Supporting Good Practice in Managing Employee Relations - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course Date Introduction (107 Words) Employee relations refer to practices and policies which are concerned with the regulation and management of employee-employer relations that lead to satisfactorily productivity, morale and motivation. Employee relations involve behaviour of two or more people, and the impacts of organization’s culture and rules, bureaucratic structures and external pressures and influences. Employee relations also encompass the overall approach of the organization to maintaining a productive, cohesive and positive work environment within the particular corporate culture and business model of the organization. Supporting and maintaining healthy employee relations within a firm is a prerequisite for the organizational success since strong employee relations contribute to employee satisfaction and high productivity. Activity A (558 Words) External factors that impact on the employment relations Trade unions and employee laws are major external factors influencing employment relationships. Employees who have joined trade unions are under protections from unfair dismissal from employers. This requires employers to be careful in the treatment of employers in terms working conditions in the organization and in the dismissal of employees. Before dismissal employees are required to give valid reasons for termination of work and also give a timely notice (Farnham, 310). Employee laws cover all obligations and rights in the employee relations. It involves legal issues such as discrimination, taxation and wages, workplace safety and wrongful termination. Employee laws gives employees their basic rights in the workplace entailing right to fair compensation, privacy and freedom from discrimination Internal factors that impact on the employment relationships Organizational culture and human resource practice are internal factors that influence employee relations. The senior management has the responsibility of providing policies, procedures and direction and to establish a positive corporate culture that reflects the efficiency, image, philosophy and profitability of the organization and this entails input from workers at every level of responsibility. Employee relations and performance is influenced by the organizational culture embraced by the employer. If employees agree with the organization’s preferred culture, they act accordingly. Nevertheless, if the organizational focus of the employer is opposed to the personality of employees or their professional goals, they might resist conforming to the particular culture as they perceive it. Human resource policies clearly communicate the employees and employers expectations and their compliance with applicable regulations and laws. Employee relations encompass operational processes which implement the employer’s policy or philosophical approach to employment. Rapid shifts in work place such as explosion of information technology, rising skills needs for low level jobs, reduced management layers and an increase in diverse labor pool has altered human resource policies and the subsequent anticipations of employees in regard to employee relations and employment policies (Palmer, 240). Types of employment status The three main types of employment status are worker, employee and self employed. Every employment status has diverse legal rights, and defines responsibilities and rights one have at work. Workers are defined more broadly than employees and are diverse from self employed. Status of workers entails persons working under a wide range of range of contracts. All employees are workers, but they have a wide range of employment responsibilities and rights than workers. Employees work under an employment contract which is usually a written contract, but could also be implied or spoken or a mix of these three. Self employed individuals are in the business for themselves and offer services to numerous clients. They are more independent than workers and have greater control over when and how to deliver services and who is responsible for delivery. Employment legislation doesn’t usually cover self employed individuals and they benefit from protection for their safety and health and at times, protection against discrimination. Three reasons for the importance of identifying an individual’s employment status The first reason to understanding the status of your employment is important because it is the initial step to help you find out what protection or rights the individual might have at work. The second reason to the importance of understanding your individual working status will enable you to know whether one is working in an employed contract or as an independent contractor. The third reason to the importance of understanding your individual’s employment contract is that it helps one to determine the tax charge on income from the particular self-employment or employment (Antell, 210). Activity B (977 Words) Importance of work-life balance Work life balance is about developing and maintaining a healthy and safe working environment, which will enable workers to have a balance between personal responsibilities and work and therefore strengthen employee productivity and loyalty. Long working hours and greatly stressful jobs hinders the ability of employees to harmonize family life and work and is also connected with healthy risks like increased alcohol consumption and smoking, depression and weight gain. Balance refers to an entire balanced lifestyle where work, exercise, diet, family recreation and interests and obligations that make people who they, honored and integrated. Employees in Schlumberger Limited are increasingly becoming aware of cost implications linked with overworked staff like productivity and operating costs, punctuality, absenteeism, performance and commitment and have established work life balance programs such as wellness programs, stress management programs and creation of flexible working hours. These programs enable employees to lead healthy lives, avoid absenteeism and be more flexible and productive in their jobs (Clutterbuck, 95). How work life balance can be influenced by legislation Work life balance can be made more achievable trough legislations which recognize that employees have other commitments outside work. For instance, the Work and Families Act 2006 requires employers to offer maternity and paternity leaves to their employees. The Act also extends the rights of employees to request flexible working in order to take care of their children who are under the age of six years. Work life balance is also influenced by family friendly policies such as parental leave that help parents to take time off from work to take care of their children Four areas of legal support that may be given to the employee as a family member a) An employee is entitled to Annual Leave as set by the working time regulations which establish the provisions of minimum thirty days paid leave yearly. These provisions are applicable to all workers who are either employed on part time or full time basis, permanent or temporary contract and to freelancers and agency workers. b) Employees may be given time to rest or go for holidays under the working time regulations 1998 which makes sure that workers are guaranteed not to work for too many hours or too much during the night and are also entitled to get some holidays and some rest. c) Employees are entitled to time off for dependants under the EC parental leave directive which contains right to time off from work to deal with family emergencies. The right offers that a worker is entitled to take a considerable off during the working hours so as to take actions to family matters such as taking care of an injured or ill dependant or as a result of demise of a dependant. d) Parental leave which is a worker benefit act offers unpaid or paid time off work to take care for a child or arrangements for the welfare of the child. Parental leave entails paternity, adoption and maternity leave and the minimum benefits are usually stipulated by the law. Two reasons why employees should be treated equally in relation to pay Employees should be treated