Meaning, Importance and Value of Employee Relation

Meaning, Importance and Value of Employee Relations to the Organisation

Meaning of Employee Relations

The efforts of any organisation in creation and maintenance of positive relationship in any organisation of its employees with its employers can be referred to as Employee Relations. Such positive and constructive maintenance of the employee relations, the organisation will thus, be hoping to keep the loyalty of the employees up and keep them engaged effectively and efficiently in their respective work. Such employee relations are mainly managed and functioned by the department of human resources in any organisation (Chen and et.al., 2020). However, in certain organisations, there may be a wholly separated department and the respective role of manager for such maintenance of such employee relations. Such manager of the employee relations will thus, be responsible for acting as a intermedia, connection or liaison between the managers and the employees along with creation or advisory of various policies regarding various issues like fair compensation, proper & balanced work - life, useful benefits, reasonable and fair working hours and others. Get examples of assignment from assignment help to achieve a+ grade in your assignment.

Thus, in the case of Unilever, such task of employee relations will be including various substantial activities like leading of these employee relations including the activities of investigation, negotiations, disputes and management of the performance. Also, the managing of the process of medical accommodation in alignment with the laws formulated and implemented by the state and other relevant authorities. Facilitating the crucial process of on boarding of new hires for inclusion of aspects like safety, teams of operation, quality and WCM (Wang, Albert and Sun, 2020). Also, representing the organisation in negotiations of various contracts, meetings and in the negotiations having involvement of significant labour organisations along with collaborating with the legal counsel and the other related departments for preparing and participating in various negotiations with employees and other groups of labour. Lastly, seeking continuous improvements in the policies of HR and evaluating of the important processes for increasing the efficiency of such employee and labours.

Importance and Value of Employee Relations

It is important and essential for any organisation to maintain the employee relations and address the related issues if any because it will be helping the organisation in laying a foundation of trust and loyalty between the organisation and its employees. The reason for such statement is that, when the workers and employees feel respected and important by their superiors and employees for the contributions and work done by them for the success of the organisation, the workers and employees will be duly reciprocating this respect and loyalty with the hard work and dedication towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the company (Mahmood and et.al., 2019). Such cordial maintenance of the employee relations will help the companies like Unilever in maintaining of the positive image in the public and building of the confidence of the consumers. Also, it will help and assist in providing an effective training in developing of the leadership skills of the managers along with imparting of the much required experience to the managers to deal with the issues and conflicts of human resources like complaints regarding sexual harassment or even claims of wrongful termination. Lastly, voicing of the concerns of the workers become managed and effective thus avoiding the unproductive behaviour like vandalism or milking of the sick days.

On the other hand, moulding of the employee relations in the organisation in the negative way will make the employees unhappy and unsatisfied and thus, will result in increase in the rates of absenteeism and turnover of such employees. This negative employee relation will also be leading to increase in the rate of theft, violence and violations of the safety standards and protocols (Ahmad and et.al., 2020). This may also result into highlighting of the name of the organisations in the news media and social media which will drastically affect the image of the company and will also result in damaging of its reputation and goodwill in the market and industry. Are you looking for Finance assignment help from instant assignment help @51% off.

Key Legislations application to Employee Relations

Employee relations is not just a vague term which can be generally spoken of and complied with. There are various legislations and regulations which needs to be followed by the organisations like Unilever for effective implementations and supervision of employee relations in its operations and functioning (Men, O'Neil and Ewing, 2020). There is a wide range of legal and ethical provisions which shall be complied with in the UK for management of the employee relations and further dealing of any issues and problems which may arise. Thus, to get a broader understanding of these legislations, these can be segregated into two categories. One is concerned with the association between individual employees and the employers and other concerns the collective relationships in the organisation.

