Managing People in organisations

Lecture 11: Employee Relations

Employee Relations

• “Employee Relations involves the body of work concerned with maintaining employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale.

• What is Employee Relations ?.

Purpose of employee relations

• The purpose of employee relations is to provide for effective and consistent procedures for rule-making, consistently in dealing with employee relations issues, fairness, processes that can affect and improve employee behaviour or mechanisms to resolve differences/disputes.

Importance of Employee Relations• Because there are several issues on which an individual cannot take

decisions alone.• Work becomes easy if it is shared among all. • The organization becomes a happy place to work if the employees

work together as a family.• An individual feels motivated in the company of others whom he can

trust and fall back on whenever needed.• Healthy employee relations also discourage conflicts and fights among

individuals• A healthy employee relation reduces the problem of absenteeism at

the work place..• It is wise to share a warm relation with your fellow workers, because

you never know when you need them.

Elements of employee relations1. The formal and informal employment policies and practices of the organisation2. The development, negotiation and application of formal system, rules and

procedures for collective bargaining, handling disputes and regulating employment.

3. The bargaining structures, recognition and collective agreements and practices that have evolved to enable the formal system to operate.

4. Policies and practices for employee voice and communications.5. The informal as well as the formal processes that take place in the shape of

continuous interactions between managers and team leaders or supervisors on one hand and employee representatives and individuals on the other.

6. The philosophies and policies of the major players in the industrial relations scene: i.e the government of the day, management and the trade unions.

7. A number of parties, each with different roles.8. The legal framework

Employee relations act (Mauritius)

• Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms

• Circular Letter No. 27 of 2009• E/439/27/80/01

Employee relations policies

Approaches to employee relations:• Adversarial• Traditional• Partnership• Power sharing

Policy areas

Areas covered by employee relations policies• Trade union recognition .• Collective bargaining.• Employee relations procedures. • Participation and involvement.• Partnership.• Harmonization of terms and conditions of

employment of staff and manual workers.• Working arrangements.

Employee relations climate The climate can be good, bad or indifferent according to perceptions about

the extent to which:• Management and employees trust one another;• Management treats employees fairly and with consideration;• Management is open about its actions and intentions – employee relations

policies and procedures are transparent;• Harmonious relationships are generally maintained on a day-to-day basis,

which results in willing cooperation rather than grudging submission;• Conflict, when it does rise, is resolved without resort to industrial action and

resolution is achieved by integrative processes that result in a ‘win-win’ solution;

• Employees are generally committed to the interests of the organisation and, equally, management treats them as stakeholders whose interests should be protected as far as possible.

Collective bargaining

• Collective bargaining is the establishment by negotiation and discussion of agreement on matters of mutual concern to employers and unions covering the employment relationship and terms and conditions of employment.

Collective bargaining outcomes

• Substantive collective agreements• Procedural collective agreements• Single-union deals• New-style agreements• Partnership agreements• Employee relations procedures• Dispute resolution

HRM approach to employee relations

• A drive for commitment• An emphasis on mutuality• Organisation of complementary forms of communication such

as team briefings, alongside collective bargaining• A shift from collective bargaining to individual contracts• The use of employee involvement techniques such as

improvement groups• Continuous pressure on quality – total quality management• Increased flexibility in working environment• Emphasis on teamwork• Harmonisation of of terms and conditions for all employees

Summary