Role of employee relations in HR management
Employee relations play an important part in the human resource management. It offers facilitation, consultation and resolution strategies for the purpose of resolving workplace issues. The communication between the supervisors and employees is facilitated with the help of employee relations. It also allows the managers to take corrective action and disciplinary actions on time. A very important role is performed by the manager in the maintenance of healthy employee relationship. The employees need to be assisted in searching for the work in which they are interested and in recognizing their capabilities (Wilkinson, Wood and Deeg, 2014).
Human resource management issues are required to be handled on timely basis as it results in reduced employee morale, decreased productivity and prevents the business from expanding its operations (Wilton, 2016). Such human resource management issues not only impacts the working life of the HR manager but also affects the manager of the organization.
This report is addressed to the newly recruited manager at the XYZ Bank, Australia, since there is a major transformation in place of working. It aims to provide a brief to the manager regarding the employment relations and human resource management issues which are expected to impact the working life of the manager in Australia.
The employment relationship can be defined as the legal link between the employees and the employers. This relationship exists when the work or services are performed by a person in return under the specified circumstances in return for remuneration. The workplace relation in Australia is different from that in the United Kingdom. The Australian national workplace relations system has been established which provides a safety net of minimum terms and conditions of employment. Furthermore, it also provides for a range of other rights and responsibilities at the workplace. The employment law of Australia is different which is required to be understood by the manager in order to bring an ease in the working life (McBride, Hebson and Holgate, 2015).
Employment relations acts as the main vehicle with the help of which the employees gain access to the benefits and rights linked with the employment in the areas of social security and labor law. The existence of this relationship is the condition that regulates the application of social security and labor law provisions addressed to the employees. In Australia, employment relationship is considered to be most important as a result of increasingly widespread phenomenon of reliant employees who does not get protection as a result of factors such as lack of enforcement or compliance, disguised employment relationship, narrow scope of law or its interpretation, poor formulation of law (Sargeant, 2016).
Impact of HR issues on working life of managers
Since the manager is now appointed in Australian bank, the legislations of Australia will apply in respect of the workplace relations issues. The Fair Work Act 2009 has established the national workplace relations system which also covers this private sector bank. The working life of the manager will be governed by the key elements of the workplace relations framework. It will ensure that there is a minimum safety net of minimum terms and conditions of employment. The framework will also ensure flexibility arrangements for every individual worker that will enable the employees to meet their genuine needs. In Australia, the manager is also protected against the unlawful and unfair termination of employment. Manager is also provided with the freedom to choose whether or not to be represented by a third party in the matters related to the workplace (Huang and Zhu, 2016).
Financial assistance is also provided by the Australian Government for the purpose of covering specific unpaid employment entitlements to the eligible employees who, as the result of bankruptcy or liquidation of the employer, lose their job. Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) is considered to be legislative safety net scheme which provides assistance as a last resort to the eligible employees (Townsend, Wilkinson and Burgess, 2014). However, for this purpose, the manager is required to lodge an effective claim within the period of 12 moths from the date of losing the job. Also, the manager is required to be the holder of special category visa or permanent visa through which allows such manager to work and stay in Australia at the time when the employment ended. These legislations will ensure the smooth working life of the manger in Australia. Also, as per the Fair Work Ombudsmen, the maximum weekly working hours for the employees in Australia is 38 hours. Overtime compensations are generally provided for the time worked outside of the working hours (Godard, 2014).
Royal Commission’s interference in the financial services has resulted in related evidence regarding the inappropriate practices by the large banks. The customers also suffer as a result of such practices. Therefore, the HR and the manager are required to learn some lessons from the conduct of banking industry in Australia. Manager is required to be transparent with regard to their relationship with the customers. It is also required to be ensured that the customers understand the future risks and assessments needed to be undertaken for mutual business relationship. Royal Commission has provided evidences that the rectification of errors should be done by the banks on prompt basis. Whenever any changes are to be made in the servicing arrangements, due care should be taken. The managers should also ensure the development and delivery of right culture with the stakeholders and customers. Also, Royal Commission emphasizes on both performance systems and remuneration. Incentive systems will perform the function of motivating the managers in the effective performance of their tasks (Wilson, 2018).
Working life of managers in Australia
UK is considered to be the financial hub of the world and therefore offers exciting and diverse jobs in its banking industry. Working in a bank in UK provides immense career opportunities to a person and allows growing in its field of operations. There are good salaries and great benefits in the banking industry.
Australia is a sophisticated economy which is also a fastest growing region in the world. Working in a banking and financial sector of Australia is fast- paced, exciting and come with a number of perquisites for the purpose of bearing the pressure related to decision making about money. The manager will needs to develop skills such as communication, analytical thinking and innovation in order to survive in the Australian bang industry for a longer period of time (Westcott and Vazquez Maggio, 2016).
All the tasks of the manager are dependent on the performance of the human resources. In order to get the tasks done, it is essential to handle the human resource management issues effectively. However, some human resource management issues exist on constant basis in the banking sector in Australia.
The banking sector employees have to fulfill immense responsibilities which are sometimes extremely difficult. Over a period of time, this has increased the employee turnover in the XYZ Bank. The bank is taking a number of steps in order to increase the retention of rates of employees but still it is a major issue in the organization. Employees are considered to be the lifeblood of the organization. Their skills and productivity acts as the basis of the success of an organization. However, employee retention is dependent on a number of factors such as remuneration, incentives and company culture. The increased employee turnover of the employees will have a significant impact on the working life of the manager in Australia. This is due to the fact that when the employees keep on changing, they are required to be trained which is a time consuming process (Brewster, Houldsworth, Sparrow and Vernon, 2016).
