How Employee Relations Influence Stakeholder Behavior

This article discusses the influence of employee relations on stakeholder behavior. It explores the values and importance of employee relations, fundamentals of employment law, rights and obligations of employers and employees, and stakeholder analysis. It also highlights the ways in which stakeholder engagement contributes to positive employment relations.

How employee relations
can influence the
behaviour of different
stakeholders

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Values as well as importance of employee relations along with fundamentals of
employment law applied to entity. ..............................................................................................1
2. Different kind of rights, duties addition to obligations which are with employer and
employee along with suitable advice related to duties, obligations and rights............................3
3. Stakeholders analysis along with analysis related to the ways in which stakeholder
engagement along with contribution can support employment relations at workplace in
positive manner............................................................................................................................5
4. Analysis of impacts of positive along with negative employee relations on distinct
stakeholders..................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Employee relations is termed as organisational efforts for managing relationships at
workplace. It is multidisciplinary field that states about ways to manage complex interrelations
between trade unions, superiors, employees and many more. Presently, it is considered as
essential part for keeping all business run in smooth manner, ensuring workings are performed at
base and reducing problems (Andriof and Et. Al., 2017). To understand influences of employee
relations on different stakeholders behaviour, Unilever is selected which is leading multinational
firm that sells fast moving consumer commodities across the world. Its co-headquarters are
established at London, England. The report highlight about values and importance of employee
relations, fundamentals of employment law, different rights, obligations addition to duties an
employee and employee has in company. It also involves complete stakeholder analysis for the
organisation and analysis of positive and negative impacts of employee relations on distinct
stakeholders.
MAIN BODY
1. Values as well as importance of employee relations along with fundamentals of employment
law applied to entity.
Employee relations is mentioned to the emotional, practical, contractual as well as
physical relationship among people at different level in organisation. It strengthens relationships
among superior and subordinates by identifying and resolving issues at premises, measuring
morale and satisfaction of organisational people and providing support to performance
management system (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020). In present era, all companies are focusing on
establishing strong employee relations as it create pleasant atmosphere in the environment of
work that result sin improving productivity and other factors. In relevance with Unilever, there
are several factors which determines values together with importance of employee relations that
are applicable in its premises. Following are some:
Conflict minimisation: Employee relations leads to efficient and friendly work
environment that is important for minimising conflicts among workforce. For example, within
Unilever, healthy employee relations are essential as it minimises chances of conflicts as it
allows establishment of suitable adjustments that stimulate coordination, integration and
harmony amongst personal.
1

Improves productivity: Healthy as well as strong employee relations generally create
pleasant atmosphere in the organisational environment wherein people work. It increases
motivation together with morale of employee that further leads to huge productivity. For
example, values and importance of the concept in Unilever are reflected through its investment
via employee relations programs that shows increment in productivity that also improves
organisational profits.
Employee loyalty: When suitable employee relations are created at company then it
shows drastic effects on loyalty of employee towards workings and business (Bendell, 2017). In
context to Unilever, productive work situation encourages loyal workforce which improves
retention of personnel which cuts various costs like sourcing, recruitment and training in drastic
manner. In the business, healthy employee relations are important for decreasing absenteeism
problems and making workforce loyal with company and giving best.
Fundamentals related to employment law
Employment law is mentioned to collection of legislations which are necessary to be
applied for maintaining employee- employer relations in business. It is considered as broad area
which involves aspects related to relations excluding negotiation procedures which are covered
in labour law as well as collective bargaining. There are various fundamentals that are part of
employment law which are applied by managers of Unilever in all its premises. Some of them
are as explained:
Workplace safety law: The fundamental of the law is to provide safety to employees at
workplace. It is essential for managers or superiors to keep workplace healthy as well as safe for
the subordinates. In Unilever, human resource managers applies the law to protect employees
from uncertain and recognised hazards such as unsanitary situations for change, exposure of
toxic chemicals and so on. They provides all safety measures together with equipments that
reduces risks and injuries to protect all people (Bosse and Coughlan, 2016).
Minimum wages law: The employment law whose fundamentals are based on creating
minimum wages for the employees. As per the law, it is important for companies to pay £6.15
for the employees between 18 to 20 age, £7.70 to workforce between age of 21- to 24 and £8.21
to employees above 25 years. Along with this, £3.90 are also paid for apprentices. In case with
Unilever, the managers pays minimum employment as per the stated fundamentals that makes
employee happy and retained with company.
2

