Importance of Employee Relations in Organisations: A Case Study of Marks and Spencer

This report discusses the significance and value of employee relations in organisations, with a case study of Marks and Spencer. It outlines the fundamentals of employment law, the rights, duties, and obligations of employers and employees, and provides suitable suggestions for improvement. The report also examines the contribution and engagement of stakeholders in building healthy employee relations, and the positive and negative impacts of employee relations on motivation, engagement, and performance.

Employees Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Define employee relations and its importance in context of organisational examples....3
P2. Fundamentals of employment law...................................................................................4
M1. Through examples, analyse the importance of employee relations in context of improved
results......................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3. Rights, duties and obligations of employer and employee...............................................6
P4. Suitable suggestions relating to rights, obligations and duties.........................................8
M2. Evaluate the physiological contract and help for employee work life balance...............9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5. Contribution and engagement of stakeholder can help to build healthy employee relations.
................................................................................................................................................9
M3. Examine various stakeholders interests and perspectives in the wider environment of
business.................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
P6. Positive and negative impact of employee relations......................................................10
M4. Critique how positive and negative impacts of employee relations affect motivation,
engagement and performance...............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................13
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
The organisational success is based upon two main components i.e. employees and
management. An organisation requires employees to perform tasks and activities so that overall
objectives can be attained. People working together towards a shared objective within a
company. Hence, that is why employees are known as the asset of an organisation. The term
employee relations defines the efforts put by a company to build and maintain a positive
relationship with the workers (Aslam and et.al.,2021). By constructing positive and healthy
relations with employees, organisation raise the hope to hold loyal and more engaged workers in
the work. The human resource department of an organisation typically manages the efforts of
maintaining employees relations. The following report considers the Marks and Spencer
Company. It is global retailer with headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It is mainly known
for its clothes, domestic products and more. Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer was the
founder of company. Moreover, it has world-wide business operations across the UK. It has 959
outlets throughout the country. The current report aims to discuss the significance and value of
employee relations. It outlines the employment laws and range of duties, rights and obligations
of the employment relations. Later, it shows how stakeholder endeavour and engagement can
help to build healthy relationship within the business. At the end, it shows the positive and
negative impact of employee relations within an organisation.
TASK 1
P1. Define employee relations and its importance in context of organisational examples.
Employee relations are meant by the effort done by organisation for strengthening bonds
with the members who involved in the business. Having good and positive relationship with the
employees make sure a perfect sync between both sides parties. This ensures the stability in
organisation which is important for the regular growth. Employee relations also has an impact on
the employee satisfaction and engagement. Organisations such as Marks and Spencer ensures to
make an investment in the human resources so as to enhance the relations with workers. This
major aim is to make employees happy, satisfied and productive with their respective jobs.
Employee relations experts possesses the role of investigate the issues and case in context of
wider range of topics such as work policy violations, employee harassment, conflicts among
employees, behavioural issues, allegations and many more. When an employee performs not

well then it cost to the reputation of organisation. Some of the common examples that must be
looked out by the ER manager such as employee contribution, engagement, resolving issues and
conflicts, indulge recommendations and suggestions, employees bullying, safety and personal
hygiene, alcoholic and drug cases and many more.
Value and significance of employee relations-
 Retain loyal employee: Losing a good employee can be devastating for an organisation.
Employees leave the organisation if they find that they do not have a friendly relations
with their seniors. When an individual feels comfortable around the senior and tend to
appreciate it, they are far more preferable to stick to the same organisation. Hence,
organisations that encourage amicable relationship between employers and employee are
more successful.
 Increased productivity: When an employee feel that they are having an amicable
relations with employers and feel free to communicate and share things with then are
likely to be more productive and the more productive employees supports in more
revenue generation for the business (Bäckström and Bengtsson, 2019). Therefore, when a
person is satisfied to work the company, they are more likely to contribute their efforts
and hold an individual interest in the tasks they work on.
 Increased motivation: Positive employee relations also helps to motivate employees to
indulge their best and hard towards their jobs. Having a good conversation with
employees is not enough to maintain a health relations with them. It contains identifying
the efforts of employees within the organisation. When an individual drives higher level
of motivation is less prefer to experience burnout.
P2. Fundamentals of employment law.
Employment law can be defined as the area of law that directs the employer and
employee relationship in the organisational setting. An organisation is likely to exploit
employment laws when they have more than one employee engaged in the business. It contains
both state and federal laws and various different subjects in order to safeguard the rights of
employees. In addition to Marks and Spencer, there are various laws of employment such as civil
rights, family and medical leave, worker's compensation law, labour relations laws many more.
Other labour laws involves workplace safety and hygiene, child labour and more. For example, if
an employee faces the issues of bullying or harassment by their collogues or disqualified in the

