The Importance of Employee Relations Essay

Introduction

Employee relations refer to an organization’s efforts to plan, create, and maintain positive relationships with its employees. Dessler (2017) notes that good employee relations are essential because a comfortable work environment and the absence of conflicts increase the efficiency of the production process in the company. Benevolent relationships between employees in an organization improve the team’s socio-psychological climate, contribute to the productivity of an individual employee, and increase the group’s efficiency. Therefore, since good employee relations increase the organization’s efficiency, planning, creating, and maintaining good employee relations is particularly important.

Discussion

Various factors affect the degree of favorable employee relations. Stewart and Brown (2019) highlight such aspects as people’s satisfaction with their activities, the psychological compatibility of people in a group, the nature of the interaction, and the specifics of the work. When a job is attractive to employees, it allows them to realize creative resources, regularly improve their knowledge, grow in positions, and receive a good income, which contributes to the formation of a harmonious psychological climate in the team. In turn, people with a similar personality type are easier to interact with. Moreover, it depends on the characteristics of communication, the reaction to the words and behavior of others, and whether conflicts and misunderstandings will arise in such a team. As for the specifics of the activity, monotonous actions, a high level of responsibility, and risk to life and health can adversely affect the social and psychological climate of the team. Thus, it is crucial to consider these factors when planning, creating, and maintaining positive relationships with employees.

Employee relationship planning is the process by which organizations assess the state of current relationships, anticipate future relationships, identify gaps, and develop a plan to fill them. Based on the above planning steps, different tools can be used. For example, a SWOT analysis can be used as a strategic tool to assess the current state of employee relationships. Moreover, according to Verhulst and DeCenzo (2021), scenario planning is an effective employee relationship planning tool. It allows for the identification of future scenarios, discussing how they will affect the organization, and taking preventive measures. Therefore, employee relationship planning is key to an employee relations strategy.

The manager is the key person in creating good relationships between employees. First, it is essential to create comfortable working conditions. Stewart and Brown (2019) affirm that it is easier to create a positive atmosphere when the place facilitates it. Pleasant colors in the office, comfortable desks, and a separate room where employees can sit together for breakfast or drink coffee and talk can help create a comfortable working environment. Secondly, the manager needs to approach the choice of employees reasonably. When managers participate in the recruitment process, they should consider whether a particular candidate will fit the team and the company’s corporate culture. Thirdly, it is necessary to treat employees equally. Dessler (2017) states that an equal attitude and respect for the manager have a significant impact on the well-being of employees since the feeling of injustice leads to conflicts. Thus, these recommendations will help create good relationships in the team.

Conclusion

Another important aspect is maintaining good relations with employees. It is essential to work on the emotional intelligence of employees. It requires courses and training, thanks to which they will gain more knowledge about their emotions, and learn how to manage them better, which will positively affect the atmosphere in the team. Furthermore, it is worth developing the skill of providing feedback among employees. According to Stewart and Brown (2019), extending this competency will help build more successful employee relationships and positively impact employee engagement. Moreover, conflict situations sometimes arise in every team. The resolution of conflicts is important because they can worsen the atmosphere. Thus, maintaining a good relationship with employees is also crucial.

References

Dessler, G. (2017). Human resource management (15^th ed.). Pearson.

Stewart, G. L. & Brown, K. G. (2019). Human resource management (4^th ed.). Wiley.

Verhulst, S. L. & DeCenzo, D. A. (2021). Fundamentals of human resource management (14^th ed.). Wiley.