To the managers of Unilever, it is suggested that they can involve employees in decision
making, promote clear communication, makes employee feel valuable, rewards them time to
time, offer career development, boost healthy work balance and must utilise software for
streamlining redundancy as well as eliminating mistakes. When all these will be applied by
Unilever then it can improve together with respond towards relations with employees in effective
manner.
2. Different kind of rights, duties addition to obligations which are with employer and employee
along with suitable advice related to duties, obligations and rights.
Different duties, obligations and rights of an employer and employee:
In a organisation, employers and employee have various kinds of rights, duties and
obligations (Campbell and Tawadey, 2016). Following are some in context to employees and
employers of Unilever:
Employers
Rights: Following are the rights of employers of Unilever:
 One of right of employers is to demand for hard work. In this, employers of Unilever
has full right to demand hard work and completion of activities from the individuals hired
by them.
 Right of implementing work policy is another right that employer has in the business
(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In Unilever, employers are entitled for framing and
executing particular workplace policy in accordance to needs and conditions pertaining at
work environment.
Duties: Some of the duties that are within employers of Unilever are below:
 It is the duty of organisational employers to pay compensation to employees on time. In
case with employers of Unilever, they have duty to pay employees as per their
contribution in workings and objective attainment.
 The another duty of employers of Unilever is to ensure utilisation of equipments, tools
and other substances in safe manner so that chances of accidents are reduced or
eliminated.
Obligations: Employer of Unilever have following obligations:
 The employers have obligation for delivering accurate information and messages to all
workforce in proper manner. In context to Unilever, its employers are obliged for sharing
3

suitable and full information in accurate manner that limits misinterpretations among
workforce.
 The another obligation of Unilever's employers is to maintaining and keeping
employment records in systematic format.
Employees
Rights: Following are certain rights of employees that are involved in Unilever:
 Right to acquire minimum salary on time as per work done is one of right that is with
employees which performs activities in Unilever.
 Right to be paid equally is another right that is with employees of Unilever in which
they should be paid equally without any discrimination as per gender, religion or others.
Duties: The duties of Unilever Employees are discussed underneath:
 It is the duty of employees working in Unilever to obey all the lawful as well as
reasonable orders as per the terms of employment contracts.
 The another duty that employees of Unilever has is to serve faithfully by contribution
their best in the achievement of objectives of company.
Obligation: Obligations that are within employees of Unilever are below:
 Employees of Unilever are obliged for following instructions that are given by superiors
in context to work rules.
 Organisational employees are also obliged for informing employers about mis-
happening on time (Cooper, 2017). In context to employees of Unilever, they are
obliged with providing accurate and prompt details about uncertain events or imminent
danger at workplace.
Advices related to rights, duties and obligations of employment relationships
Managers of Unilever are advised to protect employees and develop healthy relations by
embracing roles, managing workings, providing constructive feedbacks on time and many more.
Moreover, there are various situations that the company is facing such as shared culture,
continuous learning and hence forth. It is important for all the workforce to have certain rights,
duties along with obligations which are to be fulfilled by all. In this context, following are some
of the advices to Unilever:
Rights: The employers must have right of influencing working conditions of employment
relationship. For example, to build work life balance in Unilever, it is important to manage all
4

activities systematically and organised. In this, it is right of employer to influence working
situations by providing facilities such as group discussion participation and many more. In
context to employees, it right is to follow the terms and conditions for building balance in work
life of company.
Duties: The employers of Unilever are advised to follow their duties so to facilitate
employment relations as well as resolve issues that pertains in company. For example, if there
are uncertain situations that hampers working of company then in this context, employees must
perform duties to overlook scenario and provide suitable solutions. Along with this, it is advices
to employees that they have duty for accepting solutions and working on them.
Obligations: In Unilever, both employer and employees are obliged with various actions.
For example, when an individual meets with an accident in the premise then it is advised that
employees must not take risk of not informing high level authorities. In this, employees are
advised for informing about circumstance to employers which they are obliged for. For this,
employers are obliged for taking the individual to hospital and providing special treatment so
that they can recover soon (Jiang, Luo and Kulemeka, 2016). Along with this, they are also
advise to remain at the place where risky workings are carry forward.
Evaluation of psychological contracts
Psychological contracts are unwritten set of expectations that states informal obligations,
mutual beliefs and many more between employer and employee. As per situations in Unilever, it
is evaluated with psychological contract plays important role in stating about ethics, values and
other things that needs to be adhere by employees and employers. With the help of this contract,
employee work life balances are strengthen and contract diversity with communication are
created which results in adhering as all the rights, duties as well as obligations at different level.
3. Stakeholders analysis along with analysis related to the ways in which stakeholder
engagement along with contribution can support employment relations at workplace in
positive manner.
Stakeholders analysis is a tool which is opted by business concerns to determine key
individuals preceding to executing project, then grouping then in terms of participation level and
interest which determines their involvement in workings (Payne and Frow, 2017). By using
stakeholders analysis framework, top management of Unilever identifies as well as examine
5

