Employee relations Essay

In any company there is a possibility of workplace issues between employees. Some of these issues can be handled collectively, but often a mediator specializing in conflict resolution is needed. The role of employee relations specialist is to resolve formal or informal conflict arising between the employees, or between the employer and staff. The scope of responsibilities of an employee relations professional includes investigation of complaints, analysis of the situation, determining ways of solving the conflicts and improving communication, knowledge and recognition practices within the organization (Farnham, 2000).
In addition to this, an employee relations specialist might have to improve workforce motivation, develop employee handbooks, create reward and incentive programs, analyze the way of reducing turnover and retaining important specialists, etc. In fact, all questions which are related to managing human resources, might be included into the responsibility of an employee relations professional. The purpose of this paper is to consider a workplace conflict,
1. Analysis of the situation
The project is delegated to a group of employees, each of them is assigned to do different tasks, and all the tasks should match one another, if they are completed in time. An informal conflict is taking place between Kelly and Donna: Kelly has to stay overtime to complete her part of the work, and this weekend she’ll also have to cover for Donna, since Donna will be off for vacation on the weekend. Donna is not likely to meet her personal deadlines, and Kelly does not appreciate her attitude for the project. As a result, Kelly is becoming quite frustrated, and there is a possibility that the performance of the whole group might suffer.
In case if no one of the employees involved in the conflict complains to the employee relations specialist, there is a number of issues related to this problem. First of all, the fact that the employees do not report this issue means that there is a lack of confidence in the company regarding employee relations, and there is no clear procedure of making a complaint if ambiguous issues arise. Thus, the first problem is rooted in the actions of the employee relations specialist and poor communications between employees and managers (supervisor, ER professional etc.). Secondly, if Donna’s performance is really going to affect the project, her attitude shows that she is not motivated enough, and the employers have to introduce a better motivation system. Finally, both employees lack conflict resolution skills and communication skills to a certain extent: in the case it wasn’t mentioned that Kelly spoke to Donna about the problem, and Donna did not react to Kelly’s frustration. This means that the whole climate at the collective should be improved, and employees have to be trained in the area of communication skills, identification and discussion of conflicts and balancing work among the team members.
2. Problem ownership
One of the greatest challenges for the human relations professionals regarding conflict resolution is the identification of problem ownership. Most often, people who have the greatest sense of responsibility or employees with the biggest complex of guilt decide that they are problem owners. However, it is very important to define correctly who owns the problem, since when the person who cannot actually resolve the issue is trying to do this, the situation tends to get only worse (Farnham, 2000). Moreover, future problems might also be assigned to the same person and tension in the collective might grow further. So, the responsibility of the employee relations specialist is to determine the cause and essence of the problem, to identify problem ownership correctly and to suggest strategies for addressing the issue (Gennard & Judge, 2005). Also, the employee relations specialist and the employees should have a clear understanding of the problem; often, what a lot of people consider to be a problem is the reflection of their attitude to the employee or the reflection of personal disadvantages, or simply the difference of characters and methods of doing work.
In this case, from a short-term point of view, employee relations specialist, supervisor and Donna own the problem. The problem of the ER specialist is in the fact that employees selected to hold back the situation. The problem of supervisor is that employees have different attitudes and are not working as a team, but rather behave on the basis of individual preferences. The problem of Donna is the lack of motivation and involvement, and perhaps lack of responsibility.
In any case, determining problem ownership and having enough power to delegate the solution of the problem to the right person will greatly contribute to solving the problem. From a long-term perspective problem ownership also extends to employer (top management), since it is clear that the performance of the employees is not directly related to the results of their work and is not effectively rewarded. Otherwise, Donna would be more devoted to the results of her work. Thus, to avoid repetition of this problem in future, it is necessary to change motivation system (Gennard & Judge, 2005), introduce performance-related incentives and rewards, and to develop methods of measuring motivation.
3. Recommendations for management
The process of conflict resolution might be divided into several steps (Masters & Albright, 2002):
Problem identification
Defining the problem
Checking the assumptions
Determining problem ownership
Generating solutions
Discussion of solutions
Selection of an appropriate solution
Planning and implementation
Evaluating the solution
In the considered case, the supposed problem has already been identified and defined. At the same time, Kelly did several assumptions which might increase the supposed severity of the problem. First of all, she suggested that Donna would not be able to complete her part of the project in time (which should be checked before escalating the problem to the community). Secondly, Kelly decided that she had to stay overtime in order to complete her part of the project; at the same time, she might ask someone for help, or address this issue by explaining her problems to the supervisor. Evidently, Kelly should improve her communication and team working skills, since she is very prone to struggle with problems herself and might get burned very quickly.
The issues of problem ownership were considered in the previous section. It is possible to suggest such strategies of addressing this issue:
a mechanism of problem reporting should be introduced (Masters & Albright, 2002); in the current case the trust to the managers and supervisors does not seem to be high, so it is best to organize a method of anonymous reporting;
employee relations professional should be empowered to perform the problem triage (Masters & Albright, 2002), and have enough power to investigate the question (e.g. access Donna’s work to evaluate her performance, check overall productivity of the team, etc.);
ownership of the problem and responsibility for solving it should be assigned in person (not to the whole team) by someone from the top management (or supervisor);
the team should have more group work, discuss parts of the project and merge them; currently the lack of communication might lead to project failure, since now the supervisor seems to rely on the plan only, instead of allowing the group to balance the tasks.
In order to diagnose conflicts before they become disruptive, it is also necessary to develop indicators showing that there are certain problems in employee relations (Gennard & Judge, 2005). Such indicators can be turnover rate, absenteeism rate, tardiness rate, overall performance, timely completion of projects, and the existence of innovation or creativity within the collective (Leat, 2007). All three dimensions assessed in this model (cognitive, emotional and behavioural) should be addressed to diagnose problems and to create new practices allowing to reduce the tensions between employees. From managerial point of view, in current situation communication and team working should be improved through motivating employees, trainings and rewards. Establishing the dependence of salary and success of the project might also encourage responsibility and devotion.
Conclusion
Organizational success is impossible without healthy employee relations. Employee relations professionals have to manage conflicts, devise methods of their resolution, balance between employer and employee interests, and take part in strategic decisions related to measuring performance, motivating and retaining employees. In the considered case the employee relations specialist should establish clear procedures of reporting and develop better relations with the collective. In addition to this, a number of managerial actions regarding the conflict have to take place, such as introducing new rewards, incentives or performance-based salary (Leat, 2007), improving the communications within the team and training employees to resolve their problems through personal consensus.