by Industrial Relations being collectivist and pluralist in its outlook is fully responsible for maintaining a healthy relationship between individual workers, employees and plays a critical role in settlement of various disputes within an organization. An IR manager plays the role of directive leaders and ensures that all the rules and regulations of the employer are strictly followed.
According to Lester, “Industrial relations involve attempts at arriving at solutions between the conflicting objectives and values; between the profit motive and social gain; between discipline and freedom; between authority and industrial democracy; between bargaining and co-operation and between conflicting interests of the individual, the group and the community.”
Majority of responsibility of an industrial relations manager involves maintaining good relationships between the employees and management. There are two other words usually used in conjunction with industrial relations which are employee relations and labour relations. Even though the terms usually refer to the relationship with employees all the people connected with the organizations like employees’ customers union members governing agencies and stakeholders are directly or indirectly involved. So, we can classified industrial relation Management as three category. That are Employee Relation Management, Labour Relation Management and Customer Relation Management.
Employee Relation Management
When the number of employees is less it is often easy to manage the relationships but larger companies can have a dedicated human resource manager who can handle the industrial relations easily. Managers having expertise in handling industrial relations usually study and resolve problems which can affect productivity and poor performance related to misconduct by employees. Managers handling industrial relations usually communicate effectively and manage employees through motivation. Industrial relationship managers also adopt employee recognition programs after discussion with top level managers. Safety measures concerning the employees are monitored by industrial relation managers for improved productivity.
Labor Relation Management
Labor relations concern with the mutual collaboration between the top management level and union members among workers. Some countries give the right to employees to form the union for taking part in collective bargaining through negotiation tasks. Small business organizations usually do not have labor unions while large organizations find it easy to have the policies spread among employees through communicating with representatives.
Customer Relation Management
Small business organizations will have better communication with clients due to the lower number of a workforce which eventually leads to good relationships. Industrial relations manager sometimes study and recognize te need of buyers and suggest ways of improving customer relations. Surveys through questionnaires are often employed for gathering information which is then set as a framework which is conveyed to the workers for the better understanding of customer demands. When staff members are given training for improving product quality it also helps in building good relationships. e for goods and services.
How to face these challenges
- To deal with Trade Unions, Contractors, labours, IR managers should minimize the use of jargons and they should try to communicate in simple language and if possible try to communicate in local language to avoid any confusion.
- Review different labour laws, civil laws and consult with the company’s legal representative to assure if the company is in compliance with all of these regulations.
- Always try to listen closely to the employee’s concern. It is not always necessary
to give judgement or suggestions and to enforce certain policies, which are not in law.
- Sometimes to settle down dispute, An IR manager can take the decision on the basis of their intuition.
- Job rotation policy or transfer of the workers are another way to settle down the dispute among the workers or employees.
- They should not try to check the workmen to form unions or groups, which may lead to aggression among them.
A healthy employee relationship is essential for the employees to find their work interesting and perform their level best. It is important for everyone to understand that one goes to his organization to work and conflicts must be avoided as it is nothing but a mere waste of time. Employees must be comfortable with each other and work in unison towards a common goal. An individual cannot remain tightlipped and work for infinite hours, he needs people around to talk to and discuss his ideas.
One must have friends at the workplace whom he can trust well and share his secrets without the fear of them getting leaked. This way the employees feel motivated and enjoy going to office daily. They do not take frequent leaves and strive hard to live up to the expectations of the management. For an organization to perform well, it is important that the employees are friendly with each other and avoid criticism, backstabbing at work, a strong reason to spoil the relationship among the employees.
The team leader or the manager plays an important role in promoting healthy relation at workplace:
It is essential that the supervisor assigns challenging tasks to his team member as per his specialization and interest. The individual should have interest in the work; otherwise he would treat it as a burden and unnecessarily crib about things. It is important that the team leader understands his team members well. Try to find out their interests and what all they expect from the organization. While developing their KRAs it is always better if the team leader calls everyone and invites suggestions from them. Let them decide what best they can perform. This way the employees would never blame each other or their superior later as they themselves have decided on the roles and responsibilities. Encourage them to willingly accept the challenge. They would strive hard for a better output without fighting and finding faults in each other.
