Introduction
There is no doubt that one of the most vital challenges facing modern day human resource management relations emanates from the dynamic changes in the characteristics of workforces. This evidences the fact that there is therefore need to maintain good employee relationship.
Petersitzke defined the concept of employment relationship as “the employer’s expectation of contributions desired from the employee and inducements the employer actually offers” (93).
This report, keeping such theoretical frameworks in its mind, will pay special attention to a valuable feature of the white-collar employees, namely managing employee relations. In line with that, the paper examined the expectations and individual rights that these categories of employees have as concerns to employment relations.
To help the report achieve its aim, the author subdivided it into 3 parts referred to as activities A, B and C in that order.
Activity A – Employees’ individual rights
Employees’ individual rights refer to laws that protect the privacy of individuals (Van-Fleet & Ella 156). These rights are influenced by either external or internal factors which in turn impact on the employment relationship.
External factors that impact on the employment relationship consist of the legislation and trade unions. Legislation refers to national laws that restrict employers from engaging in acts that may be seen as affecting employee rights in the negative manners. For instance, statistics state that the anti-discrimination laws make it unlawful for employees to be discriminated on the grounds of race and sex (UK Government 36). Also, trade unions impact on the employment relationship by promoting the improvement of employee relations especially those in the industrial sectors. They achieve this by assisting employees to reach agreements with their employers in cases pertaining to unfair dismissals, poor working conditions amongst others.
On the other hand, internal factors that impact on the employee relationship consist of the employment contracts and the organizational policies. Contracts are the legal relationships that bind the employer and the employees. Once signed, contracts give employees individual since they can be used as grounds to make complaints of breaches of contract by any of the parties. They impact on the employee relationship when they when their terms and conditions are deemed to have been violated by either of the parties. Contracts capture most details of the working relationship namely the details of the salary, period of employment, incidences of termination, hours of operation, leave time, kinds of work assignments amongst others hence their increased impact.
Likewise, organizational policies can add up as internal factors. This is so because certain contents in the policies may appear as unsuitable to a large number of employees. For instance, the failure by the employer to match the disciplinary procedure with natural justice can lead to ex-employees constantly filing complaints against the particular employer with tribunals. In such incidences, they are likely to win on compensation as well (Gennard & Judge 58).
Tellingly, the author established that the there are 3 types of employment statuses upon which employees’ individual rights exist. These are a worker, an employee or self-employed. Firstly, a worker incorporates a person working under a variety of contracts. This entitles him/her to core employment rights. Secondly, the employee status applies to all individuals who are workers. In addition to being workers, they possess a wide range of employment responsibilities as well as the benefits-all documented as contracts. Firstly, self-employed statuses are persons who are, in effect, their own bosses.
Ideally, the author established that there are a number of important reasons associated with knowing one’s employment status. First, it is useful in the identification of one’s legal rights thus determining one’s rights at work. Second, it is useful in determining the National Insurance Contributions as well as the taxes to be paid. Third, health wise, doctors stress that it is important to understand your employment status since some changes may have impacts on your disability and health.
Activity B – The importance of work-life balance and employees’ legal support
Despite the increasing quest for work-life balance, few persons have found the acceptable definition of this important concept. However, in the process of compiling this report, the author was enticed into adopting Bird’s balanced definition on this important human resource concept. In the said definition, Bird went ahead to define this concept as: “the meaningful daily enjoyment and achievement in each of his 4 quadrants: work, friends, family and self. This definition can be expounded to be acting as a consistent influence or focus that is intended to create senses of well-being. The author established that the concept is unknowingly referred to by most employees in organizations when they assert that “easier said than done”.
Work-life balance is important since it can be used to increase the productivity of employees. For instance, early morning exercises can make employees to start their working sessions with fresh, clearer and more focused minds. It is also good to balance between work and vacations to maintain work balance and increase productivity.
Work-life balance can be influenced by legislation in several ways. For instance, in recent times, most countries have come up with legislations that are to be used as means of generalizing practices pertaining to work-life balance (Hein 39). This ensures that workers benefit fully from the provisions relating to work-life balance. The most recent tendency has seen legislation influence work-life balance by giving workers more flexibility and choice while at the same time increasing their collective bargaining. Furthering on this, the author b found out that 2 key areas of labour legislation have been used to reconcile family and work responsibilities. These are leave entitlements and provisions on working time. For instance, in the case of maternity leaves, some legislation have documented that at least 6 weeks must be given by employers after childbirth.
The following are the four main areas of legal support that may be given to the employee as a family member: To start with, the author concluded that that annual leaves give employees a considerable number of off-days which make them to relax and accomplish most of their home assignments. To add, time off for dependent care allows employees nursing relatives to take good care of them. Moreover, sick leave allowance can be taken by employees suffering from certain illnesses to enable them regain their normal better health standards. In the UK and UAE, such employees are entitled to their full pay. To end, off-days are advanced to employees who might have worked for overtime sessions to enable them have enough rest and regain their comforts.
