Importance of Employee Relations
(Source:google)
The term employee relations refer to a certain type of concept where a company tries with their utmost effort to manage all kinds of relationships between the employers and the employees. It is a basic notion that an employee will be very much loyal to the company if and only if that individual is being treated with the right kind of services, fair as well as consistent treatment. This helps the individual to keep up their good work as well as their commitment towards the job profile. Employee relations also help in increasing the loyalty of the employee for the company.
To some extent after some of the massive development and change in the employee relations the older practices and definition has been replaced with the newer concepts. In today’s organisation, the employee relation is more about the collective and individual relationships in a workplace with an increase of representations as well as helping the line managers for the establishment of the trust based relationship. A creation of a positive climate can be much more effective to involve in the commitment or engagement for the improvement in the business sectors.
As the term denotes, employee relations is a term that is used to describe the relationship between the employees and the employers in an organisation. For any kind of small or large size of organisation it is important to ensure that the organisation is able to establish a relationship between the employee and the employer with proper transparency and relevant laws that might be helpful in avoiding harm to the employees. In recent times, employee’s attention has been gradually shifting from collective to individual relationships which have become a key part of the employee engagement. It is also important to remember that a positive employee in a proper workplace climate has the capabilities in contributing good potentiality which shall help bring success in business outcome and wellbeing to the employees.
One of the major key issues in a workplace is if the organisation has been able to equip their workforce with a proper skill set in order to manage all the relationships on a collective and individual basis. The line managers play a vital role in managing the same for the betterment of the outcome. They are bound to play important roles in mitigating and managing “organisational conflicts” and “organisational difficult conversation”. So it is up to the organisation to decide what kind of training and development process is needed for the line managers to perform the right kind of employee engagement for the establishment of employee relations.
The United Kingdom has a wide range of legal provisions which can be applied by the managers to maintain the employee relations. According to Brexit, the UK organisations have been able to make an impact in their laws and regulations.
Contract law and terms are the most important part of employee relations. The Organisations in the UK follow the process of providing handbooks and manuals which helps in governing various factors such as holidays, parental, employment rights, communications as well as equal opportunities. Some of the laws such as employment right act 1996 which basically talk about dealing with certain circumstances where the employee can be fairly dismissed from the organisation. The other employment law is about the Equality act 2010 which is about mitigation of discrimination and equal payroll systems.
Legal Provisions in the UK for Employee Relations
The dimension of collective relation includes all kinds of consultation, information or any kind of industrial actions in a collective way. For the collective relations in the employment of UK have some of the laws such as:
- Trade union and labour relations act (1992)where the main concern is about the bargaining as well as the unnecessary consultation in the workplaces.
- Trade union act (2016)comprises the functions of the certification of the officer who is responsible for the registration and recognition.
Apart from the benefits of positive outcomes from the employment laws in the firms, there are some other factors that help in the employee relations in the organisation for better productivity. An employer can only be successful in establishing a good relation with the employees for the fair treatment, the followings can be considered such as:
- Work environment: For an employee, the work environment matters a lot to keep their mental physical health that shall reflect in the productivity and performances as well. The workplace needs to have good practices of all kinds of laws and regulations, as well as structural conditions which can help an employee feel safe and secure for their job profile.
- Processes: This is considered as one of the most important parts of an organisation which affects a lot in a company’s productivity. Making proper implementation in the process can help individuals as well as the collective approaches. The good processes in an organisation help with establishing the right kind of workspace to perform the tasks. It is up to the HR to decide the process that shall help in bringing positivity in the employee relations.
- Goals: It is up to the employers to inform the employer about the goals and objectives of the organisation which can be helpful for boosting the productivity as well as the relation with the employees. Proper elaboration of goals and objectives always signifies the effective communication that is present in the organisation. This communication plays a good role in establishing effective communication across the organisation.
For the HR functions and their roles in the employment relations, there is a huge and significant role on UK employment laws and various functions that can be helpful in achieving the employee relations that shall prevent absenteeism or lack of motivation among the employees. The employment laws of UK also helps in mitigation the discrimination at the workplaces which bring benefits about establishing a goof work culture and attracts more talents along with taking care of the existing ones.
