Challenges for a Better Employee Relationship Management

The relationship between employees working in a common organization is called as employee relationship. Every employee
should ideally be comfortable with others to stay motivated and stress free. No conclusion has ever come out of disputes;
instead it is just a mere wastage of time and lead to a negative environment at work. The employees should work together as a
single unit to come out with more creative plans and accomplish the tasks at a much faster rate.
Employees enjoying a warm relationship with each other tend to discuss things among themselves and always think in the
favour of their team which eventually benefits the organization also. Sometimes it is really difficult to satisfy everyone. Someone
or the other would have an objection to ideas leading to major unrest in the team and spoling the relationship among
themselves.
Let us go through the challenges to an effective employee relationship and ways to overcome them:

Not all teams can afford to have members of the same sex only. Female employees are also likely to be there in
the team and might not be too comfortable with their male counterparts. A male employee trying to be friendly with his
female team member just to increase the comfort level between them might not be appreciated by her. She might think
otherwise and lose her trust on him. A feeling of insecurity would crop up and thus spoiling the relationship between
them. One needs to be very careful while dealing with team members of the opposite sex. Think before you speak and
do take care of your limits. Too much of interference and a friendly nature might not work well. During informal get
togethers make sure one does not speak anything which might embarrass the females. Avoid too much boozing or
smoking at parties where female team members are also invited. They would feel awkward and would never be able to
talk to you or discuss things. The female employees must also understand the corporate culture and should not
overreact unnecessarily. It is absolutely normal to go out for meetings with your boss who is a male.
It is really difficult to meet the expectations of each and every employee. Employees should not expect monetary
benefits which exceed the companys budget. The moment the management refuses to offer the desired incentives or
perks to the employees they become negative and tend to spread rumours around. They badmouth their superiors,
lose interest in work and hence their relationship suffers. To avoid such a situation, it is essential for the employees to
have realistic expectations. Dont ask for something which you yourself know is not possible and might disturb the
budget of the organization. The team leader from the very beginning must prepare an incentive plan after discussing
with his team members. The incentive plan must be same for everyone.
It is human tendency to support someone who speaks well about you or favours you always.
Jerrys music academy was near Patricks apartment. Jerry went with Patrick almost daily and no doubts always
supported him at the workplace. Patrick was the one who had the liberty to take frequent leaves. Jerry never ever said
anything to him which was not at all acceptable to the other team members. One should never be partial at the
workplace. Everyone is working to earn his bread and butter just like you. No one is special in the organization. If
anyone is working hard, the company is also paying him well. It is always better to avoid taking unnecessary favours
from anyone. Dont ask your subordinates to pick your son from school, go for a grocery shopping or book your movie
tickets. The moment you ask for favours, the other individual starts taking undue advantages.
You can never change the thought process of any employee. One can never get into anyones head to find out
what he is thinking. You might speak something in a casual way but the other person might misunderstand it and
make an issue out of it. One might say something in a light mood but the other person might take it seriously and start
arguing. It is always better to be crisp and precise at workplace Avoid lose talks at work and dont discuss things not
related to your work.
The superior might not always be accessible to his team members. A team leader might have to go for an urgent
meeting when his team member walks up to him with a query. In such a scenario the employee should not feel
neglected or ignored. It is the team leaders duty to get back to his team members once he is free.
Be realistic. Dont ask any employee to attend his office on his birthday or marriage anniversary. One should never
ask any employee to stay back late at office when he knows the other person has a party to attend. Understand
others problems well. The team member should also not ask for leaves when he is aware of the work pressure.
Remember life is all about adjustments. Dont always have a negative approach towards life. Learn to compromise
sometimes and make the organization a happy place to work.