needs of all people that are involved in particular project or with the company. Following is grid
of stakeholder analysis for Unilever:
LEVEL OF INTEREST
LEVEL OF
POWER
HIGH LOW
HIGH Owners Government
LOW Employees Customers
As per the above grid, factors related to level of power and level of interest are taken to
complete stakeholders analysis. The main stakeholders which are engaged as well as makes
contributions in supporting positive employment relationship in Unilever are underneath:
High power, High interest: The stakeholders that falls in the category are owners along
with management of Unilever. These people have high power as well as high interest for
devising decision to mange operations, tasks and relationships at premise (Ramus and Vaccaro,
2017). It is analysed that they makes contributions through implementing suitable decision and
gets involved with other people at that are subordinates of them to share views and solve issues
on time that shows their support for building positive employment relations.
Low power, high interest: Employees are considered as organisational stakeholders that
have relevant less powers and high interest towards what is going in company. In case with
Unilever, employees have high interest in tasks and activities but posses low power because of
organisational hierarchy. These stakeholders engages in all the operations and contributes their
best so that effective outcomes are generated in terms of profits and productivity that makes the
employee relations positive and support it.
High power, low interest: The stakeholder that belongs to this aspect is government.
They have less interest in internal environment of Unilever but has high power in fluctuating
external environment through implementing legislations of making modifications in existing
ones. They supports positive employment relationships at Unilever through implementing
legislations that are related to workings, standards and so on.
Low power, low interest: Customers are key stakeholders of company as they pals
essential function in business. They have low power together with low interest in practices and
6

operations that are performed by Unilever workforce. They only takes interest when they have to
buy some product which is offered by the company in market. Moreover, they contributes in
supporting employment relationships at the company through making purchase decision and
providing feedbacks for the experiences they gained at its stores (Reddi, 2019).
4. Analysis of impacts of positive along with negative employee relations on distinct
stakeholders.
Employee relations impacts different stakeholders in various manner. Following are the
analysis of impacts that positive along with negative employee retains have on distinct
stakeholders of Unilever:
Customers: It is the stakeholder on which huge emphasis is given by company
(Waddock, 2017). Some of the impacts that employee relation have on customers of Unilever are
as analysed:
Positive: Positive employee relations results in coordination among employer and
employee in which they provide all the demanded products to customers on time that leads to
satisfaction of needs as well as providing them favourable experience that keeps them retained
with company. It impacts on satisfying all demands for distinct products on time and making
them happy with services.
Negative: Negative employee relations impacts on need fulfilment of customers due to
which they they can switch to other companies that provides similar products with various
additional services and features (Wilson, 2018). It impacts on customer interest and satisfaction
for the organisational products.
Owners and managers: Owners and managers are the stakeholder that are responsible to
manage entire administration workings and provide path towards success. The impacts that
positive and negative employee relation have on these stakeholders are the below:
Positive: Positive employee relations shows workings of owners and managers in smart
manner towards accomplishment of determined state. It impacts in implementation of policies
and other aspects on time so that all performances are executed promptly.
Negative: When situations related to negative employee relations resides then it impacts
drastically on set policies that restricts workings for growth and development of company.
Employees: These are important stakeholders of entity who contributes in huge manner
in the operations so that maximum objectives are achieved as per determined criteria (Zandvliet
7

and Anderson, 2017). Employees of Unilever have huge impacts of distinct employee relations
that are discussed below:
Positive: Positive employee relations impacts on improving loyalty, productivity and
motivation that boost efficiency of employees effectively. It also helps them to solve their
conflicts and work with huge determination for achieving goals.
Negative: Negative employee relations hampers working abilities of employees and also
demotivate them in Unilever. Moreover, in this situation they start laving the company and it
results in high absenteeism that results in unfavourable impacts.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes that employee relation plays essential function in an
company. Conflict minimisation, improving productivity and fostering employee loyalty are
some of the importance and values related to employee relations. Essential employment law
fundamentals that are followed in company are Workplace safety law and Minimum wages law.
There are various rights, duties together with obligations that are with employer and employee of
company. Stakeholders analysis assist in gaining understanding about the contributions that are
made by different stakeholders to suppor6t positive employment relation at organisational
workplace.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Andriof, J. and Et. Al., 2017. Unfolding stakeholder thinking: theory, responsibility and
engagement. Routledge.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2020. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bendell, J. ed., 2017. Terms for endearment: Business, NGOs and sustainable development.
Routledge.
Bosse, D. A. and Coughlan, R., 2016. Stakeholder relationship bonds. Journal of Management
Studies. 53(7). pp.1197-1222.
Campbell, A. and Tawadey, K., 2016. Mission and business philosophy. Elsevier.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Cooper, S., 2017. Corporate social performance: A stakeholder approach. Taylor & Francis.
Jiang, H., Luo, Y. and Kulemeka, O., 2016. Leading in the digital age: A study of how social
media are transforming the work of communication professionals. Telematics and
Informatics. 33(2). pp.493-499.
Payne, A. and Frow, P., 2017. Relationship marketing: looking backwards towards the future.
Journal of Services Marketing.
Ramus, T. and Vaccaro, A., 2017. Stakeholders matter: How social enterprises address mission
drift. Journal of Business Ethics. 143(2). pp.307-322.
Reddi, C. N., 2019. Effective public relations and media strategy. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Waddock, S., 2017. The difference makers: How social and institutional entrepreneurs created
the corporate responsibility movement. Routledge.
Wilson, F. M., 2018. Organizational behaviour and work: a critical introduction. Oxford
university press.
Zandvliet, L. and Anderson, M., 2017. Getting it right: making corporate-community relations
work. Routledge.