Employee Relations

Employee Relations

According to Armstrong (2017), employee relations is about approaches and methods adopted by employers to deal with employees. This can be either collectively or individually. However, this relationship structure is mainly based on the organization structure and the size of the organisation. For an example, company with mass production plants with thousands of employees cannot have an individual employee relationship compared to company which promotes agility with small sub groups with flat hierarchy. In this case, company with mass production plants has to manage their employee relations with trade unions and company which promotes agility can manage their employee relations with their line managers (individually)

However, whatever the method employer practices the ultimate goal has to be good employee relationship management to meet or discuss realisation employee’s expectations with the scope of employer. In this process, it has to consider both expectations of employee as well as the employer to have effective and long-term contract with both parties.

Perhaps some employers tend to have employee relationship management policy in the organisation because sometimes it is easy to have some scope and norms in the process. On the hand, some may encourage flexibility across the organisation any employee can reach any one with the organisational ladder with minimal boundaries. But employers have to keep in mind, whatever the method they approach, things can go wrong in the process. As a result, both parties will have to sometimes come into negotiations to resolve any miscommunication arises. Worst case parties may tend to take industrial actions or legal actions to redeem their demands.

Nevertheless, when it comes to practice with the modern employment relationship management and some approaches such as employee engagement, listening to employee’s voice and upward problem solving & communication techniques will always aid effective employee relationships in the organisations. For example, employer (Manager) taking one on one (face to face) sessions with employees to discuss the progress or the issues they are facing and taking effective actions if any gap arises will tend companies to retain good employees and get the maximum out of employees from creating an issue free environment.

Conclusion

A good relationship among employee and employer is beneficial for both parties. Creating a long-term bond among the parties. Employee voice set the path for the organization to create a good working environment to work. Success of the organization will reflect how strong the relationship is.

Best practise at MAS Linea Clothing

From the beginning of the TLGL concept (Team Leader / Group Leader) we were able to build a strong relationship among management and workers. Nowadays labour retention and absenteeism is very low when analysing. Group leader works as the first level of HR problem solver. APM engage if GL unable to solve the problem at their level. Building relationships among sewing team members and team leaders and the management is the key factor in the success of TLGL concept at Linea Clothing.

References

Ø  People and Organisations: Principles and practice in global contexts, Employee Relations.