(Source:google)
In every organisation there are certain strategies, practices, and processes that help the line managers to achieve the success in mitigating all kinds of risk. With the help of these factors the line managers can also engage their workforce for proper contribution in the organisation performances. It is to be believed that employees are one of the most crucial resources for the organisation who helps in completion of tasks with positive motivation and a huge working spirit. This can only be obtained by the organisations if they are able to establish the work culture by the help of good laws and regulations to create a safe workplace for the employees or human resources. In the following, there is going to be presented the strategies, processes and the practices that can help the line managers to engage workforce for mitigation of risks and organisational performances.
An employee relation strategy can have a huge impact on the employee engagement for better organisational performances. The first and foremost strategy is about the workplace culture which can have a greater impact on the employees as the employees have the tendency to feel good where they are working in order to be positively motivated. The line managers decided the values that can be represented to the employees with transparency.
The second strategy is about involving all kinds of organisational activities by which they can feel important to the company. The collaborative approach for the operations can be helpful for the employees to increase their comfort level and also show proper effectiveness towards the work. Letting all employees work engages a lot of brainstorming and exchange of ideas which leads to effective outcome from the teamwork.
The third strategy can involve the communication process; it is to be believed that the communication is the bridge between the employers. The levels or the organisations and employees, Poor communication can lead to various kinds of confusion across the organisation’s levels and misunderstanding among the peers. It is important to ensure that the communication is relevant to the context and precise as well with better transparency. Thus it can help the employees work collaboratively.
Strategies for Line Managers to Mitigate Organizational Risks and Improve Performance
The process of providing the employees what they want through strategies that can have a greater impact on organisational performances. A good work culture or proper communication can always promote good collaborative approaches. With the help of this the organisation can gain huge success in the business outcome. On the other hand, it also helps in strengthening the employee relation in the workspaces.
There is always a huge need for the mitigation of risks in the organisation in order to promote healthy workplaces that motivates the employees in a positive manner. There are certain laws that can help the organisation in achieving safe and secure workplaces in order to promote the same. It is the duty of the HR personnel to inform all the employees about the safety policies present in the organisation. For example: The UK has certain laws for the employees who help in promoting a safe work environment. According to the workplace (health, safety and welfare) act (1992), every organisation needs to abide by the requirements to promote good and safe workplaces. As for dealing with the hazards in the organisation,. Each and every employee should be trained properly in order to be aware and also avoid the certain hazards from the organisation.
Employee relation helps in establishing a good relationship between employers and employees and it promotes the employee engagement to achieve success in business outcome. Now with the employee relation, if an employee is having a positive mindset, it can have a great effect on the organisations and its performances. In other words, it can be stated that if employees of any kind of small or large size organisation have a strong and healthy relationship with other employers it is to be believed that the entire organisation gains a lot of profit from the same. The line managers are always responsible for the selection of processes for the employees and organisation to have the right balance between the same. A healthy workforce with positive motivation can always lead to more productivity with more efficiency which in future helps with the increase in the entire production level of the organisation. It is important for the line managers to establish morale and work on the values that might attract the employees to work efficiently.
Every organisation must always put an emphasis to the importance of employee safety and employee relations. The priority of the line managers is to ensure that every single employee is having a positive mindset towards their work. However, this cannot be achieved overnight without any kind of effort from the organisation side. The organisations must need to involve themselves into various kinds of employee relations practices that shall help with the achievement of good organisational performances.
It is necessary for organisations as well as the employers to make the employees feel special. From gifts to wishing them on various kinds of festivals can make the employees feel special and appreciated as well. This can also be done to encourage them to keep up the hard work. In this process reward and resignation can also be included as it is also a huge part of the organisational laws. There are some of the mandatory benefits present in the UK organisation which are such as: pensions, maternity or paternity pays as well as leaves, life assurances and many more. The organisations also follow the workers’ compensation act (1923) to work for the injured workers and provide them benefits. With the help of these rewards or benefits, the company can be able to motivate their employees with positive work practices that shall bring a lot of success in achieving organisational performance and greater productivity. It is commonly believed that good practices and processes of the work cultures with the help of communication and employee relations can help the organisation to achieve the desired success and strengthen their foundation as well.
