Managing Employee Relations: An Analysis of BCG's Approach

This report analyzes the current levels of trade union density and collective bargaining coverage in the South East of England, and evaluates the approach adopted by BCG for managing employee relations. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of BCG's approach and the employee voice strategy adopted by the company.

CONSULTANCY REPORT

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Executi ve Summary
Managing the employee relations has been considered as to be the vital processes for any of the
concerned organization as it helps in developing the business processes of the concerned
organization. The primary purpose of the paper is to outline the current levels of the trade union
density along with the collective bargaining coverage throughout the South East of England.
There are different approaches adopted by BCG towards managing the employee relations,
which is reflected throughout the paper. The paper will help in evaluating the advantages and
disadvantages of this approach which is adopted by BCG for managing their relations with the
employees. It needs to be understood that the employee voice strategy adopted by BCG for
understanding the vice of the employees towards their work.
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Main Context...............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................7
References...................................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
This study will analyze best practices gaps in various companies along with the approaches to
develop Employee relations. It will also reveal the adopted methods by the managers to manage
the staffs either through their trade unions or one by one. The paper will analyses the voice
strategy managers are using for managing their concerned employees. It is important to identify
the current levels of trade union density and bargaining coverage used by a company. The paper
will also cover the different procedure of union recognition, collective bargaining and the state of
employment relations. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is successfully operating three gardens
centres in South East England. Employee relations means to manage relations between
employees and employers. A firm with a good staff relations program assign a consistent and fair
manner to all staffs, so they were committed properly to their job and faithful towards the
company.
Main Context
Statistical sources
1. Present levels of collective bargaining and trade union density coverage in the South
East of England- Trade Union density and collective bargaining density coverage are
useful to provide an estimate of the levels of trade union membership density for all
workers (Olander and Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, 2015). Trade union Membership statistics
have been produced as a National Statistics. It is the study of the employment
circumstances of the UK population and this is consider as the statistical survey of people
living in private households. To reach agreement preferably to the satisfaction of both
parties is the main goal of collective bargaining. In the UK Less than 29% of all
employees are covered by collective bargaining (Zheng et al., 2015). When bargaining
occurs in the sector of private, collective bargaining is the most important level is at the
company. Bargaining is conducted by employers and trade unions. As stated by today's
statistical release, there are 6.2 million staffs in were trade union members in the UK. In
comparison with 16.3%, non-UK-born staffs were involved in trade union where majority
of UK born staffs is 24.6% in a trade union in 2017.
2. Labor Force Survey regarding trade union members in the South East Retail &
Wholesale and Storage and Transportation industries- The business is divided into
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main parties, that is horticulture and the retail division, the transport division (Crisóstomo
and Freire, 2015). The horticulture and retail company has ten garden Centre which is to
be the target of 50 employees each. They should be qualified, and those employees who
are not qualified enough will have to do an NVQ in horticulture. The annual increase in
employment of 74,100 in the year of 2018 to the second quarter, Brought up a total
employment to 2,255,000. The number of employees in the labour force is also affected
by the changes in the size of the population of working age. In the private sector trade
union membership level were around 13. 4% to 13.5% (Townsend, Wilkinson and
Burgess, 2014). And in sector of public, trade union membership levels drop by 52.7% to
51.8% in 2017.
3. Median gross hourly pay for all employees in South East England- Product specialist
work full time both inside and outside. They treat flowers, plants as well as handling
garden furniture and things. Ten long-distance drivers will collect products from
continental Europe and ten people in the distribution centre and ten local delivery driver.
Their starting pay scale of employees will be £12.50-£13.50 per hour depending on their
qualifications. But that employee who is not much qualified, to do an NVQ in
Horticulture sponsored by the company. And those who are working in the Wholesale &
Retail and Transportation & Storage industries, their basic training pay is £5.00-8.00 per
hour depending on age and experience (Zhu et al., 2015). This is also defined that the
population aged 16 or over are in paid business in addition to those in government
employment or self-employment. Shift work also included putting strength in summer
and spring when most plants and flowers are in demand.
The statistics present in this study are based on fourth-quarter estimates (October to
December) from the Labor Force Survey.
Sort of approach to Employee Relations is BCG adopting
Employee relation procedure consists various approaches process and methods adopted by
employers to manage with employee either in the group through individually or trade unions
(Reeves, 2016). Employee relations policy contain the maintenance of excellent relations with
employees and their unions and the effective management of the work procedure. Brown has
expressed the view that employees must give 200% in their jobs. He expects employees to work
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overtime in spring as well as in summer for the increased demand of the customers during those
seasons (Tansel and Gazîoğlu, 2014). And given the to the department manager to make
decisions and to behave strictly on attendance and the policy of a dress code. By these
approaches, it can help the firm to build a strong partnership between the workforce and
management. There are three types of approaches to employee relations-
1. Traditional- how management will conduct a team to work more to increase their
products for the demand of the customers.
2. Adversarial- The organization will decide what the expectation of the customers are and
how an employee will be fit into it.
3. Sharing of power- the employee should involve in both day to day work and performance
and decision making.
Advantages of its approach
With this approach, firms have a significantly have a higher chance of making their organization
more successful. Productivity will improve and increase. Most employees like overtime, it can
put employee individually in control of their personal lives and work lives (Conway et al., 2016).
The approaches are a benefit to offer employees or to attract one to fill the judgmental role in
their work. Overtime can improve company productivity by allowing staffs to arrange their
work, during their times of the day.
Disadvantages of its approach