fairly in relation to pay because when people are paid equally for the same job description or for the same amount of work done in spite of difference in age, race or gender. The fairness results to a variety of positive employee outcomes. Fair payment results to improved employee commitment, and improved satisfaction with citizenship behaviors of the organization which are the steps that workers take to support the interests of the employer (Gernard, 58). Employees should also be treated equally in regard to pay to ensure that a company operates within a consistent and fair reward policy to meet external factors such the Equal Pay Act 1970 legislation which requires that women and men to be paid the same salary or wages whey they do similar or broadly same work, when they do work that is of equal value, judges by factors like effort, decision, or skill or when they do work rate equivalent under the analytical work evaluation scheme. Four areas discrimination legislation a) The Race Relations Act 1976 prohibits direct or indirect discrimination of employees as a result of their race. b) The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 outlaws workplace discrimination on grounds of sex. It applies to all workplace discrimination, like selection for a job, promotion, training, dismissal, work practices or other disadvantages like sexual harassment. c) The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 outlaws indirect or direct discrimination in employment on grounds of age except if discrimination may be impartially justified of falls into one of exemptions offered for by the regulations. The d) The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 makes it illegal to discriminate disabled individuals in employment, entailing training, recruitment and other employment benefits. Good practices that underpin organizational policies and may contribute to the psychological contract Organizational culture and management policies are good practices that underpin organizational policies and results to generation of psychological contract. Organizational culture refers to the set of values, norms, and beliefs along with symbols such as dramatized personalities and events that illustrate the special character of the organization. An organization reinforces a culture that promotes conflict resolution and prevents people from playing politics in order to gain influence on others. Organizational culture determines the extent to which freedom and autonomy of employees is permitted in organizational decision making, resulting to development of new ideas and personal expression of employees. This makes employees to attain an attachment to the organization when they are involved in the process of decision making. Good management policies results to creation of a positive working environment, which in turns results of efficiency of employees. Through creating a harmonious working atmosphere employees are more probable to work well jointly resulting to psychological contract. When creating a positive working atmosphere, the movement focuses on attitudes that they display as well as attitude of employees. When managers and business owners possess a positive attitude, this attitude will reflect on the workers and when workers have a positive attitude, they get the required tasks done quickly so that they may work on additional tasks that must be done but aren’t needed for the functioning of the business (Marrrelli, 31). Activity C (575 Words). Differences between fair and unfair dismissals Dismissal might be fair when the employers has valid reasons for dismissal of the employee and reasonably acts in treating these reasons as sufficient reasons for dismissing the worker. The employer may claim that the employee is not capable of performing job properly or is unqualified to do the job as a result of lack of the required skills to execute the job or if there is a severe problem with conduct of the employee or if an employee makes redundant following appropriate redundancy procedures (Commerce Clearing House Editors, 130). Unfair dismissal is when the employer didn’t have a fair reason to dismiss the employee or when he possessed a fair reason tackled the matter in an unfair way. Common examples of unfair dismissal are dismissal relating to paternity or maternity leave, dismissal for requesting flexible conditions of working and dismissal for taking off from work for parental leave. Importance of exit interviews to both parties Exit interviews are conducted with departing workers before they leave. Exit interviews are important to employers because it enables them to learn reasons for the employee’s departure on basis that criticism is a useful driver for improvement of the organization. Exit interviews are important to employees are they are able to give reasons for their departure and transfer experience and knowledge to the organization. The interviews enable employers to gather useful information from the employee on the employer organization and to evaluate and improve every aspect of culture, working environment, systems and processes development and management. The organization uses the information and knowledge attained form the employee to improve its relationships with its customers, staff, suppliers, the general public and third parties. Exit interviews offer a unique opportunity for the organization to survey and analyse opinions of departing employees, who are usually forthcoming, objective and constructive than staff who are still in their jobs. In leaving a company, departing employees are liberated, and this offers a richer basis of objective response than employed workers do when reacting to usual attitude surveys. The key stages to be followed in managing redundancies Redundancies are forms of dismissals and therefore it is important to use the correct procedures in managing them to avoid exposure of the company to claims of unfair dismissals. The first stage of redundancies management involves revisiting change management strategies, carefully monitoring change trends, drawing new plans and of change management strategies involves informing the employees and consulting staff representatives within statutory time frame (Curtis, & Cooper, 29). Having created an outline plan in consultation with all pertinent operatives and manager, the next stage is to cautiously examine every avenue for reducing redundancies and damaging impacts of redundancies. Having established that numerous redundancies are unavoidable, the next step involves choosing the jobs to be cut and informing the individuals. The organization is required to check current legislation on the notification and consultation obligations. In spite of legal obligations, nevertheless, every position needs to be offered individual consideration. The fourth step involves managing the individuals out since redundancy is a stressful life experience. The affected people probably to be poorly equipped for positioning themselves in job market and thus the company should endeavor to offered assistance and support to cushion this blow and assist their individuals to make transition. The final stage of redundancy management is managing the people left in the organization by offering assistance and support to the indirectly affected individuals. Good communication is vital to explain why the staff cuts were performed and make them feel that the situation was fairly managed. Works Cited Curtis, Bev, & Cooper Maureen. Managing redundancies; Dealing with reduction and reorganization of staff. New York: Network Educational Press, 2001. Gernard, John. Employee Relations. England: CIPD Publishing, 2005. Farnham, David. Employee relations in context. Britain: Macmillan, 2000. Clutterbuck, David. Managing the Work-Life Balance. England: CIPD Publishing, 2003. Antell, John. Employment status: a guide to taxation and workers rights. Australia: Trolley, 2000. Commerce Clearing House Editors. Australia master workplace relations guide. Australia: CCH Australia Limited, 2009. Palmer, Gardner. Employment Relations. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Marrrelli, Anne. Managing for Engagement. Communication, Connection and Courage. New York: DIANE Publishing Company 2010. Read More