Regarding the relationship between the employers and the individual employees one of the most essential law is Contract Law and its provisions which influences the terms of contract of employment of the individuals. This is because the hiring of an individual requires signing of a contract which needs to be in compliance with the provisions of the Contract Law. And non - compliance of such provisions will lead to breach of contracts and such contracts becoming void resulting in the fines and penalties of the defaulting parties (Eliyana and Ma'arif, 2019). Another legislation related to such employee relations involves the Acas Code of Practice on the procedures relating to grievance and discipline. Such a code of practice is compulsorily required to be complied with in the case of handbooks of the employers and the staff manuals. Now, naturally, these handbooks and manuals will vary according to each organisation in which these are prepared and followed but will be strictly required to cover certain aspects relating to the employment like leaves of different kinds i.e., holiday, parental, sickness and others along with other aspects like equality in the opportunities being provided, whistleblowing and effective & efficient communications.

Also, there are certain additional serious issues and matters relating to the rights of employment in supplement to the law of contract. These issues and matters include dismissal, mediation, conciliation and other forms of handling discipline and dispute (Kwon and Kim, 2020). Some of the most prominent examples of legislations related to employment which affects the relations of employee are:

• The Employment Rights Act 1996- Such an act related to employee relations deals with the circumstances and situations in which an employee can be dismissed fairly and squarely.
• The Equality Act 2010- Such an act related to employee relations deals with the discrimination and the equal pay of such employees in the organisations.

Collective dimensions or collective relationships involves policies and attributes like collective bargaining, arbitration, information & consultation and industrial action. In such a setup, the employers tend to work in recognised unions for negotiation of appropriate working conditions and pay along with informing and consultation of the changes and modifications like redundancies or health & safety. Some of the examples of such legislations include:

• The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992- Such an act related to collective employee relations in the organisation concerns with the collective bargaining and consultation regarding consultation.
• The Trade Union Act 2016- Such an act related to collective employee relations in the organisation concerns with the provisions relating to the ballots, functions of the certification officer and the resultant industrial action which are duly responsible for the statutory matter in relation to the registration and recognition of the trade unions and other associations of the employers.

Thus, in the case of organisational setup of Unilever also, the above mentioned legislations like Contract Law, Employment Rights Act 1996, Equality Act 2010, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and Trade Union Act 2016 will be in force for effective and efficient supervision and monitoring of the employee relations in the organisational environment.

Rights and Duties of both the Employer and Employee

Employers and employees plays an essential role in the success of the organization. Therefore, it is important to make them feel valued and comfortable in the organization. It is important to provide certain rights and duties to employer and employees as it will lead to smooth flow of operations in the organization.

Employers are the senior authoritative members of the organization which have rights to implement or apply policies and procedures that may governed by the current legislative authority of the particular country. Employer have rights to hire new candidates and terminates existing candidates according to their skill and capabilities (Employee Relations/ HR Specialist, 2023). In order to terminate the employee, notice period must be given to them. For example, Unilever expand their business with earning incredible amount of profit margin by serving goods and services in an appropriate manner and that will be effectively done by obtaining potential candidates in the field of execution. In addition to this, they hire skilled candidates which do not require basic training and development programmes.

Employers have duties to create a safe and healthy environment for the employees and for any other visitors such as consumer, suppliers and other important persons. Employer must make proper rules and regulations which are needed to be followed by the employees and make sure that safe working environment has been created for the employees. In the field of business, employer have ability to keep everyone together for attaining common desired goals. In addition to this, they should also follow the duties regarding to the basic needs of employee as, employees are the main point of concern for growth and development of business.

Employees rights are consisted of all those privileges which are given to the employees in the organization. Employees must get a right to work only for fixed hours which ranges from 8 to 10 hours. So, if any employee is working more than the above mentioned hours then, it must be considered as extra hours and rewards must be paid for it. Paying rewards for working extra hours is considered as a right of the employee. Along with it, healthy and safe working environment must be provided to employees in order to make them feel valued in the working of the organization.  By taking example of Unilever, it can be identified that the company adhere to the preferences of employees in terms of giving fixed working hour for their execution of work. It is obvious that, Unilever have diversified its business so, these rights are the main point of concerned for employee retention.

