Whether you’re an HR professional or a business leader, we don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that employee relations should be something you’re thinking about every day.
Covering everything to do with the interactions between your business and staff, it can have a profound impact on employee engagement, and therefore on your overall business performance. In this blog, we’ll be looking at some examples of the types of employment issues it covers, as well as sharing tips for establishing a successful employee relations strategy in your workplace. Employee assessment tools from Thomas will help support you along the way, so be sure to explore our website once you’ve finished reading.
What Is employee relations?
“Employee relations” is the term given to the process of managing the relationship between business and employee, and it’s all about forging a positive relationship between you and your employees. It tends to centre on employee wellbeing, job satisfaction and building mutual trust, as well as on trickier aspects like conflict resolution and staff safety. Depending on who you ask, it might include the practical side of things (such as contracts and payroll) as well as the emotional side, but these are elements that typically come under general HR functions rather than under employee relations.
Why Is employee relations management important?
Good employee relationships help you foster a positive workplace culture, supporting effective collaboration, nipping any conflict or grievances in the bud and ensuring your staff feel valued. That means employee relations have an important role to play in your business’s success: engaged employees who feel supported and respected have better morale and higher job satisfaction, which in turn contributes to greater productivity and business performance as a whole.
Focusing on good employee relationships is also likely to have a positive effect on your staff retention rates, saving you time, money and hassle on recruitment and resulting in a more stable workforce. Importantly, it also provides a fair way of dealing with issues such as workplace conflict or bullying.
The different types of employee relations
Any discussion of this topic needs to make the distinction between vertical and horizontal employee relations. It’s simple: vertical employee relations means interactions between manager/management and employee (an inherently hierarchical relationship), while horizontal employee relations is all about an employee’s interactions with their coworkers, who are at the same level of the hierarchy as they are.
Vertical employee relations are all about good leadership, while horizontal employee relations encompass positive relationships and effective collaboration between coworkers. Both require transparent communication and respect. Both contribute to a positive workplace culture where everyone can work well together, as productively as possible. And taken together, they’re both about creating a great employee experience that keeps your staff with you long-term.
Employee relations examples
Employee relations is an umbrella term for the management of all manner of different things affecting your employees and their place in your business. Some of the aspects it helps you address include:
- Employee onboarding – this is all about seeing expectations from day one, giving new employees the training they need to hit the ground running.
- Workplace conflict management – this uses mediation and resolution strategies – underpinned by transparent communication – to help resolve tensions and conflict between employees, and between employees and their managers.
- Absenteeism – attendance issues can impact significantly on employee relations, both vertical and horizontal. This aspect is about spotting when absenteeism becomes a problem, understanding the causes (such as burnout or poor leadership) and providing the right support to increase attendance.
- Insubordination – whether they’re going against what they’ve been asked to do or they’re simply being disrespectful towards a manager, one of the more challenging strands of employee relations is handling difficult employee behaviour. This might include strategies such as disciplinary action or providing further training.
- Employee misconduct – from workplace bullying to negligence, employee misconduct encompasses numerous potential issues, with both legal and ethical considerations that a good employee relations strategy will help to address.
- Employee wellbeing – this is a central part of building good employee relationships, with initiatives such as mental health days, flexible working and gym passes having an important role in making sure employees are happy and productive at work.
- Workplace health and safety – whether it’s operating machinery or ensuring computer screens are set at the right height, workplace health and safety ensures employees have a safe and secure working environment. This aspect of employee relations concentrates on the training and policies needed to ensure this.
- Labour and industrial relations – this is about managing collective bargaining and disputes, which may involve liaising with trade unions and negotiating deals over working conditions that affect everyone.
As you can see, it’s a broad range of areas that encompasses both positive and negative aspects of someone’s employment – but the idea is to ensure a supportive working environment in which the employee and their colleagues can work productively and happily as part of your workforce.
5 examples of employee relations issues
Now that we’ve covered the types of interaction that come under employee relations, what does it look like in practice? Here are some examples of the kinds of situations where employee relations comes into its own.
- Workplace conflicts – there are all sorts of reasons why conflict can arise at work, whether it’s misunderstandings, clashes of personality between coworkers or managers setting unclear or unrealistic goals. Employee relations in this instance might involve mediation for a satisfactory resolution in the short-term, and working longer-term towards a workplace culture that values open communication and job satisfaction.