interview process due to the reasons of colour or gender discrimination, then the person has a
right to take a significant action by filing a case on the organisation (Bhattacharya, and
Banerjee, 2018). Hence, these laws and legislations supports an employee to work freely within
the business. The following are some laws discussed in the context of Marks and Spencer which
helps in the protection of employees rights-
 Equality Act, 2010: Workplace discrimination is the most common cause in the
organisation. It is all about mistreating employee based on the membership on particular
protected features such as race, gender reassignment, sex, disability, age, marriage and
civil partnership, sexual orientation and few more. Discriminating employee against any
of the protected features is against the law and can result in the workplace discrimination
claim against the company.
 The National Minimum Wage Act, 1998: It showcases the minimum amount of pay an
employee is entitled to per hour. It is relied on the employee's age and there is certain rate
for beginners. There is a requirement to pay minimum wages to the employees in UK. If
an employer does not give the minimum wages to the employees then it is against the
law. From 1st April, 2021, the minimum wage rate is Euro 8.91 for the individual who has
the age of 23 and over, for 21-22 years old, it is Euro 8.36 and for 18-20 years old, it is
Euro 6.56 and many more (Calderwood and et.al., 2021).
 Family and medical laws, 1993: This act helps employees to protect their rights of jobs
while they are able to take a leave of absence for their family members. With the help this
law, an employee can be granted to take unpaid leaves around 12 per year to attend their
parents, spouse, children or for their own purpose without fear of losing employment.
 Part-time workers regulations, 2000: This act ensures that any part-time employees
appointed in the organisation should be received equal treatment with the full-time
employees.
M1. Through examples, analyse the importance of employee relations in context of improved
results.
It is analysed that maintaining healthy and strong employee relations is very important
for an organisation as it can effects the total productivity and results of the business. Companies
which have healthy relations with their employees tends to get better and positive results because
research has been shown that employees who are happy and satisfy works with more hard work

and dedication that affects the results. For example, employer of Marks and Spencer may face
issues of conflicts among employees and high rate of employees turnover that results in less
production in the business. Motivation and strong relations with employees are important to push
employees towards goals of business.
TASK 2
P3. Rights, duties and obligations of employer and employee.
Both employees and employers within the workplace have range of rights, duties and
obligations. Rights of employees will safeguard them from any baneful events such as unsafe
working environments, age discrimination and many more. Obligations keep the employees to be
responsible for their work and also make sure that all members do their work ethically and
accountably at the organisation (Han,2019). In case of Marks and Spencer, the different rights,
duties and obligations of employee and employer are discussed underneath:
Rights of Employer-
 Employer has a right to hire and select the individuals who fit the job role and position.
They also have a right to terminate the employee if they find him misconducting in the
business.
 The right is to safeguard the information of their customers or clients or trade secrets
which is confidential in the business.
 Employer has a right to get a resignation letter from the workers before leaving the
organisation. In this the employee is liable to give a notice period to the employer so that
the seat can be refilled. Depending on the HR policy of any organisation, the notice
period ranges from one week to one or two months. Suppose if an employee leave the
organisation without serving the notice then there is a right for the employer to take legal
action against the particular employee.
 He also has a right to get notified by the employee before he takes any leave from the
company. He also has a right to approve or reject the leave request of a worker. He can
reject the leave request by seeing that employee already to took several leaves earlier due
to which employee is not performing well in the company.
Duties and obligations of employer-