Employees are considered as an asset of the company so, it's their responsibilities to follow all the duties of the organization and must create some value for the company. Employees should aim to first achieve companies common goal and must generate some new ideas which will help it in gaining higher success. Every organization aims to earn higher profitability and brand image in the market and if the employee is not able to contribute then there are chances that they might get fired. Employees must adhere to follow all company rules as they must keep all the resources of the companies safely. Organization provides various resources which are needed to be taken in care by the employees as, in case of any careless they are responsible for paying compensation for it.

Effective Employee Relations Strategies

Employee relation refers to the relationship between the employer and employee. The relationship between the employer and employee is influenced through various factors which leads to create a negative impact on the working of the organization. Therefore, it is important to build effective employee relation strategy in order to create environment that provides what employees want. There are certain strategies which is needed to be performed for effective employee relations such as:

Effective communication: Effective communication is an important strategy which is needed to be followed by the organization in order to provide clarity. Communication plays an essential role in order to retain the existing employee in the field of business. Indulging in transparent and open communication helps the employees in building good relations with the colleagues and makes them feel involved in the decisions making process. With the help of effective communication, employees are able to interact with others regarding their problem that leads to creates higher employee engagement. In addition to this, effective communication helps in implementing new tactics of doing work with efficiency that boost the overall production rate which result in building up of strong relation between the teams.

Involvement of team members: Employees must feel that they are important to the company. Employees must be encouraged to work with each other as it will lead to build good relationship among them. Organization must provide new and different opportunities to employees and must assure that thy enjoy what they do. It must engage its employees in its decision-making process as it will lead to increase trust among the employees, and they are tended to work for achieving organizational goals and objectives.

Events: Organization must focus on this strategy as it will lead to improve relation among the different departments. Workplace must engage in celebrating birthdays, holidays, festivals with employees as it is going to build good relationship among the employees of the organization. In every organization, employees come from different backgrounds and cultures and shares different values if, company celebrates the traditions which are followed by the employees then it will lead to helps them in sharing cultures and increases respect for each other.

Encourage employees to share work with each other: Organization must engage employees more to share their work with each other, talk about the problems which they are facing and must provide solutions as well. This will lead to increase communication among the employees, discuss things on their own and increase the level of comfort among them. Companies must create an environment where the team-mates solve problems on their own and the leader is only involved at the time of conflicts and other important cases.

Sharing of power: In every organization, power must be shared between different departments and individuals which results in creating less conflict among the organization. Employees must be indulged in the decision-making process of the company as it will increase their comfort level in the organization. Power must be shared in the organization according to the capabilities and abilities of the employees that will help it in accomplishing goals and objectives in the long run.

Effective and strong employee relations helps the organization in increasing its performance. Employees need a culture where they feel valued, feels comfortable with each other and works in coordination with the aim of achieving overall objective of the company. Good and healthy relation among the employees results in promoting positive environment at the workplace and also provides higher satisfaction among the employees (Valtere, 2020). Whereas, if there are more conflict are prevailing in the organization then it results in creating negative environment in the working of the organization. Thus, following the above mentioned strategies will result in contributing to the mission and vision of the company.

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying, assessing and determining all those people who will be affected by the working of the organization. Stakeholder analysis enables the organization to identify the stakeholders at all the levels as well as identify their needs and preferences. Every organization is consisted of two types of stakeholders such as internal stakeholder and external stakeholders and both of them plays an essential role in accomplishing organizational goals and objectives (Gorvie, 2019). By doing stakeholder analysis, organizations are able to identify the core needs of the important people and provides them solutions accordingly.  Unilever is the multinationals company which provides consumer goods and has various stakeholders that impact the strategies and operations of the company. The company is not able to accomplishing its business goals alone so, there is a necessity to interact and analyse the needs of the stakeholders.

Internal Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are consisted of all those peoples which are interested in the operation of the company and have direct relationship with it. This includes employees, owners, investors and many other important stakeholders. In Unilever, internal stakeholders are consisted of the leadership team, managers, shareholders and employees. In leadership team. There are certain powerful people such as Vice President, CEO and directors which are made to look around different activities. Shareholder is an important concern for the company as they provide money for operating business activities (Yadav and et.al., 2019). Along with it, employees of the organization play a key role in achieving higher success and is has around 1,50,000 employees globally. Engagement of all the internal stakeholders of the company leads to create less conflict in the organization as well as supports positive employment relationships in the organization.

