1. Ian Mejia Redfield College 2009
Employment Relations
Ian Mejia
Redfield College
2009

2. Effective Employment Relations
The Role of ER in business success
Communication Systems
Rewards
Traning and Development
Measures of Effectiveness
Ethical and Legal Issues

3. Syllabus Effective employment relations • role of employment relations
• communications systems — grievance procedures, worker participation, team briefings
• rewards — financial, non-financial
• training and development — induction
• flexible working conditions — family-friendly programs
• measures of effectiveness — levels of staff turnover, absenteeism, disputation, quality, benchmarking

4. Employment Relations and Business Success
Related to business goals and objectives
Employment relations as a means of competitive advantage
Human Resource Management

5. Communication Systems
Effective ER relies on open lines of communication.
Good communication leads to improved performance through
Senior management can communicate goals easier
Employees ideas will not be wasted
Employees are more involved and will be more motivated and satisfied
Business will have a clearer focus
Conflict can be avoided or resolved quicker

6. What are some direct and indirect communication strategies?
Daily walk around by management
Regular formal meetings
Staff newsletters or bulletins
Suggestion schemes
Surveys s
Other

7. Grievance Procedures
A grievance is a dispute about the interpretation or operation of an employment contract or alleged cases of discrimination.
A grievance procedure is a pre-determined set of guidelines outlined in the employment contract or award to resolve a dispute without industrial action

8. Benefits of Grievance Procedures
Minimise productivity loss and business disruption
Gives employees opportunities to voice concerns and problems
Decreases staff turnover

9. Worker Participation
Allowing workers to influence and decide on operations and decisions within the organisation.
Results in higher job satisfaction, increased loyalty, increased motivation, and greater workplace cohesion.
Increases flexibility in the workplace as decision making is decentralised.

10. Worker Participation Work teams Autonomous work teams Quality circles
Employee representatives
Worker Committees
Team Building

11. Industrial Democracy
Decision making power is shared amongst the organisation
Employers may see this as a challenge to their authority.

12. Team Briefings
Effective when there is a two way communication with managers and employees
Can be used to motivate and focus on the overall ‘vision’
Invites input in to decision making process

13. Rewards and Working Conditions
Used to motivate and retain eployees.
Financial (monetary) and non-financial
Started off as just wages and then moved to other benefits

14. Financial Rewards Australia’s 3 tiered wage system - Award wages
- Certified Agreements (CAs)
- Australian Workplace Agreements
Revision: awards are documents specifying minimum wages and conditions of employment. The ‘safety net.’

15. Certified Agreements
These are agreements negotiated at the workplace level.
Normally they will account for a particular business or group of employees

16. Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)
Individual contract with the employer.
Led to ‘earning drift’ a situation where wages are becoming increasingly unequal.

17. Trends
Q. Under what agreements do you think wage increases were highest?
A. Awards
Union CAs
Non Union CAs
AWAs

18. Financial Rewards Include
Bonuses and cash payments
Superannuation or deferred payments
Issuing of shares and stock options
Providing discounts on purchases of stock

19. Salary Packages
Common practice of packaging a specified amount with some paid in the form of a company vehicle, mobile phone, laptop, etc.
These are fringe benefits. Fringe benefits tax is paid for by the business and not the employee.

20. Advantages and Disadvantages
What are the advantages and disadvantages when offering financial benefits?

21. Non – Financial Rewards
Relates to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.
What are some examples non-financial rewards that may be preferred over extra income?

22. Non – Financial Rewards
Employee recognition schemes
Informal praise
Skill development
Promotional opportunities
Lateral career movements
Flexible work hours
Study or parental leave
Decision making opportunities
Job security
Rostered day off (RDO’s)

23. Family Friendly work conditions
Sick days for immediate members of the family
Childcare
Maternity and Paternity leave
What are the benefits to the company of taking on these costs?

24. Training and Development
Ongoing skills development
Paid education
On the job training
Used to increase motivation
Increase flexibility
Make use of technology

25. Induction
Formal orientation of new employees into the company operations and culture.
The quicker an employee can learn, the cheaper it is for a business.
The more effective/productive the worker is the more revenue a business will receive.

26. Measures of Effectiveness
Effectiveness of Employment Relations is not measured by company profit.
The two main measures are Quality and Conflict

27. Benchmarking A means of measuring quality and effectiveness.
Page 260 (5 benchmarks for ER)
A business observes ‘Best Practice’
Results in higher quality products

28. Benchmarking Levels of customer service Number of sales / returns
Labour productivity
Complaints
OH & S

29. Staff Turnover
A measure of how many people voluntarily leave a workplace and need to be replaced.
Turnover reflects the effectiveness of employment relations although the goal is not to get turnover to zero.

30. Absenteeism Absence during normal working hours
Sickdays, unpaid leave etc
Large cost to a business
How does absenteeism represent a failure of employment relations?

31. Disputes Stop work meetings or strikes or lockouts.
Represent a complete breakdown of employment relations

32. Quality Quality of goods or services produced.
Quality against past performance or against similar businesses.

33. Ethical and Legal Issues
Working conditions
Occupational Health and Safety
Worker’s Compensation
Anti- Discrimination
Equal Employment Opportunities
Unfair Dismissal

34. Occupational Health and Safety
High cost to society and business
Has become a focus of Government legislation
Apart from obvious injuries like cuts, bruises, and sprains/strains there are a large proportion of chronic joint and muscle conditions.

35. OH&S The key legislation in relation to OH&S include
The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000
Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001

36. Worker’s Compensation
Worker’s Compensation Act 1987
All employers must have a compensation policy to protect them from financial claims of work related injuries.

37. Anti-Discrimination
It is illegal to discriminate on the basis of personal characteristics, marital status, pregnancy, impairment, sexual preference, union membership, religion, political opinion etc.
Disability Discrimination Act 1973
Racial Discrimination Act 1975
Sex Discrimination Act 1984

38. Equal Employment Opportunity
Equal Employment Opportunity Act 1987
Affirmative Action Act 1986
Disadvantaged groups should be favoured
All companies with over 100 staff must have an EEO policy.

39. Unfair Dismissal
Only applies to business with more than 100 employees since Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005.