 The employer has the duty to make sure that all the basic amenities such as First Aid,
Rest Rooms, drinking water, Canteen and more should be present in the workplace.
 The duty is that a representative should be available during the distribution of wages
(Hazriyanto and Pauzi, 2020). It is the duty to see that wages are distributed without any
discrepancies and error.
 The basic obligations of employer is to ensure the safety of female employees such as
indulging a safe working surrounding for women.
 He must display on the notice board about the consequences of crime against female
employees.
 An employer is obliged to not allow a pregnant woman to do any heavy work which takes
long hours of standing.
 The obligation is to observe the contracts, laws and agreements.
 He is also obliged to treat employees equally without any discrimination.
 It is the duty to let employees to use their paid leaves.
 It is also the duty to pay gratuity to any worker who has gave services for five years.
Rights of Employee-
 An employee has a right to have safe and hygienic working environment. Therefore, the
company is responsible to indulge safe work environment to their staff members which
has adequate arrangements for safety purpose.
 The right is to ask for decorous rest time while they are working in the organisation.
Marks and Spencer is also liable to pay at least half and hour for the rest so that employee
can be reenergised and helpful for their mental health.
 An employee has a right to take paid leaves annually. It covers sick leaves, casual
planned leaves and few more (Hlaing, 2020). Hence, the chosen organisation is liable to
fix a specific number of holidays for their workers which they will receive and enjoy.
Duties and obligations of an employee-
 An employee is responsible to do their work personally and seriously as they may get
fired if they are often late for job or absent too often for no reasonable reason.
 He is responsible to secure and protect the confidential data of the company. If the data is
lost by the employee then he or she may get fired from the company.

 An employee must be obliged to treat their co-workers with respect and do not
discriminate or bully due to the cause of differences in age, colour, religion or more.
 He is required to attend all the induction and training sessions which is rendered by
management.
 An employee is liable to wear uniform or any type of protective equipment which
necessary to carried out the activities which involves risks and danger.
P4. Suitable suggestions relating to rights, obligations and duties.
From the above discussion, it has been seen that both employer and employee has
different rights, duties and obligations to be adhered within the organisation. It is found that the
right of an employer is the duty of an employee. For example, if an employer is the right to
secure the client's information within the business, then it becomes the duty of an employee to be
loyal for the company and do not try to leak any confidential data from the office. Otherwise, the
specific employee may way legal consequences and actions by the employer. While, the
employee has a right to get minimum wages or paid leaves in the organisation, hence, it is duty
of an employer to grant reasonable amount of wages or indulge annual leaves to them.
In addition to Marks and Spencer, the suggestion is to use the services of ACAS
(Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services). It is known as the crown non-departmental
public body of the United Kingdom government whose main aim is to increase the organisation's
working with the help of promotion and provides a strong practice of industrial relations
(Marzec, 2020). This body aims to facilitates advices on the employment relations and
employment law for both employees and employers through its helpline, training sessions and
official website. For examples, there are many cases occurred in the business through which
employers and employees both get frustrated which affects the overall result of the company.
The misunderstanding in the communication also leads to negative productivity in the business.
Therefore, ACAS also offers services to resolve disputes in the business. They facilitate
mediation, arbitration and many more. These are also represented by the employers, trade unions
to resolve such issues and conflicts. With an aim to secure the rights of employer and employee,
ACAS can better indulge services to maintain healthy relations between them.
M2. Evaluate the physiological contract and help for employee work life balance.
It has been evaluated that individual physiological contracts lets workers to view their
role and responsibilities within the business. It supports in avoid chimerical expectations from

both of the parties. It also explains the revising the contract terms if necessary which are done
through verbal way only and on regular basis. In addition to M&S, it is observed that there are
some mutual understanding, expectations and commitments which are not written and not
tangible between employer and employee (Maung, 2019). By showing such commitments,
employees tends to work harder for the company and maintain a strong relations with employees.
A balanced contract of physiologies between both parties helps to future performance in the
business. When an employee puts extra effort and time for the company then it is duty of
employer to pay overtime or promote to higher position as per their performance. If individual
obligations are not prioritised then it is not hard to ignore the significant activities of life.
TASK 3
P5. Contribution and engagement of stakeholder can help to build healthy employee relations.
Stakeholders can be referred to a party that has an interest in an organisation and can
either impact or be impacted by the corporate entity. The main stakeholders of an organisation
are its employees, investors, suppliers or customers. Stakeholder engagement is a process
through which an organisation can communicate and receives an opportunity to understand them
closely. In case of Marks and Spencer, when the organisation is having a good communication
with them, then there is chance to know their demands, when they they want and hows they can
engaged with a business, also how plan and action of an organisation will influence its aims.
When an organisation effectively engage their stakeholders then it is beneficial to translate their
needs into objectives and goals of business. This engagement and contribute of stakeholder is
important to the success of business (Mittal, 2021). There is a possibility that may be varied from
business to business. All stakeholders have a unique perspective which will delivers a great
success to the business In case of M&S, the different stakeholders plays different roles to
contribute success to the company. The discussion is below-
 Customers: Customers are the ones who shops and consume good and services of a
business. They tend to invest their money into products which delivers quality and
satisfaction. Price factor is more important for them. In addition to Marks and Spencer,
customer engagement and contribution is more important as it helps to generate revenue
for the business.

