Employee Relation Strategy

Managing Employee Voice and
Relation Strategically
Dr. Umesh Bamel
IIM Raipur
Agenda
• Employee Relation Strategy
• Concerns of Employee Relation Strategy
• Strategic Directions
• Background to Employee Relation Strategy
• HRM Approach to Employee Relation
• Formulating Employee Relation Strategy
• Partnership Agreements
• Employee voice Strategy
Employee Relation Strategy
Employee relations strategies define the

intentions of the organization about what needs
to be done and what needs to be changed in the
ways in which the organization manages its
relationships with employees and their
unions/associations.
Concerns of Employee Relation Strategy
• build stable and cooperative relationships with
employees that minimize conflict
• achieve commitment through employee

involvement and communications processes
• develop mutuality - a common interest in

achieving the organization’s goals through the
development of organizational cultures based on
shared values between management and
employees.
Strategic Directions
• changing forms of recognition, including single-union recognition, of de-

recognition
• changes in the form and content of procedural agreements;
• new bargaining structures, including decentralization or single-table
bargaining;
• the achievement of increased levels of commitment through involvement
or participation-giving employees a voice;
• deliberately bypassing trade union representatives to communicate
directly with employees;
• increasing the extent to which management controls operations
• generally improving the employee relations climate in order to produce
more harmonious and cooperative relationships;
• developing a ‘partnership’ with trade unions (aiming at increasing mutual
commitment).
Background to Employee Relations Strategies
• Adversarial-the organization decides what it wants to
do, and employees are expected to fit in. Employees
only exercise power by refusing to cooperate.
• Traditional-a good day-to-day working relationship but
management proposes and the workforce reacts through
its elected representatives.
• Partnership-the organization involves employees in the
drawing up and execution of organization policies, but
retains the right to manage.
• Power sharing- employees are involved in both day-to-
day and strategic decision making.
HRM Approach to Employee Relation
• a drive for commitment – winning the ‘hearts and minds’ of
employees to get them to identify with the organization, to
exert themselves more on its behalf and to remain with the
organization, thus ensuring a return on their training and
development.
• an emphasis on mutuality-getting the message across that

‘we are all in this together’ and that the interests of
management and employees coincide.
• complementary forms of communication, such as team

briefing, alongside traditional collective bargaining, i.e.
approaching employees directly as individuals or in groups
rather than through their representatives
• a shift from collective bargaining to individual contracts
• the use of employee involvement techniques such as

quality circles or improvement groups
• continuous pressure on quality-total quality management;
• increased flexibility in working arrangements, including

multiskilling, to provide for the more effective use of
human resources
• emphasis on teamwork
• harmonization of terms and conditions for all employees.

Employee Relation Options
There are a number of policy options that need to be
considered when developing employee relations
strategy (Guest,1995)
• The new realism-a high emphasis on HRM and

industrial relations.
• Traditional collectivism-priority to industrial relations
without HRM.
• Individualized HRM-high priority to HRM with no
industrial relations.
• The black hole-no industrial/employee relations
Employee Relation Policy @ Tata Group
Trade Unions: The Company believes that a healthy union is an asset for it. Trade unions are therefore present and
encouraged at all locations. All the non-officers (86% of the total workforce) are represented by 26 independent trade
unions across all locations.
Joint Consultations: Tata Steel is a pioneer of joint consultation in India. A unique system of joint consultation has been in
place in Tata Steel for more than 55 years in which both management and employee representatives consult each other at all
levels on matters relating to the progress and prosperity of the organisation, including production, productivity, quality,
safety, welfare, training, etc. A minimum of 56 Joint Departmental Council meetings are held in a year.
Grievance Handling Mechanism: Grievances and complaints of employees at Tata Steel are handled through well-defined
and user friendly mechanisms in order to redress them at the initial stages thereby ensuring employee satisfaction. The
informal grievance resolution mechanism is an online process and goes by the name of “Samadhan”. The formal grievance
resolution is divided into three stages, with each stage being reached when a solution is not arrived in the previous stage.
These are further referred to the Central Works Committee.
HR Service Desk: In line with Tata Steel’s philosophy of “Values Stronger than Steel”, creating “trust” among employees
is an inseparable part of the long term vision of the company.
Benefits and Facilities: Tata Steel has many ‘firsts’ in the area of employee welfare. Several welfare initiatives of Tata Steel
were institutionalised even before it was formalised worldwide as a convention of the ILO. The Steel Works is the only
steel manufacturing unit and the largest of its kind in the world, to adopt and enforce SA 8000 as a tool to improve
workplace standards.
Employee Health: Apart from continuous preventive health surveillance of employees (which includes both statutory &
non-statutory health check-ups), a unique programme on Wellness@Workplace has been launched across the company.
Higher Studies: Monetary incentives to employees acquiring higher technical qualifications in a related field.
YES Connect @ YES BANK
• This team bonding initiative was launched in July 2009 with a view to provide
YES BANKers a platform to celebrate together, bond with colleagues and
share best practices to enhance individual, increase group productivity and
improve the camaraderie amongst team members.
• Implemented in the form of an evening get-together in which all Team

