employer.
- Communicate: Create organizational goals and regularly communicate any updates. Employees need to understand what they’re working toward and how it aligns with the company’s broader mission in order to feel fully engaged.
Valuable topic. Employee relations are essential for creating a positive workplace culture, managing conflict, building a strong reputation and brand image, and improving the organization's bottom line. They can foster a sense of teamwork, collaboration, and mutual respect, which can lead to increased productivity and better business outcomes. Additionally, they can help to identify and address potential sources of conflict, promote open communication and transparency, and create a culture of trust and respect. Organizations that invest in employee relations and prioritize the well-being and satisfaction of their employees are more likely to be successful in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this informative article on employee relations. The definitions provided by Armstrong and Farnham give a clear understanding of what employee relations entails. It is also interesting to see the three theoretical approaches of employee relations, the unitary, pluralist, and Marxist perspectives. It is evident that the unitary perspective is more aligned with management interests while the pluralist and Marxist perspectives acknowledge the existence of conflict between employers and employees.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the strategies you have suggested for building employee relations, especially encouraging cross-team collaboration and advocating for a healthy work-life balance. Celebrating employee birthdays and work anniversaries also shows employees that they are valued by their employers. Effective communication is also essential in creating a sense of engagement and ensuring that employees understand the organization's goals.
Overall, this article provides an excellent overview of employee relations, its various perspectives, and strategies for building positive relations between employers and employees.
Well written article Thamasha! This article emphasis how important employee relation is. A positive relationship between employers and employees leads to higher motivation and employee engagement. When employees are happy, they are more productive. They will put more effort into their work, and this translates into satisfied customers and more revenue. While developing and maintaining good employee relations can be challenging in most workplaces, healthy relationships among workers are beneficial not only to the individuals but to the entire organization. Managers should set a good example when it comes to employee relations. Managers who have a good working relationship with their employees help establish a culture that encourages great employee relations.
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