External Stakeholders

The most significant external stakeholders of Unilever include the following:

• Governments
• Non - governmental organisations (NGOs)
• Suppliers
• Consumers
• Trade associations
• Customers
• Local communities.

Thus, it can be said that Unilever works in association with the government and other regulatory authorities for engagement in the discussions of the policies that will affect its functioning & operations and other addressing other substantial and serious global issues like climate changes.

Suppliers of one of the most significant external stakeholders of Unilever as without having access to regular and effective flow of material from the suppliers it will not be able to commit it to its commitments and promises (Stakeholders of Unilever (Stakeholder analysis of Unilever), 2025). It is currently working along with more than 60,000 suppliers and has pledged to make them pay their employees a living wage by the year 2030. Additionally, adequate financial support was provided by the company to its needy suppliers in the unfortunate times of lockdowns and is also involved in investing in a new Supplier Development Programme.

Consumers and customers are the most essential external stakeholders of the company. Every day, 2.5 billion consumers are engaged in utilizing and consuming its products (Nahar and Zayed, 2019). This includes functioning and operations of approximately 25 million retail outlets of different scales globally. But, it shall be noted that Unilever in its past year of operations had conflicts with organisations like Tesco Plc over the issue of pricing of its products and services.

Considering the NGOs being its external stakeholders, it is engaged in working and operations with many NGOs for discussing and thereby acting on social issues and problems (Chiedu, Choi and Ashar, 2022). It also includes contribution to the development and welfare of societies and local communities in it and around it both directly as well as indirectly. Finally, it is also engaged in working in collaboration with various trade associations globally.

Recommendation

Following recommendations can be made for improvement and enhancement of the efficiency of the strategies of employee relations:

Giving Constructive Feedback

Extending constructive feedback is very necessary for obtaining robust and efficient results for the organisation. And such giving of constructive feedback can be done by being precise and straightforward about the meaning and purpose of feedback. Also, having face - to - face discussions are more preferable along with talking in a sincere and candid manner (Ali, Mahmood and Mehreen, 2019). Having complete clarity of the situation before giving any feedback is also very important and then, giving an adequate chance for responding to such feedback.

Increasing Communications

Mere assignment of the tasks and getting updates from the employees is not at all a good strategy as the employees are the ones who will be making the company or breaking the company. Thus, enhancement of the communication with the employees through routine and regular checks will assist in knowing of any issues they might be facing at work or they want to discuss.

Providing Training and Opportunities

Providing adequate training and appropriate opportunities are very essential for imparting growth and development in the employees. This can be done by providing them with sufficient resources, courses, webinars, etc. so as to improve their efficiency and skills and thus, ultimately, helping them in getting better at their jobs and benefitting the company (Reb and et.al., 2019). This will assist in increasing the satisfaction among the employees, boosting their morale, enhancing their productivity and reducing the employee turnover.

Creation of Culture of Transparency

Nowadays, creation and maintenance of transparency in the organisational culture is very vital. This can be very effectively done by being loyal and open to the employees regarding the accomplishments and pitfalls of the company. Additionally, creation of the work environment in which they will be given adequate opportunities for voicing their concerns, sharing their struggles, etc.

Allowing Flexibility and Empowerment in Decision Making

Allowing sense of empowerment and flexibility in the decision making process will lead to enhancement in the confidence, development of the leadership skills and resultantly will lead towards exceptional outcomes and results (Su and Swanson, 2019). Thus, allowing the employees to be creative and doing things in a different way will result into outcomes which may turn out to be even more beneficial and productive.

Rewarding and Recognition

The objective of cordial employee relations can be maintained by rewarding the employees for their outstanding performances and recognizing their efforts. Thus, creation of environment and culture of collaboration rather than being competitive will be beneficial for employee as well as the employer. The very simple reason behind such philosophy is that each and every individual working in an organisation wants to be acknowledged and appreciated for their work.

