9-1 Final Project Submission: Strategic HR Plan

Milestone two: Performance Management: Employee and Labor Relations

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Employee and labor relations are human resource strategic initiatives that impact organizational effectiveness. An analysis of employee discipline, performance management, and employee and labor relations will be provided.

Employee discipline

A punitive disciplinary approach involves punishing employees without understanding why something happened or counseling employees on what steps to improve. This approach was used traditionally and used a one-size-fits-all approach (Bugdol, 2018). Although it may be effective in the short term, it may not be a long-term approach. It may be effective since employees may perform due to fear of consequences. This may lead to improved organizational performance. However, it is not always practical since, over time, it may reduce employee morale and create an environment where employees work in fear. This is a toxic environment that cannot support behavioral changes. A practical example of a punitive disciplinary approach is withholding pay or suspending an employee without pay. This approach may impact employee relations negatively since it may create more trouble and bad relations between leaders and employees.

Non-punitive discipline involves setting reasonable standards for pointing out disparities when they happen (Bugdol, 2018). It also involves transferring the responsibility of a discrepancy onto the employee. An example is when an employee who is always late or absent meets with his supervisor, is warned of the behavior and informed that he needs to change. Even after the warning, the employee fails to improve. The supervisor meets with the employee again to inform him of the issue and improve the behavior. The supervisor then puts a written note into the employee's file. When the employee fails to change the behavior, the supervisor may give the employee a non-punitive day off, also known as decision-making leave, to think about what he wants and whether the behavior will change. After the day off, the employee may decide whether to continue with the company or leave. Adopting a non-punitive disciplinary approach may be beneficial in reducing absenteeism, disciplinary actions, and dismissal. This disciplinary approach impacts employee relations by improving performance, morale, respect for management, and empowerment.

Performance management

An effective performance management system ensures the alignment of individual and team goals with the organizational goals, enhancing performance for individuals, teams, and organizations through effective human resource management practices. The first element of an effective performance management system is goal setting. It involves developing objectives that should be achieved over a given period. In this case, an employee is evaluated against performance standards (Bhattacharyya, 2011). An Employee performance goal should be aligned with an organization’s goal. There are different goals, including job description goals, stretch goals, project goals, and behavioral goals. An example of a goal is increasing revenue by 10% in the first quarter.

The second element is the performance review. It involves analyzing the progress of an employee towards a goal. Every employee’s strengths and weaknesses are recorded. The information is used in making decisions on an employee’s contribution, training needs, pay increase, and career development (Bhattacharyya, 2011). Performance review includes providing feedback, dialogue on performance feedback, and acknowledging the outcome of performance review. Some examples of performance review systems are ranking, 360-degree feedback, management by objectives, forced distribution, and graphic rating scales. An example of a performance review is when an employee is given a good review after exceeding expectations.

The third element is performance improvement plans. A performance improvement plan can be used for employees with new roles or unsure of the performance expectations. A document can be provided in facilitating performance records and discussion. An example is to improve customer service. The performance improvement plan for this case may be required if clients are complaining about the bad attitude and support from a particular employee. The goal for the performance improvement plan may be to improve interactions with clients.

For an employer’s system to meet organizational needs, there should be frequent feedback between leaders and employees, set objectives and define work plans, elevate performance by linking individual performance to current organizational initiatives and strategic objectives and use multi-rater feedback.

Employee and labor relations

The difference between union grievance procedures and nonunion complaint processes is that union representatives handle union grievance procedures while an employer handles nonunion complaint processes. A grievance is a complaint on application or breach of an agreement or conditions of employment. Union complaint procedures involve making a complaint to union representatives, completing a form for the union to review, filing the form by the union and other documentation, and tracking the complaint (Dobbin, 2009). The nonunion process includes an informal discussion with the supervisor, a written complaint to the supervisor, and a written complaint to senior management. For instance, if a nonunion employee wants to file a complaint, the first process discusses the supervisor's concerns. The second process is writing the complaint, including grievance, details, and witnesses.

The nonunion complaint process is complex and has more work as compared to union procedures. A position such as a representative role should be made to deal with nonunion complaints. This will reduce pressure among employees and making them focus on getting the deserved outcome. The process should be short and straightforward. There should be different ways of making a complaint. For instance, rather than going through steps one then step two, an employee can go straight to step two and make their complaint.

References

Bhattacharyya, D. K. (2011). Performance management systems and strategies. Pearson Education India.

Bugdol, M. (2018). A Different Approach To Work Discipline. Human Resource Management. Palgrave Macmillan: Springer International Publishing, 12.

Dobbin, F. (2009). Inventing equal opportunity. Princeton University Press.