(Source:google)
There have been several new developments taking place in the industries and the organisations that have increased the need for the managers in order to maintain the relation between the organisation and the employees. This growing need has been helpful for the organisation in order to achieve all the success in the business outcome through the practices of human relations. There are three different kinds of theories that are underlying in the process of the employee relation and help the managers in avoiding certain practices that might create obstacles in the organisational performances.
Unitarist, Marxist and Pluralist, these are the three theories that are present in the employee relations theory. These three theories provide different point of views about the role of employees or workplace conflicts among the employees. In the following, the theories will be briefly discussed which give a clear viewpoint of the same in order to understand the effectiveness of it.
- Unitarist theory: Unitarist perspective is about an organisation being integrated and harmonious towards one loyalty culture. If an organisation starts having one single purpose, then it might ask for the Mutual Corporation from the employees. In this case the employees need to be loyal about the organisation’s purposes. In this kind of theory there is always a high need for loyalty from the employee base. The management and personnel play an outstanding role due the application of this theory. This is the reason why the theory has concluded that there is not always a necessity for the trade unions in the organisation in order to make a mutual loyalty between organisation and employees.
- Pluralist theory: On the other hand, pluralist perspectives state that the organisation is made up of different kinds of sectional groups. Each of the sectional groups has their own kind of loyalties, goals as well as leaders by maintaining all the legal aspects. Unlike the Unitarist perspective, the pluralist perspective has two sectional groups, the management and trade unions. The main job responsibility and the relation among the employees are not controlled but they are coordinated among the employees. In this very perspective the trade unions act lawfully for the delegation of the employees. The perspective believes that conflicts are inevitable and can only be solved by the help of bargaining, however it is to be believed that the conflicts can be managed through evolution across the organisation and by the help of the same, it can bring positive changes in the organisation as well.
- Marxist theory: Lastly the third employee relation theory, Marxist perspective, also known as radical perspective talks about revealing the nature of the capital society. It is to be believed that the workplace relations are against history. With the help of this particular theory, the inequality between the powers in an employee relationship can be recognised. This inequality can also be discovered in the wider society area as well. The conflicts between the employees and the employee relation are very much inevitable. A natural response against the exploitation of the workers due to the capitalist society is called the trade unions. However the position and function of the management improved by the organisations in order to process the challenges in capitalism.
All these three theories of the employee relations have their own kind of perspectives regarding the conflicts. After understanding all the three perspectives, it will be easier to understand and learn about the employee relations of the UK. All the three perspectives can be applied in the UK employee relation; however, the pluralist is the most appropriate one among all the employee relations theories. According to the collective bargaining, there are two parties present in the organisation, one party is the employer and the other collective party is the workers or the employee one. It is to be believed that collective bargaining of any organisation cannot be feasible without the presence of the union among the workers. From the very mediaeval England, the relationship between the employers and the employee were equal without any kind of class relation. The relationship was similar to the paternalistic approach where the employer and the employee did not feel the urge to involve the trade unions to mitigate the conflicts in the organisation which showed the Unitarist approach. However at the start of capitalism the exploitation of the employers to the employees started taking place which addressed the marxist perspectives. This is where the practice of worker union took place and negotiation started by the union in order to keep everything in proper balance. The organisations started finding out the disadvantages of the collective bargaining and took less part in the same. This is how the pluralist perspective was focused by the organisations and the employers for the proper employee relations approach. With the help of the pluralist perspective the employers or the organisation were able to find out the solution for the conflict and the accommodation for the power and government influence in the workplaces. Thus at the end of this it can be concluded that the pluralist perspective has gained a lot of influence in the UK and is still continuing its own development for the greater effect in the conflict resolution and making greater spaces for the employee relations among the employee and the employers.
After the entire discussion, it can be summed up that in each of the organisations, there are different people existing in every organisation layer with different kinds of mind. The Unitarist, pluralism and Marxist has already shown their way and the views about the conflicts about the employee relations. After enormous practice of all the employee relations and the theories, the organisation and the industries were able to adopt the pluralist approach which helped them in gaining the proper kind of employee relations by addressing all the conflicts and the other factors that can help in attracting the staff for the high quality performances. Lastly iot can be stated that the pluralist approach in the UK helped them to gain the employee loyalty, elevate all the organisation performances that kept the employees motivated all the employees for the works and their processes within the organisation.
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