It could make difficult for employees daily operations, whether there is any meeting, staffs have
to complete their work on time, and that can be argument work (Popescu, 2018). Overtime and
suggestion reward program make many employees and non-winners disappointed, which
destroyed morale and engaged value of employees. All are working for the company, not an
individual is working, and one is rewarded, this can cause severe problems within the team. And
it can make people feel as if they are out altogether.
Is this advisable now the business is expanding?
No, this is not advisable because the overtime timetable were related with a 61% higher injury
rate compared to work without overtime. It was found that Job schedules having long working
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hours were increases risk of stroke (Fratričová and Rudy, 2015). It is better to increase the
employee rather than time. Overtime makes employees disappointed and will kill their interest in
work. The growth of a business is good, but overtime for an employee will affect the health. Few
studies have analyses the effect of extended working hours on workers, chance for occupational
illness and injuries.
What kind of Employee Voice strategy is BCG adopting?
BCG gave the opportunity to employees to provide their views, and employee voice means
where their views are sought out, and they listened to their opinions too (Griffin, Bryant and
Koerber, 2015). By employee voice, they expect that employees will be active in their work and
in contributing to the decisions within the firm. Employee voice is defined as two-way
communication between employee and managers. BCG adopted a Formal voice strategy. Some
approaches they adopted for the employees-
 Meetings for employees at every location, every six months to provide an update in work
performance and encourage the team to work hard. Inspiring make an employee work
hard for the right reasons.
 A firm will also conduct a suggestion plan for business and improvement operationally
for the employees, and they will also discuss the specific problem with management
(Mishra, Boynton and Mishra. 2014)
 They will also give prizes and award for the suggestion which will be better and
successful. Each employee will be enrolled under the pension scheme provided by the
company which is liable than the scheme of new government-sponsored (Mowbray,
Wilkinson and Tse, 2015)
The above employee voice policies and the mechanism are useful for other employment in all
sectors. An excellent Human Resource (HR) policy provides good guidance on the strategy
adopted by the firm and employees also concern about the various aspects of employment
(Albrecht et al., 2015). BCG has given power to a department managers to make decisions
clearly and enforce the strict attendance for employees of a company that has to be regular
and on time for the company productivity. Including that HR policy is also to see that
employee maintaining their dress code regularly to look professional at work. However, the
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responsibility of the manager to explained clearly about the dress code to all the employees
in advance to ensure consistent enforcement and compliance.
The suggestion regarding employee voice strategy or mechanisms, and if so what and why?
Employee voice accomplish through formal and informal mechanisms. Formal mechanisms
include communication tool execute through firm HR department, such as employee surveys,
etc. whereas Informal voice strategy includes conversation generally between employers and
employees, feedback about their work performance. It would be highly suggested regarding
voice strategy of an employee that Informal voice mechanisms can influence corporate
decision making through their actions and group discussion with the employees will help
them to improve their skill and to learn more about the work. Feedback to employees will
help them to improve more their quality of work and even to boost their productivity.
Communication between employers and employees will help both to understand each other’s
view about the production and work and also encourage employees to talk about their
experience, and it helps an organization to know about what to change.
Employee voice does not just assist to progress employee capability individually but also the
employee's participation and ability to work within the firm. Permit employees to talk openly
about the issue and they feel more connected to the leaders of a company as well as with the
other employee also. All these strategies will help an employee to work in a positive
environment.
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Conclusion
The paper helps in providing the facts regarding the current levels of the concerned trade union
density as well as collective bargaining coverage within the Southeast of England. The paper
also highlighted the fact that BCG had significantly adopted many of the vital approaches
towards managing the relations with the employees that is to work more at the time of summer
and spring because that is the time when the demand of the customers increased. So CEO plans
to conduct a meeting for the staffs at every six months. Including that there is also described the
voice strategy of an employee like meetings to inspire employees about their performance. After
supporting employee, voice firm will achieve positive factors about an organization Firm is also
operating a suggestion scheme for an improvement of a business and a most successful
suggestion the company is giving an award. Also, they are providing a pension scheme for the
employees.
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References
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Conway, E., Fu, N., Monks, K., Alfes, K. and Bailey, C., 2016. Demands or resources? The
relationship between HR practices, employee engagement, and emotional exhaustion within a
hybrid model of employment relations. Human Resource Management, 55(5), pp.901-917.
Crisóstomo, V.L. and Freire, F.D.S., 2015. The influence of ownership concentration on firm
resource allocations to employee relations, external social actions, and environmental
action. Revista brasileira de gestão de negócios, 17(55), pp.987-1006.
Fratričová, J. and Rudy, J., 2015. Get Strategic Human Resource Management Really Strategic:
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Griffin, J.J., Bryant, A. and Koerber, C.P., 2015. Corporate responsibility and employee
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Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
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Mowbray, P.K., Wilkinson, A. and Tse, H.H., 2015. An integrative review of employee voice:
Identifying a common conceptualization and research agenda. International Journal of
Management Reviews, 17(3), pp.382-400.
Olander, H. and Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P., 2015. Perceptions Of Employee Knowledge Risks
In Multinational, Multilevel Organisations: Managing Knowledge Leaking And
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Popescu, D.I., 2018. Social Responsibility and Business Ethics: VI. Redefining Company
Strategy in the New Socio-Economic Context. Quality-Access to Success, 19(162).
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Reeves, M., 2016. Leaders Beware: One Size Does Not Fit All When It Comes to
Strategy. Leader to Leader, 2016(79), pp.24-29.
Tansel, A. and Gazîoğlu, Ş., 2014. Management-employee relations, firm size and job
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Zheng, C., Molineux, J., Mirshekary, S. and Scarparo, S., 2015. Developing individual and
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