Question
Write a report of 3000 words which you:
1. Critically analyse the key employment relations issues that need to be addressed in the
short and long term
2. Produce recommendations to address the issues that you have identified. You should use
research evidence and your knowledge of organisational practice to support your
recommendations. Consideration should also be given to possible implementation issues
and/or tensions.
Solution
Executive Summary
This report entails a critical analysis of the main employment relations issues affecting Peddie’s, which should be addressed in the short and long-term. It also involves a set of recommendations that can address the identified issues based on theories, models, and research evidence. This report finds that there are several issues that should be considered at Peddie’s. The short-term ones include high absence rate based on the sickness, the work-life balance, low awareness regarding the organisational issues from poor communication, and lack of employee voice. The long-term issues include poor change management, rewards, redundancy process, and leadership and management. Recommendations provided to address these issues include effective leadership and management, continuous employee engagement, changing the organisational structure, and applying a suitable redundancy process. Issues to consider in the implementation process include resistance to change, adequate resources, and effective performance management.
Table of Contents
1.1 Organisational Overview.. 5
2.0 Employment Relations Issues. 5
3.1 Implementation Issues and Tensions. 14
The significance of employee relations in contemporary organisations is reflected in increased performance and the relationship between the employer and the workforce. According to CIPD (2021a), employee relations is presently focusing on both the collective and individual relationships at the workplace. There is an increasing emphasis on the direct approaches of representation and assisting the line managers to develop trust-centred relationships with the workforce. Other elements defining the employee relations include a positive and supportive climate, high degree of employee involvement, engagement, and commitment. As Bailey et al. (2017) note, employee engagement has become an important concept in management and influences the firm’s competitive advantage. In the practitioner community, employee relations and engagement have attracted the interests of the policy-makers, who are working towards finding new approaches to leverage the high performance levels. Figure 1 below demonstrates some of the core elements related to employee relations and engagement and the impacts.
Figure 1: Factors Contributing to Employee Relations and Engagement (Source: Author).
As demonstrated in figure 1 above, employee engagement is influenced by various elements, including leadership, communication, and involving the workforce in managing change (Hussain et al., 2018). Besides enhanced organisational performance and competitive advantage, employee relations and engagement results to workforce satisfaction.
This report is centred on Peddie’s, a family and private limited firm involved in book retail. The company has operated for long from a flagship store, described as a large store in Central London. It has commenced expansion, including in London, where it has four branches. This has extended to include Bath and Manchester. Healthy reserves and a positive cash flow have been the foundation of expanding further and exploring further opportunities. Peddie’s has 150 employees, with Bath and Manchester having 15 each. The operational processes are established in the main store and implemented to other branches as they are opened. About every flagship store is filled through internal promotion, which ensures that the culture is maintained in every branch. However, the head office staff includes finance, operational management, HR, and marketing, which are centred in the main store. There are several issues and a number of areas that require attention, which include dissatisfaction with the pay, reducing the headcount, high sickness absence, communication, and employees feeling that they do not have a voice.
This report entails a critical analysis of the main employment relations issues that should be addressed in the short and long-term. It also involves recommendations to address the issues that should be identified, based on the research evidence and the organisational practice concepts. For the recommendations, the potential implementation issues and tensions are also outlined.
2.0 Employment Relations Issues
Employment relations is influenced by several aspects. As demonstrated in figure 2 below, these issues include the employee’s requests, pay concerns, workplace bullying, type of leadership and management, and conflict (Picincu, 2019). The significance of these issues is that they impact the firm’s performance, requiring it to make significant changes and policies. For Peddie’s, the issues can be classified in the short and long-term as discussed below.
Figure 2: Employment Relations Issues (Source: Author).
The short-term employment relations issues include;
High absence rate based on sickness: The rate of sickness absence is high, particularly at the Manchester store. The central employment relations’ issue that there are co-workers that have started demonstrating their dissatisfaction on the issue. The high rate of sickness absence is a major influencing factor to employee turnover. This can be attributed to the individual dissatisfaction. Notably, the staff have a challenge of taking a break as they have to cover-up. According to Dewi and Nurhayati (2021), employee satisfaction is among the main issues influencing turnover and retention rate. Peddie’s risk losing employees based on the high sickness absence, which affect the other employees’ satisfaction.
Work-life balance: Work-life balance is main centred on the firm’s working climate. Employees should be provided with a supportive working environment that positively impact their lives outside the organisation (CIPD, 2019). At Peddie’s, the employees have to cover for others during their sickness absence days. This implies that these co-workers do not have adequate time off for their personal activities, including socialisation and attending to family matters. The challenge associated with this issue is dissatisfaction among the workforce, which may result in high rate of turnover.
Low awareness about the organisational issues due to poor communication: In employment relations, a significant aspect is effective communication between various stakeholders. As described by McLachlan (2021), communication plays a vital role in employees’ awareness about the organisational objectives and strategies. This is important in ensuring the workforce are aware about the firm issues, significantly promoting the individual’s commitment. At Peddie’s’ an employee from Bath store attended an interview for a chance at the flagship store, where it became apparent that he was unaware of the organisational matters, including the financial results and the marketing campaign. This reflects on the poor communication, resulting in low awareness about the firm issues, strategies, and objectives. This can negatively affect the employee’s commitment.
Lack of employee voice: Employee voice according to CIPD (2021b), refers to the means and ability of the people communicating their views to the employer or the firm’s leadership and management. It involves building trusting and open relationships between employers and the people, which is essential in achieving organisational objectives (Ruck et al., 2017). At Bath and Manchester stores, they employees feel that they do not have a voice. Through the example provided, the firm’s decisions are made by the family members in London who do not understand the diversity in the market for the books. Lack of voice has resulted in titles being stocked in areas where they cannot be sold and in other parts, the titles are fast moving.
The long-term employment relations issues include;
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