Analysing Performance

Just promotion and empowerment of growth is not sufficient in improving the relationships of the employees. Analysis of the manner in how these methods are working out is also very crucial by making the required improvements in them wherever required (Kim and Baker, 2019). This will also assist in identifying the gaps in the strategies of the employment relations and engagement and affecting their improvement and enhancement.

CONCLUSION

Conclusively, it can be said that the major focus of the employee relations is on the creation and deliverance of the practices of the people which will thus be resulting in the development and maintenance of the relationships of the positive working environment in the organisation and also, among its people. Thus, it will also involve ensuring the fairness and transparency of the practices of the people which will be done by working in close contact and relation with the unions and the other representatives of the employees. Therefore, the above detailed and elongated report has thus, explained the meaning, importance and value of the employee relations in the business environment and setup of Unilever. Also, the significant legislations applicable to the employee relations which are compulsorily required to be complied with has been explained. Then, the rights, duties and obligations of the employer as well as employee has been investigated along with determination of the most adequate advices in relation to the particular examples. Thereafter, the various effective strategies related to employee relations has been evaluated along with the detailed and comprehensive analysis of the stakeholders of Unilever. Lastly, the most justifiable recommendations have been given for improving and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategies of employee relations. Get Best assignment help from Instant assignment help @51% off.

Read More - Individual personal reflection on employment

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Chen, T. and et.al., 2020. The impact of organizational support on employee performance. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
• Wang, W., Albert, L. and Sun, Q., 2020. Employee isolation and telecommuter organizational commitment. Employee Relations: The International Journal. 42(3). pp.609-625.
• Mahmood, A. and et.al., 2019. Specific HR practices and employee commitment: the mediating role of job satisfaction. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
• Ahmad, R. and et.al., 2020. The nexus of corporate social responsibility (CSR), affective commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour in academia: A model of trust. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
• Men, L. R., O'Neil, J. and Ewing, M., 2020. Examining the effects of internal social media usage on employee engagement. Public Relations Review. 46(2). p.101880.
• Eliyana, A. and Ma'arif, S., 2019. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment effect in the transformational leadership towards employee performance. European Research on Management and Business Economics. 25(3). pp.144-150.
• Kwon, K. and Kim, T., 2020. An integrative literature review of employee engagement and innovative behavior: Revisiting the JD-R model. Human Resource Management Review. 30(2). p.100704.
• Kim, K. and Baker, M. A., 2019. How the employee looks and looks at you: Building customer-employee rapport. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 43(1). pp.20-40.
• Su, L. and Swanson, S. R., 2019. Perceived corporate social responsibility's impact on the well-being and supportive green behaviors of hotel employees: The mediating role of the employee-corporate relationship. Tourism management. 72. pp.437-450.
• Reb, J. and et.al., 2019. Leader mindfulness and employee performance: A sequential mediation model of LMX quality, interpersonal justice, and employee stress. Journal of Business Ethics. 160(3). pp.745-763.
• Ali, Z., Mahmood, B. and Mehreen, A., 2019. Linking succession planning to employee performance: The mediating roles of career development and performance appraisal. Australian Journal of Career Development. 28(2). pp.112-121.
• Nahar, S. and Zayed, N. M., 2019. An Analysis of the Impact of Remuneration on Employee Motivation: A Case Study on Unilever, Bangladesh. International Journal of Family Business & Management. 3(2). pp.1-5.
• Chiedu, C.K., Choi, S. L. and Ashar, H. B., 2022. The relationship among job satisfaction, oreganizational commitment and employees' turnover at unilever corporation in Nigeria. European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. 7(1). pp.62-83.
• Yadav, S. and et.al., 2019. Relationship between economic value added and share prices of Hindustan Unilever Limited. In Communication and Computing Systems (pp. 239-245). CRC Press.
• Gorvie, F. Y., 2019. An analysis of the impact of cultural diversity on grievance handling: A case study of Unilever Nigeria (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).
• Valtere, L., 2020. Professor Shanks v Unilever: 13 years haul to awarded employee compensation in the UK. GRUR International. 69(7). pp.727-734.

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