- Workplace bullying – toxic behaviour isn’t always easy to spot – especially if it’s happening online – but it can have a major impact on employees’ morale, which in turn impacts productivity. This aspect of employee relations involves investigating what’s going on in the first instance, and longer-term having protocols in place and making sure employees know who they can turn to in confidence if they feel they’re being bullied.
- Workplace safety – safety regulations are designed to prevent workplace accidents, so it’s important to include them in your employee relations strategy and make sure everyone complies with them. You can do this by making sure employees get the right training, and by making use of risk assessments whenever new hazards may arise.
- Poor time tracking – whether it’s the employee or their manager being slapdash in recording hours worked, this needs nipping in the bud before it has a major impact. Online time-tracking tools can help with this.
- Pay raise requests – these are a key part of your employee relations strategy, and need handling fairly and sensitively. Employee performance assessment tools can help with employee development and provide measurable information to help inform salary discussions, including promotions and longer-term career advancement.
How to handle employee relations issues
With a clear understanding of the various aspects covered by employee relations, you can get down to the nitty gritty of handling them in a proactive way.
Start by creating an employee relations strategy, which should consider both your needs and those of your employee. Use it to outline protocols for everything from recognition schemes to conflict management.
Listen to what your employees have to say, making sure there’s open dialogue on both sides. As well as listening one-to-one, you could also conduct regular staff surveys or have processes in place for them to express concerns confidentially.
Training is important – there’s no point having policies in place if nobody knows what they are or where to find out more. Train both managers and the people they manage so that everyone’s on the same page about the workplace culture you want to see, and the policies and rights underpinning it.
Legal compliance matters too – make sure everything’s properly documented so that you have evidence to refer to should you need it, whether it’s positive (such as employee performance assessment results that show progress that could support promotions) or negative (written records of investigations or disciplinary proceedings, for example).
5 tips for an effective employee relations strategy
With your strategy in place, you’re already on the road to great employee relations. So how can you make sure it’s a success?
1. Set a clear employee relations policy
As we’ve seen, a good employee relations strategy is underpinned by clear policies that ensure everyone’s treated fairly.
2. Focus on good communication
It’s at the heart of every aspect of employee relations, and focusing on open, two-way dialogue is vital. Frequent one-to-ones and a variety of feedback channels will support this, as will…
3. Include training for employees and managers
Whether it’s educating employees on safety protocols or training managers in conflict resolution, continual learning and development keeps people engaged at the same time as supporting good employment relations.
4. Provide proper acknowledgement
Employee relations go both ways, so making sure employees feel appreciated for their efforts is just as important as ensuring they behave in line with your expectations. Have a read of our article on employee success for some more pointers on this.
5. Monitor performance and progress
Set key performance indicators that allow you to measure the progress of your employee relations strategy, such as a percentage reduction in complaints or an increase in job satisfaction metrics. Qualitative data helps here, too, which you can gather in one-to-one interviews or staff surveys with sections where staff can write full answers.
Frequently asked questions
Here are some of the questions we’re most often asked about leadership assessment.
Why is employee relations important?
Employee relations benefits everyone: you, the employee and their colleagues. It ensures employees feel supported, which increases their job satisfaction, engagement and productivity. It also helps you build a positive workplace culture, increasing staff retention rates.
How can positive employee relations help an organisation?
Done well, employee relations should result in happier, more engaged employees who are more productive, have higher job satisfaction and are less likely to jump ship to another company. Your business therefore benefits from better performance and higher staff retention rates.
How can you manage employee relations effectively?
Good communication is critical to employee relations, as are clear written policies and protocols outlining everything HR-related, from employees’ rights to procedures for dealing with workplace conflict. It’s also important to provide training to both employees and leaders, and to set measurable goals to monitor the success of your employee relations strategy.
What are the key elements of employee relations?
Good employee relations centre on building a culture of trust and open communication, with legal compliance and fair conflict resolution also central to maintaining productive, enduring relationships with your employees.
Strengthen employee relationships with Thomas
As we’ve seen, employee relations is essential to keeping both you and your employees happy and on the same page. Done right, employee relations can help your business enjoy an uptick in productivity and job satisfaction, meaning staff stick around longer and you enjoy better overall business performance.
At Thomas, our performance assessments can help nurture your talent and keep employees engaged, so get in touch with our experts or explore our assessments to build stronger employee relations.