Furthermore, two reasons that justify treating employees fairly in relation to pay are: first, reasonable pays act as motivating factors for the employees. As such, they are likely to work at their best (probably 100% rate) while achieving high productivity for the employer. Second, well paid employees are likely to love their specific job assignments and as such they are likely to resist overtures from other employers. They are likely to commit to their current job assignments for lengthy periods as long as other working conditions are maintained at comfortable levels. The employer will thus not waste resources on re-hiring and re-training new employees.
Importantly, the main points of at least four areas of discrimination legislation exist to enhance employee relationships by defining the way employers pay, hire, and manage their human resource management functions. To start with, in the first areas, the report established that legal issues that affect recruitment include sex discrimination. This legislation stresses on the importance of giving equal treatment to both men and women in issues relating to employment (for instance their right to access employment opportunities, work promotions amongst others).
In the second areas, it is noted that disability discrimination protects physically disabled or mentally handicapped individuals from being discriminated by their employers. In the third area, equal employment opportunity ensures that employers offer equal employment opportunities to both the youth and the older employee classes. In the fourth and the last area, the author notes that the emergence of Equality Bills in some countries such as the UK now forbids employers from discriminating against aspects such as race, religion, colour, national origin, disability as well as sex.
There are good practices that underpin organizational policies and at the same time contribute to the psychological contract. These good practices, if well maintained, can be of great assistance in improving the employee relationship as well by influencing the psychological contract in the positive ways. Such good practices include: the practices of upholding sense of trust and fairness in contracts, involvement of employee or trade union representatives when creating up the policies to help in incorporating as many of their needs as possible, and the establishment of a good information and communication channel within the policy to enhance free flow of information.
To add, the incorporation of reward schemes to improve on employee morale combined with the incorporation of compensation and insurance schemes in the organizational policies can be considered as good practices that contribute to the psychological contracts. This is so because they assist in motivating employee’s minds.
Activity C – dismissals, exit interviews and managing redundancies, 67
Dismissal refers to the process of the employer terminating the services of the employees as they were previously documented in the employment contract. There are two types of dismissals namely the fair and unfair dismissals.
The difference between fair and fair dismissal can be explained as follows: Fair dismissal occurs when the employer has valid reasons and acts ‘reasonably’ in effecting the dismissal process. In the UAE, employers are encouraged to follow the procedures of the Article 120 of the UAE Federal Laws to enhance fair dismissals. On the other hand, unfair dismissals occur when the employer terminates an employment contract contrary to the expected dismissal requirements (for instance as presented in the Article 120 of the UAE Federal Laws).
Exit interviews are important to the both the employer and the employee for several reasons. To begin with, such interviews assist employers to find out reasons behind employees wish to terminate their contracts. Have they been ‘pulled’ by enticing opportunities or have they been pushed to leave as a result of the poor working conditions? These are some of the inquisitive questions that such interviews can provide answers to. Likewise, exit interviews provide the leaving employees with opportunities to air their grievances or give acknowledgements in relation to their previous jobs. In a nutshell, such forums can provide forums for fostering future relations since both the employer and the employee will have opportunities to say ‘thank you’ to each other.
Redundancy or lay-off refers to a situation whereby employees are permanently terminated or suspended from their work contracts purposively on business reasons. The business reasons may include economic, technological, and organizational reasons just to name a few. Economic reasons can include unexpected business closures, business downturns and the reduced need for manpower across some departments. Technological reasons may arise as a result of the dynamic technology rendering some manual processes obsolete or redundant. Organizational reasons may arise when the business decides to restructure its processes. Shifts from one work environment to the other may also lead to organizational redundancies.
The key stages to be followed in managing redundancies are as outlined below:
The employer should initiate with identifying the number of posts or workers to be made redundant. This should be followed with a consultative forum where individual and collective employees will be consulted. The UK law requires that the department of Business Skills & Innovation should be notified in instances of large scale redundancies. The use of an objective criterion for selecting the employees to be made redundant is the next phase. The employer is then allowed to offer alternative work (if it exists within the organization). From here, the employer can either give opportunities to the affected employees to lodge their appeals or just go ahead and make statutory or redundant payments to the affected employees. Nonetheless, the employer can decide to invite selected employees to a consultative forum. The employer can then use the forum to invite willing employees to volunteer in the redundancy process.
To wind up, it is evident from the report that the process of managing employee relations is an involving task that calls upon the management to observe many aspects of good practice in many cross-sectional areas. This will assist in meeting the ever-changing employee expectations thus fostering good employee and employer relationships.
Works Cited
Bird, Jim. Work-Life Balance Defined-What it Really Means!. 2003. Web.
Gennard, John & Judge, Graham. Employee Relations People and Organizations. 4th edn. London: CIPD Publishing, 2005. Print
Hein, Catherine. Reconciling Work and Family Responsibilities: Practical Ideas from Global Experience. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2005. Print.
Petersitzke, Maida. Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management. 1st edn. Hamburg: Gabler, 2009. Print.
UK Government. Employees Individual Rights. n.d. Web.
Van-Fleet, David & Ella, Van-Fleet. The Violence Volcano Reducing the Threat of Workplace Violence. USA: IAP, 2009. Print.