members participate in each branch / office on the first Friday of every month.
• Recognizing and applauding the "Extra Mile'ers"\" - Team Members who have
shown exemplary achievement in their work areas.
• A quick review of the month that was, and identifying the focus areas for the
month ahead. Inviting the newly joined executives (in the last month) with
their spouse/family to meet the Team members.
• Celebrating Birthdays of Team Members.

Employee Relation Policy of Mahindra
• Employee Engagement: Achieve organisational
goals with active involvement of employees
• Focus on attracting, retaining and nurturing people
with relevant skill-sets and competencies
• Conducive Culture and Climate: Create a mutually
beneficial and productive industrial climate
• Justice and Fairness: Manage employees fairly and
transparently
http://www.mahindra.com/resources/CSR-2010-11-HTML/driven-by-
policy.htm
Themes for Achieving Employee Relations
1. Shared goals -‘understanding the business we

are in’.
2. Shared culture -‘agreed values binding us
together’.
3. Shared learning - ‘continuously improving
ourselves’.
4. Shared effort – one business driven by
flexible teams’.
5. Shared information -‘effective
communication throughout the enterprise’.
Employee Voice Strategies
• Employee voice is the term increasingly used to cover a whole
variety of processes and structures which enable, and sometimes
empower employees, directly and indirectly, to contribute to
decision-making in the firm (Boxall and Purcell, 2003).
• Employee voice can be seen as ‘the ability of employees to

influence the actions of the employer’ (Millward et al, 2000).
• The concept covers the provision of opportunities for employees

to register discontent and modify the power of management.
• It embraces involvement and, more significantly, participation.

Social Media Usage Regulation at ICICI Bank
Do
• Ensure that external, internal & online communications are in line with the Bank’s Social
Media Policy
• Respect personal dignity, privacy, and personal rights of every individual
• Work together with women and men of various nationalities, cultures, religions, and races in a
professional manner
• Be open and honest and stand by your responsibility
• Treat our customers, suppliers, competitors and employees fairly
• Maintain the safe and healthy working environment provided by the company
• Be committed to prevent wasteful use of natural resources
Don’t
• Discriminate, harass or offend anybody by whatever means, be it sexual or otherwise
• Use ICICI Group systems to transmit or receive electronic images or text of a sexual nature or
containing ethical slurs, racial epithets or other harassing, offensive or lewd materials
• Obtain competitive information by unethical or illegal means, such as corporate espionage or
improper access to confidential information
• Engage in contacts with competitors that could create even an appearance of improper
agreements, whether the contact is in person, in writing, by telephone or through e-mail
• Take unfair advantage of anyone through manipulation, concealment, abuse of privileged
information, misrepresentation of material facts or any other unfair dealing practice
• Do not issue directives to violate the terms of vendor’s contracts

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Managing Employee Voice and

Employee relations strategies define the

• achieve commitment through employee

• develop mutuality - a common interest in

• changing forms of recognition, including single-union recognition, of de-

• an emphasis on mutuality-getting the message across that

• complementary forms of communication, such as team

• the use of employee involvement techniques such as

• continuous pressure on quality-total quality management;

• increased flexibility in working arrangements, including

• harmonization of terms and conditions for all employees.

• The new realism-a high emphasis on HRM and

• Implemented in the form of an evening get-together in which all Team

• Celebrating Birthdays of Team Members.

1. Shared goals -‘understanding the business we

• Employee voice can be seen as ‘the ability of employees to

• The concept covers the provision of opportunities for employees

• It embraces involvement and, more significantly, participation.

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