the current scenario only those organizations can survive where work is done in an innovative
way. Creativity and innovation comes through discussion. Employees must sit together on an open
forum where every employee has the liberty to express his ideas. Every employee comes out with a
unique idea which can be evaluated thoroughly to come out with something that has never been thought
or implemented before. Employees together can contribute their level best in coming out with something
beneficial to them as well as the organization.
One needs to have trusted colleagues at work who can guide him and correct him if he is wrong
anywhere. If one is spending the maximum part of his time in the office, it is but natural to share some
or the other secrets with the team members. If you fight with others, you cant rely on anyone and things
would be really difficult for you. One has to pretend always and cant speak his heart out.
Employees not very satisfied and pleased with their work and management tend to change their
jobs frequently. They find it difficult to adjust in such circumstances where one is at loggerheads with
the other employee and thus fail to perform. Employee retention becomes a major problem when
employees do not share a warm relationship with others as well as the management. An organization
invests so much of its time in training the new joinees so that they come at par with the other existing
employees and its really sad when the employees leave midway.
If employees have strained relationship with each other, everyone works in his own sweet way
and coordination becomes a concern. Employees are reluctant to share their workload and are thus
always overburdened and unhappy. They fail to accomplish tasks within the desired time frame and
hence the organization suffers. Employees are busy pulling each others legs and thus waste all their
time which should be ideally used in productive work. The output of the employees in such situations is
actually a big zero.
Nobody likes to carry tensions back home. Disputes always lead to stress at work and people feel
restless even at home. One cant enjoy anywhere and is sad always.
Individuals take frequent leaves from work leading to disciplinary problems at workplace.
Nobody bothers to follow the rules and regulations of the organization and the office is a complete mess.
Organizations fail to make profits and as a result come to a situation where they need to be shut down.
Employees must be comfortable with each other for them to give their hundred percent at work and stay
motivated
Employee Relations Issues
Maintaining a positive, productive work environment is critical for all managers. You
accomplish this by engaging in:
mentoring and coaching your staff
regular feedback, including annual performance reviews
open and honest communication regarding group, unit and university business issues
change management strategies
employee engagement and empowerment
fairly, assertively and promptly addressing workplace challenges and problems.
Addressing declining performance or poor personal skills is an unwelcome but necessary
function. Unacceptable performance and conflicting relationships can quickly impact the
productivity and workplace environment for the entire group. Your HR Manager is a
wonderful resources for helping you to address employee relations or performance issues.
Employee Relations - Importance and Ways of Improving Employee Relations
Maintaining healthy employee relations in an organization is a pre-requisite for organizational success. Strong
employee relations are required for high productivity and human satisfaction. Employee relations generally deal
with avoiding and resolving issues concerning individuals which might arise out of or influence the work scenario.
Strong employee relation depends upon healthy and safe work environment, cent percent involvement and
commitment of all employees, incentives for employee motivation, and effective communication system in the
organization. Healthy employee relations lead to more efficient, motivated and productive employees which
further lead to increase in sales level.
Good employee relation signifies that employees should feel positive about their identity, their job as well as
about being a part of such a great organization. Despite the importance of strong and healthy employee relations,
there are circumstances in the life of every organization when employee and management relations are
hampered. Instances of such circumstances are as follows-
1. When the employees do not behave as per accepted norms of behaviour, it is known as employee
indiscipline. Absenteeism, change in employees behaviour, slow performance and grievances are all
forms of employee indiscipline. Thus, when the employees fail to meet management expectations in
terms of standard performance and behaviour, it is referred to as indiscipline. In such cases, it must be
ensured by the management that steps should be taken so that employees behaviour is in conformity
with the managerial expectations.
2. Similarly, the employees also expect from the management to provide them a safe working
environment, fair treatment, proper incentives, participation in decisions, and needs satisfaction. The
failure on part of management to meet these expectations is termed as employee grievance.
3. When the employees fail to meet their own expectations whether in terms of personal goals, career
goals, performance, self-respect, etc it is referred to as employee stress. Excessive workload,
insufficient workload, peer pressure, excessive/unreasonable use of authority by the management, lack
of promotional opportunities, nature of job, etc all again lead to employee stress.
All the above mentioned organizational factors influencing employees relation must be carefully tackled. An
optimistic approach to strengthen disciplinary culture rooted on shared norms of employees should be adopted.
An effective grievance redressal system should be there. Stress management strategies should be followed in
the organization.
Improving Employee Relations
Employee relations must be strengthened in an organization. To do so, following points must be taken care of:-
i. Employee has expectation of fair and just treatment by the management. Thus, management must treat
all employees as individuals and must treat them in a fair manner. Employee favoritism should be
avoided.
ii. Do not make the employees job monotonous. Keep it interesting. Make it more challenging. This can be
done by assigning employees greater responsibilities or indulging them in training programmes.
iii. Maintain a continuous interaction with the employees. Keep them updated about companys policies,
procedures and decisions. Keep the employees well-informed. Informed employees will make sound
decisions and will remain motivated and productive. Also, they will feel as a member of organizational
family in this manner.
iv. Employees must be rewarded and appreciated for a well-done job or for achieving/over-meeting their
targets. This will boost them and they will work together as a team.
v. Encourage employee feedback. This feedback will make the employers aware of the concerns of
employees, and their views about you as an employer.
vi. Give the employees competitive salary. They should be fairly paid for their talents, skills and
competencies.
vii. Be friendly but not over-friendly with the employees. Build a good rapport with the employee. The
employee should feel comfortable with the manager/supervisor rather than feeling scared.