 Employees: Employees are the persons who have a direct stake in the business. They are
ones who interact and deal with clients and consumers and know and understand their
demands and the same convey to the company so that the company can produce and
deliver as per their taste and choices. They are source of success of business. In order to
engage employees in the business, the chosen company provides various benefits such as
career growth opportunities, job satisfaction, bonuses and many more.
 Investors: They can be owners or vendors of the organisation who have certain rights to
receive information on regular basis such as information about account details or
financial statements (Nanda and Randhawa, 2019). They have various rights such as
approve or reject the big choices of business such as mergers or acquisitions. In addition
to M&S, the investors brings connection in the business and supports to build a positive
brand image.
 Government agencies: These are one of the major stakeholders of the organisation who
plays the role to collect taxes from the expenditure or profits that has been made by an
organisation. Government benefits from the total gross domestic profits that M&S
contributes.
Stakeholders analysis-
 High power and high interest: These are the most vital stakeholders and company
should prioritise maintaining healthy relations with them. In context of Marks and
Spencer, these stakeholders could be investors of the company who invest their money
for certain return while possess significant role in the decision-making process.
 High power, low interest: Because of the influence of such stakeholders, company
should work to keep these people happy. For M&S, these stakeholders could be trade
unions.
 Low power and high interest: These are people who should be well-informed and check
in with them timely to ensure they are not facing any difficulty. For M&S, it could be
customers who are essential for the making of profit for the business.
 Low power and low interest: These people informed annually. For Marks and Spencer,
these persons could be leader or directors of company who are not involved directly and
need to be updated annually.

M3. Examine various stakeholders interests and perspectives in the wider environment of
business.
It is examined that different stakeholders have different interests and perspectives in the
business. These people have different role for the business such as investors plays a major role in
the decision-making process. Customers helps business to make more profits. Employees serves
for the benefit of company and many more. They are ones who limits the risks of business.
TASK 4
P6. Positive and negative impact of employee relations.
Employee relations can build or break the organisation. When employees are happy and
satisfied, they put extra efforts into their jobs. It brings productivity and perform their best to
meet employer's expectations and support organisation in their growth, resulting more revenue
and happy clients of the company. Employees relations have both positive and negative impacts
on the organisation. In context of Marks and Spencer, these impacts are mentioned below-
 Reduction in turnover: Employee relations acts as a backbone of an organisation.
Unhealthy and poor employee relations will impact the efficiencies and productivities
and resulting higher rate of employees turnover in the business. Company that have
healthy employee relations and indulge fair amount of wages and other compensation
and benefits, making it in the best employees' interest to stick with the company (Pitafi
and et.al.,2020). For the Marks and Spencer, when employees are getting healthy
workplace environment increases employee motivation and morale to work in the
business.
 Employees have extensive knowledge of company practices: The decrease in
employee's turnover make sure that workers stay with the business for a longer time
period, which let them to acquire knowledge about organisational practices, procedures,
policies and many more. They are highly efficient, qualified, skilled and can indulge
training for new members.
 Reduction in Conflicts: Conflicts are the most common issues within the workplace and
delivers a negative impact on the organisational productivity and are less likely to put the
efforts to a distrust environment between employers and employees. Having a good
employee relations can help to limit the workplace conflicts and will boost the

productivity (PS and Aithal, 2021). When conflicts are resolved, it becomes easy for the
employers to motivate their employees to give their best towards their jobs.
M4. Critique how positive and negative impacts of employee relations affect motivation,
engagement and performance.
It is seen that maintaining a positive relations with employees drives motivation among
them to work harder for the business. When employee gets more interacted with each other and
share something such as issues and more brings motivations in the company. When an
organisation is lacking with the motivation, it affects the engagement level and performance
level in the business. Also, leads to more employee's turnover in the company. Communication is
essential to know the issues and expectations of employees. The performance of employee
negatively influenced when they get constructive criticism mixed with the appreciation.
Somehow, it can be improved with the help effective strategies. In case of M&S, the employee
engagement means to make employees emotionally attached with the business. Therefore,
maintaining healthy employee relations is more important that supports in more employee
engagement, motivation and performance level (Sandhya and Sulphey, 2020).
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that employees relations are important for both employer and
employee. They have both positive and negative implications on the business. The rights of
employer and employee helps both of them to work within certain circumstances so that flow can
be maintained in the business. Both employers and employers are obliged to do their respective
jobs effectively.

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