Need help with assignments?

Our qualified writers can create original, plagiarism-free papers in any format you choose (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.)

Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.

Click Here To Order Now

During the last 30 years, there have been significant shifts in employment relations and the HR management field of study. In todays competitive workplace employers must remain attuned to the needs of their workforce. Those who do will have a distinct advantage. One of the tools being used by global firms to meet this objective is the use of flextime. The changes are continuous and take place in all spheres of employee relations involving wages and compensation, trade unions and time, motivation and communication, etc.

Following Blyton and Turnbull (2004):  theory might be viewed as a useful means of classifying variables relevant to industrial relations, but it is hardly an explanatory approach in its own right. If anything, it is more&. Indeed, both theoretical and substantive criticisms (p. 27). In modern theories, there are two main parties: management and labor. The phrase Eliminate, simplify, and combine is an old engineering term that is often associated with job design.

It represents an attitude, rather than any specific technique. The attitude is one of constantly challenging every task, every step within a task to see if there is a better way.

You are always trying to find ways of eliminating any work or part of the work. If parts of the work cannot be eliminated, then maybe some aspects of the job can be simplified or combined. Such inefficiencies in day-to-day operations are far from uncommon. Most companies have enormous extra or irrelevant work built into their process, but to eliminate, simplify, or combine, you first have to know what you do. That alone may tell an employer what he needs to do to improve things (Abbott, 2007).

Following Tsui and Wu (2005) there are many innovative alternatives to empowering and motivating people, many of which theorists adapt to the modern workplace. Sometimes, though, the best approach may be to simplify work. As it is unrealistic to expect to set everyone up in his or her own business, what can be done?

There are many simple, but effective, alternatives. In addition to setting up new business ventures, Hyatt does simple things like conducting monthly sessions with its workers where employees discuss issues that are bothering them. These same workers are given a chance to critique anonymously and then discuss the quality of their bosss leadership.

While such simple communication tools help diffuse discontent, permanent improvements in the workplace depend on restructuring work. Finding and keeping employees is difficult but not enough; the real trick is to keep them productive and happy, a result especially difficult in times of downsizing, labor shortages, and restructuring. The size of this problem was seen by the Society for Human Resource Management, which surveyed 1,468 restructured companies (Daniels, 2006).

Rose (2004) underlines that To survive, industrial relations needs to change its focus to employment relations, examining not just institution (p. 8). In terms of building employee involvement and relations, one of the most significant activities of companies is to make a point of showing the rest of the corporation that they have the support of the top management. the case of Ford corporation shows that trade unions have a great impact on modern employee relations.

These teams included union leaders and corporate labor relations representatives. As such, the composition of these teams demonstrated the support of both management and labor. Meetings conducted by these teams generally emphasized that employee relations efforts were separate from the normal collective bargaining agreements. employee relations were not to be thought of as a substitute for normal grievance procedures.

Furthermore, the teams emphasized that participation in activities was purely voluntary and that any employee relations projects would be based on local needsnot corporate mandates. Trade unions told local facilities that, along with their efforts, locally-elected union representatives were also to be directly involved in implementing any projects (Leat 2001).

To continue to build support at the local level, teams told these sites those trade unions efforts would slowly evolve rather than be forced on them. Finally, they made the point that local management and union leadership could terminate a project at any time. Once local projects were underway, the trade unions would also make periodic visits to bolster morale and momentum. In general, the purpose of trade unions is for key members of management and the union to meet regularly to discuss issues of mutual concern.

There is no formal collective bargaining at these forums, but almost any other subject is open to discussion (Daniels, 2006). These discussions have included operating schedules, quality and performance indicators, product plans, new business opportunities, competition, economics, vacation scheduling, working conditions, attendance, and community government relations. At the national level, the trade union was used to create leadership conferences that brought together the top officials of both the company and the union (Leat 2001).

Open communication was an important aspect. Union leaders were briefed on the companys financial status and its competitors new products and services. These conferences provide just one example of Fords new attitude of greater sharing of information. The goal was greater acceptance and cooperation between the union and management, and it generally appears to be working.

The employment relationship is partly concerned with groups of employees who are represented by trade unions. The nature of this representation is collective& unions arguably have greater power to influence decisions concerning, for example, levels of pay and working conditions than those employees who do not join them (Rose 2004, p. 4).

Modern scholars give special attention to communication, compensation, and time management. The concept of flextime refers to a variety of flexible arrangements, including unconventional hours, part-time work, job sharing, leaves of absence, and working at home.

From a companys perspective, allowing employees to work fewer and more flexible hours is a powerful way to attract and retain top-caliber people. From the employees perspective, flexible work arrangements give them a greater sense of empowerment. Flextime gives many a stronger feeling that their company trusts them (Rose 2004).

Additionally, in these times of dual-career parents, it helps parents raise their children more responsibly. It also turns out that professionals who have such arrangements are fiercely loyal to their employers. Not all flextime involves working less time or different days. Sometimes employees can share the work.

Employees who wish to share often must write a lengthy proposal spelling out, in detail, how sharing will work. For example, how long will it last and what happens if one of the job sharers leaves? Such a document is a good planning tool for anyone wanting to share jobs (Rose 2004). Most companies normally pay these work sharers 120 percent of what one person would make in the job. Thus, a sharer gets about three-fifths of a regular salary plus some benefits. Not all flextime is creative; sometimes it simply means shifting the time you come into work (Daniels, 2006).

The key point with compensation, as with recognition, is equity. Management has to be fair and open. My friends plant has open disclosure of the companys assets, liabilities, and so on and puts the knowledge of how to make good decisions in the hands of the lowest personnel. Everyone understands a balance sheet and how to read an income statement. Employees decide whether to invest or increase bonuses. It is a financial and emotional partnership.

Compensation inequity is not the only reason compensation plans are being reconsidered. Flatter pyramids, labor shortages, and downsizing have meant rethinking traditional pay plans. One increasingly popular pay plan, whose time seems to have come, is dual-track compensation (Abbott, 2007).

The principle is simple: pay the best nonmanagerial professional on par with the managers. Lump-sum bonus incentives, along with gain-sharing plans, have become increasingly popular. Lump-sum bonuses involve employees receiving a one-time cash payment based on performance. Such a payment does not go into ones base pay. For this incentive to be effective, the plan must be fair and management must have a good relationship with employees.

From a managerial standpoint, its main advantage is that the plan helps control fixed costs by limiting pay raises and benefits. A sometimes serious drawback is that award bonuses can sometimes be seen as subjective and therefore unfair (Edwards, 2003). Following Leat (2001): As with other individual rights, effective prosecution of the law may provide the aggrieved employee with financial compensation but other remedies are extremely difficult to enforce (p. 383).

Following Rose (2004: HRM incorporates industrial relations and personnel management within an overall organizational strategy which emphasizes the human aspects of management and concern with people& scope than the management of industrial relations and often includes the following aspects: it stresses the development of the talents and capacities of each individual employee; Â it seeks to communicate directly  (p. 65). this explanation allows us to say that modern employee relations combine industrial relations and new management tools widely used by employers.

While just about every company is interested in recruiting

Need help with assignments?

Our qualified writers can create original, plagiarism-free papers in any format you choose (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.)

Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.

Click Here To Order Now