Since the retention issues are experienced by the organizations in Australia, it further leads towards productivity issues. The manager may have to face difficulties in respect of ensuring high productivity levels of the organization and efficiency of the banking operations. If the productivity will be low it will have an ultimate impact on the performance of the manager. Therefore, this major issue will impact the working life of the manager in Australia (Collings, Wood and Szamosi, 2018).
Employment relationship and workplace relations in Australia
Furthermore, Australia is a hub for a number of migrated people who are employed in the Australian workplaces. XYZ Bank also has a diverse workforce as a result of which it is capable of outperforming other banking companies in the industry (Davis, Frolova and Callahan, 2016). However, it is not easy to manage such diverse talents as diversification of workforce may lead to issues such as discrimination, harassment, bullying. The management of the diverse talent may prove to be difficult for the manager. The manager may require ensuring the implementation of strict rules and regulations for controlling such issues among the workforce (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Another human resource management issue which might affect the working life of the manager is the provision of training to the employees. High turnover of employees requires the recruitment of new employees. These employees are required to be given training in order to enhance their knowledge in respect of their duties and responsibilities. Training also helps the employees in performing their job requirements in the defined manner. However, the manager’s duty is to get the tasks completed on time. Till the time the employees are not properly trained, the work gets delayed or is completed in an inappropriate manner. Dealing with the new employees is also a complex task. This, in turn, is expected to affect the working life of the manager (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
Since the work of the banking sector is hectic and the employees are required to be attentive while performing the tasks. A small mistake on the part of employees can result in big blunders and can also cause inconvenience to the customers. Therefore, the manager will be required to assess the mistakes of human resources so that it does not result in big problems by the end of the month. The hectic nature of work may have an impact on the health of the employees. This should be taken into consideration by the manager on timely basis that the employees are not overburdened with the duties and responsibilities related to the job. Furthermore, the manager will need to be in compliance with the legal requirements of Australia. The cultural diversity will create various problematic situations for the manger which will require to be handled patiently (Bamber, Lansbury, Wailes and Wright, 2015).
Increased digitalization and the adoption of artificial intelligence for ensuring smoothness in the business operations may lead to a number of problems at the initial stages for both the employees and the manager. The banks are always required to be updates with latest systems which are fully secured. The manager will need to keep the knowledge updated with regard to such technologies in order to further assist the subordinates in the performance of their tasks. Moreover, the manager does not have the proper understanding of cultural nuances which may create a hurdle in respect of handling the employees.
National workplace relations system in Australia
Working in a banking industry in UK and Australia has a number of differences. The major difference is in the general working environment as there is a change in the social side of work. In Australia, there is a very open and direct way of conducting business which will provide efficient utilization of time to the British expatriate. People working in the banking industry in Australia are able to attain an effective work- life balance as compared to the people working in the banking industry in UK. This leads to both refreshment and motivation. In other words, the move from UK to Australia will be successful; however, initially the expatriate may face a number of problems due to change in social and work perspective (Seal and Penrith, 2008).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that employee relations play an important part in the human resource management. The employment relationship can be defined as the legal link between the employees and the employers. Since the manager is now appointed in Australian bank, the legislations of Australia will apply in respect of the workplace relations issues. As per the Fair Work Ombudsmen, the maximum weekly working hours for the employees in Australia is 38 hours.
All the tasks of the manager are dependent on the performance of the human resources. In order to get the tasks done, it is essential to handle the human resource management issues effectively. The human resource management issues which might impact the working life of the manager in Australia are low retention rates, productivity levels, diversity and discrimination, training and compliance, etc.
References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bamber, G.J., Lansbury, R.D., Wailes, N. and Wright, C.F., 2015. International and Comparative Employment Relations: Globalisation, Regulation and Change. London: Sage.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Davis, P.J., Frolova, Y. and Callahan, W., 2016. Workplace diversity management in Australia: what do managers think and what are organisations doing?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(2), pp.81-98.
Godard, J., 2014. The psychologisation of employment relations?. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(1), pp.1-18.
Huang, X. and Zhu, Y., 2016. Cross-Cultural Management and HRM. In Managing Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (pp. 122-139). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
McBride, A., Hebson, G. and Holgate, J., 2015. Intersectionality: are we taking enough notice in the field of work and employment relations?. Work, employment and society, 29(2), pp.331-341.
Sargeant, M., 2016. Age discrimination in employment. Routledge.
Seal, J. M. and Penrith, D. 2008. Live & Work in Australia. Crimson Publishing.
Townsend, K., Wilkinson, A. and Burgess, J., 2014. Routes to partial success: Collaborative employment relations and employee engagement. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(6), pp.915-930.
Westcott, H. and Vazquez Maggio, M.L., 2016. Friendship, humour and non-native language: Emotions and experiences of professional migrants to Australia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(3), pp.503-518.
Wilkinson, A., Wood, G. and Deeg, R. 2014. The Oxford handbook of employment relations: Comparative employment systems. Oxford University Press.
Wilson, P. 2018. Five lessons HR must take from the banking industry’s conduct, [Online]. Available at: https://www.hrmonline.com.au/section/featured/lessons-hr-banking-industrys-conduct/ [Accessed on: 11 September 2018].
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
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