A team leader should be a role model to his team members. He should treat each and every individual as one and avoid partialities at work. Do not give anyone a special treatment just because he drops your son to school every day or says a yes to whatever you say. Appreciate if someone has done exceptionally well but do make sure to correct him if he is wrong somewhere. The team leader should not be rude or harsh to anyone. There is a correct way for everything and one should not insult any team member. It is strictly unethical. Sit with him and make him realize his mistakes. He would definitely look up to you in future.
The superior must not act pricy and should always be accessible to his employees. The individuals must have the liberty to walk up to their immediate bosses in case of a doubt and clear things. The hierarchy should not be too complicated as it leads to confusions and disputes among employees.
The manager must ensure that all important communication takes place on an open forum for everyone to get a common picture. Problems arise when communication is done on a one to one basis. Call everyone together so that all the members are clear as to what is expected out of them and what their colleagues are up to. Communication should be transparent for an effective employee relation. Any employee should not feel neglected or left out. If the team leader wants to pass on any information to his team members, he must send a mail keeping all the related members in the loop.
As a team leader it is one’s prime responsibility to encourage healthy competition at work. Competition is mandatory for an individual’s growth but it should not turn friends to foes. Motivate them constantly to perform better than the other but make sure there are no useless gossips in your team. If you find any of your team members criticizing or making fun of anyone, stop him immediately. Do not provoke any individual to fight, instead intervene and try to resolve the conflict as soon as possible.
Make sure all your team members take their lunch together and you are also a part of it. Don’t discuss work that time. Let them enjoy. Encourage everyone to talk to each other and participate in discussions. Do take the initiative to ask about their families or personal lives as well. They would feel attached to you. If you find any two of your team members not getting along well with each other, make sure both of them work together on the same assignment. They would not be left with any choice than to talk to each other and discuss things. Make them sit together on adjacent workstations so that the comfort level increases.
The team leader should be neutral to his team members and make sure they enjoy a healthy relationship with him as well as their fellow team members for a better output. A team leader should try his level best to bring his team members closer and bind them together.
The importance of industrial relation is as follows:
- Increased Production:
Healthy cordial relationship between the work force and the employer and management and amongst the workers within the workplace improves the workers’ productivity and efficiency. It motivates the workers to contribute their best towards attainment of organisational objectives. This leads to increase in production in the organisation.
- Reduction in Industrial Disputes:
Good industrial relation helps in reducing the industrial disputes. Good Industrial relationship removes dissatisfaction among the workers. Adequate financial and non-financial benefits, provision of employee participation in sharing of profits and of management and decision making, improved bargaining capacity through mutual negotiations and consultation with the management provides satisfaction to the workers.
Satisfied workers are less inclined towards entering into conflict with the management on issues like low wages, long work hours, and unhealthy work environment. Thus, industrial unrest can be avoided.
- Uninterrupted Production:
The most important benefit of industrial relations is that it ensures uninterrupted production. Reduced industrial dispute, industrial unrest, strike, lock outs can be avoided through good industrial relation. This ensures smooth running of the organization and continuous production.
- Improves Morale:
Good industrial relation boosts the morale of the employees. Employees feel that they are part of the organization and their contribution will improve productivity of the organization. Good industrial relation brings about realization among the employees that gain to the organization will not only benefit the employer but will benefit them as well. This makes the workers work with zeal, energy and efficiency.
- Effective Utilization of Resources:
Good industrial relation helps in effective utilization of man, money and material. Improved employee morale, industrial peace, recognition of employee’s interest and reconciliation of employer’s and employee objectives and interest increased production with minimum wastage of resources.
