MGTO 231 Human Resources Management

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MGTO 231Human Resources Management

• Employee relations
• Dr. Kin Fai Ellick WONG

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Prologue

• You may neglect all US specific cases.

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• You may often hear that both employers and
  employees want to improve their relations
• You may also often hear that employers are not
  satisfied with their employees and employees are
  not satisfied with their employers
• Paradoxical?
• What leads to these lose-lose outcomes?
• Any way for improvements?

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What are good employee relations?

• Fair and consistent treatment to all employees
• Employees are treated as stakeholders
• Stakeholders people who have an interest in a
  companys or organizational affairs.
• Respect for the individuals
• Bi-directional communications
• Employee relations representative
• Employee relations policy

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Bi-directional Communications

• Employee relations representative
• A member of the HR department
• To ensure that company policies are followed
• To consult with both supervisors and employees on
  specific employee relations program

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Bi-directional Communications

• Employee relations policy
• It is designed to communicate managements
  thinking and practices concerning
  employee-related matters
• Prevent problems in the workplace from becoming
  more serious

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Types of information in communications

• Facts
• Information that can be objectively measured or
  described
• E.g., the cost of computer, salaries
• Feelings
• Employees emotional responses to the decisions
  made or actions taken by managers or other
  employees
• Rumors
• Information that cannot be easily verified and
  may be widely distributed among employees

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The communications process within an organization
Noise
Communication Channel
Sender (Encodes Message)
Receiver (Decodes Message)
Feedback
Noise
Source Managing Human Resources, 4th Edition,
p.438
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Communications process within an organization

• Sender
• who has a message to send to the receiver
• Must encode the message and select a
  communication channel
• Words and numbers for facts
• Body language or tone of voice for feelings

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• Receiver
• Decodes the message and understands its true
  meaning from sender
• Effective communications depending on whether the
  receiver can decode the message
• Feedback
• Information sent from receiver back to the sender
• Noise
• Any irrelevant information

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Bi-directional communications

• Senders and Receivers can be at higher or lower
  levels
• Downward communication
• Communication that allows managers to implement
  their decisions and to influence employees lower
  in the organizational hierarchy
• Upward communication
• Communication that allows employees at lower
  levels to communicate their ideas and feelings to
  higher-level decision makers

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How to foster bi-directional communications?

• Three types of programs for better communications
• Information dissemination programs
• Top-down
• Employee feedback programs
• Bottom up
• Employee assistance programs
• Bi-direction

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Information dissemination programs

• Information dissemination
• The process of making information available to
  decision makers, wherever they are located
• Employees who have access to abundant information
  are more likely to feel empowered and are better
  able to participate in decision making

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Methods of disseminating information

• Employee handbook
• Sets the tone for the companys overall employee
  relations philosophy
• Informing both employees and supervisors about
  company employment policies and procedures and
  communicating employees rights and
  responsibilities

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• Written communications
• Memos
• Financial statements
• Newsletters
• Bulletin boards

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• Audiovisual communications
• To disseminate information that goes beyond the
  printed words
• Teleconferencing the use of audio and video
  equipment to allow people to participate in
  meetings even when they are a great distance away
  from the conference location or one another

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• Electronic communications
• Email
• Voice mail
• ICQ, MSN
• Problems of being abused by the employees

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• Informal communications
• Information exchanges without a planned agenda
  that occur informally among employees
• Management by walking around (MBWA)
• A technique in which managers walk around and
  talk to employees informally to monitor informal
  communications, listen to employee grievances and
  suggestions, and build rapport and morale

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Other methods

• Meetings
• Retreats
• An extended meeting in which company takes
  employees to a relaxing location

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Employee feedback programs

• Giving employees a voice in making decision on
  policy formulation (procedural justice)
• Making sure that employees receive due process on
  any complaints they lodge against managers
• Two ways to collect the feedback
• Employee attitude surveys
• Appeals procedures

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• Employee attitude survey
• A formal anonymous survey designed to measure
  employee likes and dislikes of various aspects of
  their jobs
• Appeals procedure
• A procedure that allows employees to voice their
  reactions to management practices and to
  challenge management decisions

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• Common management actions appealed by employees
• Allocation of overtime work
• Safety rule violations
• Performance evaluations
• Merit pay increases
• Specification of job duties

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Employee assistance program

• A company-sponsored program that helps employee
  cope with personal problems that are interfering
  with their job performance
• Common problems include alcohol or drug abuse,
  compulsive gambling, eating disorder
• It involves four steps

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• Step 1identify troubled employee
• Self-identification
• Supervisor identification
• Step 2 EAP counseling
• Referral to an EAP counselor
• Step 3 Treatment
• Step 4 problem solved or employee is terminated

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• A program that rewards employees for their ideas
  and contributions
• Monetary rewards, awards, vacation, etc.

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• To understand some difficulties of using a
  recognition system, complete the in-class exercise

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Conclusion

• What leads to these lose-lose outcomes?
• Communication matters!!!!
• Any way for improvements?
• Same coding system (encoding-decoding) system
• Remove noise
• Ensure the availability of the feedback channel