Employees are crucial to the success of a business and effective management of employees can ensure the high quality of a businesses product or service and help the business get an edge over its competitors. Employee relations are about the management of people in the workplace and involve such matters as:
- Planning the human resource needs of the business.
- Acquiring people with the right skills.
- Developing and training employees to improve their skills.
- Performance management.
- Maintaining staff with different types of rewards.
Stakeholders in Employment Relations
Employment relations are concerned with how employers and employees behave and interact. This relationship is affected by a number of other stakeholder groups such as:
Employer:
- Exercises control over employees.
- Is responsible for pay.
- Has power to dismiss employees.
- Responsible for planning, leading, controlling, directing and motivating employees.
An employee is a worker under an employee's control. Control may include:
- The location of a work place.
- The way in which work may be performed.
- The degree of supervision involved.
Employee associations are organizations that represent and assist employer groups:
Their main role is to act on behalf of employees and to defend their members interests Eg. Appearing before industrial tribunals on behalf of their members or representing their members in negotiation with unions.
Trade Unions are orgs formed by employees in an industry to represent them in efforts to improve working conditions of their members.
Social Wage refers to improvements in social benefits such as better health care which acts like a wage increase.
Government Organizations are orgs that represent and assist employer groups.
Their Key Roles Are:
- Legislator: pass laws in parliament which provides the legal framework for industrial relations. Also develops commissions such as the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (an industrial tribunal) which resolves disputes.
- Employer: Federal and State level employ one third of Aus workforce.
- Responsible Economic manager.
- Representative of Australia in foreign affairs.
- Administrator of government policies on industrial relations.
Managing the Employment Relations Function
There are many aspects of employment relations:
- Employee selection.
- Employee recruitment.
- Occupational health and safety issues.
- Employee training and development.
- Handling grievances and disputes.
- Wage negotiations.
This means that employers need to plan, organize, lead, control and motivate their employees.
Line management and Specialist Management
ER is seen as an increasingly important aspect of a firm's overall human resource strategy. In large orgs, responsibility for managing ER is often the sole function of a specialist Human Resources or Employment Relations manager.
A line manager is responsible for the management of staff contributing to the prime function of the business, for example, a production manager, service manager or sales manager.
Specialist managers are responsible for:
- Recruitment and selection
- Induction
- Managing the implementation of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action legislation
Social Influences
Society is constantly undergoing changes which affect the quality and quantity of the pool of employees. Changes include:
- Increased immigration.
- Decreases in the natural rate of reproduction.
- Decreases in mortality rates.
- Increased school leaver retention rates.
- More people are acquiring post secondary education qualifications.
Changing Work Patterns
Traditional work patterns are rapidly changing. Many people today have periods as full time employees followed by periods of casual, part time or contract work, and sell their skills to different businesses. Some of the changes in work patterns are due to:
- Rapid growth of contracting out or outsourcing.
- Preference to a smaller permanent flexible workforce.
- Growth of Services - 78% of workforce is now engaged in the service sector.
- Reduction of workers in manufacturing sector.
Population Shifts
- Dramatic change in ethnic composition since 1950's.
- Increased importance of female employment.
- Training is needed to move younger staff into management positions - aging population.
Legal Influences:
The Employment Contract
- A legally binding agreement with associated rights and responsibilities of both parties.
- An employer has the responsibility to provide work, pay the relevant wage, and abide by employment relations legislation.
- The employee has the responsibility to obey all reasonable instructions, perform work without negligence and act in good faith to the business.
Types of Employment Contracts:
- Award - Legally binding contract setting out minimum pay and conditions for employment.
- Enterprise Agreement - Employers and employees collectively bargain over wage levels and working conditions.
- Workplace Agreement - Individual contracts with employees .
Major Employment Legislation
- Workplace Relations Act 1996.
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission Act 1986.
- Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
- Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission Act 1986.
- Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
The employment contract creates obligations for both employer and employee and all businesses operate within a legal framework of common law and statute law. Legislation covers:
- The nature of employment contracts and agreements.
- Dispute settling methods.
- Protection of human rights in employment and employer responsibilities.
Social justice in the workplace involves businesses being responsible or behaving in a fair and ethical manner towards their employees, customers and the broader community. A centralized system is a collectivist approach in which disputes are referred to industrial tribunals, such as the AIRC, for conciliation and arbitration. In a decentralized system, employers and employees negotiate wages and working conditions in the individual workplace through collective or individual bargaining without the involvement of tribunals.
