Employee Relation

Chapter (14)
MBA 8th Batch, Group (8)
Learning Objectives

 Define employee relation

 Discuss at least four methods for managing employee relations
 Explain what is meant by ethical behavior
 Explain what is meant by fair disciplinary practices
 Answer the question, “How do companies become “best companies to
work for?”
Employee relation

The activity that involves establishing and

maintaining the positive employee-employer
relationships that contribute to satisfactory
productivity, motivation, morale, and discipline,
and to maintaining a positive, productive and
cohesive work environment
Managing employee relations

 Fair treatment
 Bullying and victimization
 Communication program
 Employee recognition/Relations programs
 Employee involvement programs
Enhancing Fair treatment

 Reduces morale, poisons trust and impact on employee performance

 More likely to quit, and to report lower job and life satisfaction and higher stress
 More pronounced when higher-ups support abusers
 Can triggered unethical behavior
 So need to treat with respect and fairly
 Things to do
 Hire competent and well-balanced staff
 Equitable pay
 Fair performance appraisal systems
 Policies for fair treatment
 Communication programs
 Disciplinary appeals programs
Bullying and victimization

 Serious problem of harassment and mistreatment

 Causes
 Imbalance of power
 Intent to cause harm
 Repetition
 Verbal
 Social
 Physical
 Cyberbullying
Bullying and victimization

 More likely victims

 Submissive (anxious, cautious, quite and sensitive)
 Provocative (aggressive behavior)
 Low in self-determination (leave it to others to make decision for them)

 High performers can suffer victimization

 Can do teambuilding training, social gathering and friendly inter-team

competition
Communication programs

 Open-door policy
 Employee handbook
 Website, email and hard copy memoranda
 ombudsman to focus group
 Suggestion boxes
 Hotlines
 Management by walking around
 Organization climate surveys
Employee Recognition/Relation
Programs
 Employee recognition
 Award program
 Require planning
 Require budgets
 selecting awards
 Procedure and process
 Assessing program success
Employee involvement programs

 Focus group to express their opinions and attitudes

 Suggestion teams
 Problem-solving teams (5-8 members)
 Quality circle (6-12 members)
 Self-Managing/Self-directed work team (8-10 members)
 Suggestion systems
Ethical Organization
Three factors for ethical behaviors

Bad Apples
Bad apples – people

Bad cases – Situations

Bad barrels - environments

Bad Cases Bad Barrels

Reasons for unethical behaviors
 Meeting schedule pressure
 Meeting overly aggressive financial or business objectives
 Helping the company survive

Misconduct

 Tell staffers to do whatever is necessary to achieve results

 Overload top performers to ensure that work gets done
 Look the other way when wrong doing occur
 Take credit for other’s work or shift the blame
When face ethical dilemmas

 Is the action legal?

 Is it right?
 Who will be affected?
 Does it fit organization’s value?
 How will it feel afterward?
 How will it look in the newspaper?
 Will it reflect poorly on the company?
Steps for HR

 Institute ethics policies and codes

 Enforce the rules
 Encourage whistleblowers
 Foster the right culture
 Hire right
 Use ethics training
 Use rewards and discipline
 Institute employee privacy polices
 Employee discipline

Rules and regulations Penalties Appeals process

How to discipline an employee

 Make sure evidence supports of employee wrong doing

 make sure to protect the employee’s due process rights
 Adequately warn the employee
 Reasonably related to efficiency and safe operation
 Objectively investigate
 Substantial evidence of misconduct
 Apply rules, orders or penalties without discrimination
 Maintain employee’s right to counsel
 Respect the dignity
 Listen to what person has to say
 A person is considered innocent until proven guilty
 Get the facts. Don’t base on hearsay evidence or general impression
 Don’t act while angry
 Adhere to company’s disciplinary appeal process
Discipline without punishment

 Issue oral reminder for a first infraction

 Should another incident arise within 6 weeks. issue formal written reminder
and place a copy in the employee’s personnel file
 Give a paid one-day “decision-making leave” if another incident occur in
next 6 weeks
 if no further incidents occur in the next year or so, purge 1 day paid
suspension from the person’s file. If the behavior is repeated, the next step is
dismissal.

 Criminal behavior or in-plant fighting  immediate dismissal, for instance

Best companies to work for

 Brand Employer
 Philosophy of Human resource management
 Can they be trusted?
 Do they dislike work?
 Why do they act as they do?
 How should they be treated?
Thanks a lot