Victoria Doyle Negotiations and Labor Relations February 11, 2018 Management Rep Interview | chose to interview my coworker Michael because of his position in labor and employee relations. Knowing that | may someday be in a similar position as him or even working with him, | wanted to take the time to learn what union negotiations look like from his perspective. Since starting at this job as a Human Resources Assistant, | have frequently gone to him for advice, at which times he has also told me some really fascinating stories from his career. | got the impression that | could leam pertinent information from him. | conducted this interview in a question-based format in an attempt to learn as much as possible about what he does and what negotiating looks like from the management rep point of view. 1. What is your position as it relates to the union? a. Works as a Labor and Employee Relations Human Resources Specialist and has the responsibility to protect and preserve on behalf of management. 2. How did you become involved with management? a. Michael has an MBA and took similar classes to the negotiations and labor relations class that I'm currently in where he also partook in mock negotiations. b. He started out with doing an internship with a local government organization also similar ta what I'm doing He would send Official Notifications to the union but was not in a negotiation position. ¢. After this internship he worked as a Human Resources Generalist for seven years.His negotiation experience with that organization was different than where he is at now in the sense that the relationship with the union was better, and negotiations were often informal, in a coffee shop, and completed in a short amount of time. d. He has been with NAVFAC NW fora year and a half. At NAVFAG, there are different types of employees (mostly blue collar) and there is about four times as many employees than his previous organization Negotiations are much more formal here. 3. What was your initial opinion of unions? a. Michael grew up in a union family where his mother was a union steward and his father was a union employee for a long time, so his opinion of unions initially was positive. b. When you go through a business program and are in HR classes, and in your first couple of years working in management, you walk away with a bias against unions that can change over time. For Michael this is true. i. It's difficult for HR specialists to have authority taken away from you when you do have a union. It's a paradigm shift in thinking when you work for am HR office that you're responsible for managing people and making policy decisions. Authority is shared. 4, What types of things do you negotiate over? a. Performance appraisal systems. b. They have to notify the union at any given change. ¢. Union is in a position to submit negotiation proposals. d. Single parking spot (union withdrew request). e. Office space configurations. f. Furloughs. g. Changed preemployment physical requirement has been removed which changed the hiring process.5. How do you prepare for negotiations? a. RESEARCH. Several weeks’ worth b. Reviewing all of the grievances that the organization has had and what type of complaints have come through. ¢. Canvasing your team/management (What works for you in this contract, what doesn't work? What should we additakeaway?) d. Reviews as many new collective bargaining units that have been negotiated. e. Have to understand the issue fully that you're trying to resalve 6. What do you enjoy most about negotiating? a. The research is the most enjoyable. This gives him a good idea of what the process should look like. b. Opportunity he has to meet people that he wouldn't otherwise meet ¢. His ability to continue building and sustaining bonds between management and their employees. i. The relationship that employees have with their first level supervisor. 7. What do you enjoy least about negotiating? a. There is still a lot at stake. Knowing that there's a huge responsibility associated with that. He wants to make sure that he does a good job, but recognizes that they still have to make business decisions that directly affect people's lives 8 What makes a good negotiator? a. The ability to do research. You really have to have a solid understanding of how the organization works. You can't just consider one aspect. You have to have a wholistic understanding. Good corporate knowledge. b. You need to have respect for the other party. It's a working relationship. It will show if you don't have respectc. What are we really here for? We are here for the bigger picture. Our organization does good stuf for the world. He feels a sense of responsibility to the employees as well. d. You also have to understand the difficulty involved. 9. What makes a bad negotiator? a. Someone who doesn't respect both parties ar the position that they're in b. Important to have good “bedside manner c. Lack of transparency. i. Educate the other party of what you're trying to negotiate on so that they can understand. Justify why you are wanting to go down this path and don't assume that they know what you're talking about Educate on business, priorities, direction you're wanting to go and then give your proposals. 10.How do you manage your negotiating team? a. In his personal experience, the hardest part of negotiation is managing his own negotiating team because it's hard to get them all on the same page since they are typically all from different backgrounds familiarities. b. Typical include 4 or 5 people: HR and other management officials ¢. Getting your own team to agree on a single proposal is the challenge. 11.What would you say is your most significant accomplishment? a. Negotiating DPMAP (New performance appraisal plans) He came into this negotiation halfway though and the relations that he had with the other parties was not great. It took several months to get though that, and they eventually came to an agreement. 40 hours of table negotiations and 200 hours of research. He met with each individual negotiator. iv. Ensuring that the agreement was fair while still preserving management rights.v. Union had identified a lot of issues that management hadn't recognized before, but almost all of them were addressed. 12.What advice would you give someone new to negotiating? a. Observe as many negotiating sessions as you can. b. Spend an equal amount of time getting to know the other side on a personal level and understand what their background is, what their interests are. You'll know that they're not trying to pull ane aver on you and vice versa ¢. Research as much as you can on the negotiating process, and the organization for the most important things that are on the radar. d. Practice negotiations. When are you trying to persuade someone? Once you know the other party, you will quickly learn how they like to receive information, what type of information they like, and what really motivates them. | was actually blown away at how thoughtful and informative Michael's responses were. | felt like much of what he said was helpful and in line with how | would view negotiations and the negotiations process as a whole. He was much more formal in the interview process than Steven was, but I'm not really surprised by that since he always has to be “HR appropriate”, still notable nonetheless. Both parties emphasized the need todo research first and foremost. | think what was most beneficial for me when conducting these interviews was the realization that generally, both parties have the same goal with negotiations, at least they should. While it's true that either side has their own rules, interests, and people to protect, the main goal is to agree in a way that benefits both parties. | think this is typically much easier said than done which is unfortunate. You can't always count on the opposite side of the table to view the situation in the same way that you do or have the same amount of respect for you. Negotiations don't have to be asdifficult as people make them if everyone checks their emotions and negative feelings at the door to focus on the real issue at hand.