BMP6005 - Employment Relations: Challenges at Balfour Beatty PLC

This presentation assesses the practical and legal challenges in managing employment relationships, focusing on Balfour Beatty PLC's expansion into Germany. It identifies potential conflicts between employees, work-life balance issues, discipline and safety concerns, annual leave disputes, technological hurdles, wage issues, unfavorable work environments, timekeeping problems, job dissatisfaction, whistleblowing, privacy disclosure, diversity conflicts, immigration laws, communication barriers, and health and safety compliance. Recommendations include fostering open communication, prioritizing employee safety, ensuring policy compliance with German and UK laws, clarifying leave structures, providing technological training, implementing HR software, creating a supportive work environment, and using biometric systems for attendance. The aim is to mitigate these challenges and ensure successful employee relations within Balfour Beatty PLC's German subsidiary. Desklib offers a range of study tools and resources for students.

HRM
Oral assessment and presentation
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
The practical and legal challenges in management of the employment relationship within the
workplace.....................................................................................................................................3
Recommend set of employment relations issues.........................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
The employment relationship is legal binding/ link between the employees and employer of
an organization. This relationship emerges when an individual works under various terms and
conditions in return for some remuneration (Budd and Bhave, 2019). When the employees are
not satisfied with the provided remuneration for their work, it creates issues of wages & salary
and various other issues which can affect the working or performances in an organization. It can
lead to various management conflicts. The 4 Pillars of employee Relations are Communication,
Recognition, Feedback and Investment in employees. Balfour Beatty PLC. is a British
infrastructure company which provides services like construction, support services and
infrastructure investments in various countries.
This report will analyse the various practical and legal issues that the organizations face in
the management of their Human Resources. The recommendations for the same issues in context
to Balfour Beatty PLC. will be also discussed.
The practical and legal challenges in management of the employment relationship within
the workplace
The company is planning to open its subsidiary in Germany. There can be a number of
practical and legal challenges which can affect employee relationships at the Balfour Beatty.
These issues can affect the performance and working of the employees (Dieuaide and Azaïs,
2020). Some of the issues that can be faced by the management of an organization are
Conflicts between employees:
 Every organization comprises of employees from diverse cultures, beliefs, values and
thinking. With these variations conflicts at a workplace are inevitable (Catley and et.al.,
2017).
 One of the factor of these conflicts can be that the organization's hierarchy is formulated
in such a way that the employees cannot communicate with each other. When these misunderstanding are created then the employees will not be willing to work
with each other and the organization will face an unhealthy competition among the
employees themselves.
Work life balance issues:
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 With the excessive workload, the employees might not get time for their personal life.
The reason for this imbalance can be that there organizational objectives does not match
with their personal objectives. When employees cannot balance their personal life with their professional life, they will
feel stressed and demotivated (Williams and Kumar, 2018).
Discipline issues:
 The most common rules breached by the employees are unauthorized absence and misuse
of emails or internet provided at workplace (Badubi, 2017). The other issues can be poor time keeping or poor performance of the employees .
Issue of Safety at workplace: The company is dealing in construction business, which itself is a dangerous work.
 The other country have different equipments to work upon and employees might not be
familiar with those equipments. This can cause a lot of trouble to the company in safety
of the employees (Lal, Sahu and Mishra, 2021). The organizations where the employee does not feel safe, they will tend to be take
frequent leaves.
Annual Leave disputes:
 Every company have different leave structure. So many times the employees can get
confused about those complex structures and that can cause disputes at the workplace.
 Leave policies that Balfour Betty have in UK might not comply with the leave structures
in Germany. This can cause a lot of disputes between the employees. This can also affect the coordination between the employees of both the companies.
Technological Issues:
 Due to dynamic working environment, the organization may need to change its
technology for keeping up with market trends (Rogers, 2020). The company is trying to set up its subsidiary in Germany, which much more advanced
than the headquarter country. The employees might not be able to cope up with the
working environment in the subsidiary company. This will create hurdles in achieving
organizational objectives and thus the working and decision making of company will be
delayed.
Hour and wages issues:
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 Due to overtimes and time management issues employees can often create dispute over
their pay-checks.
 The managements with no HR softwares have to manually check the time and attendance
sheet records to check the daily details. This is a long process and the issues can increase
in between that time. The softwares used for this process might be different from the subsidiary company's
softwares. The employees who are not trained will become unable to coordinate with
those softwares (Messenger, 2018).
Unfavourable working environment:
 If the environment of the organization is not suitable is uncomfortable then employees
are most likely to take leaves. This will also impact the working and performance of the
employee at workplace. The basic facilities provided by the head company can be different in subsidiary
company. The disputes can arise in this working environment. The employee might feel
they are not getting the facilities as the other employees are getting in other companies.
Timekeeping and Attendance issues:
 The issue of attendance maintenance is more common. The traditional systems of
attendances carried out on registers can be misleading. It often contains errors. The traditional systems also lacks in managing the time in which the employees have to
achieve their objectives.
Job dissatisfaction:
 If the employee is not satisfied with his work in the company, he will not put any efforts
to achieve the goals of the organization (De Clercq and et.al., 2019). The job dissatisfaction of the employee can lead to absenteeism and employee turnovers.
Whistle blowing issues:
 Social media is considered as a part of job nowadays. Any behaviour of employee which
is considered as unethical or disloyal to the employer is non-tolerated in the organization. If the posts made by employee on the social media networks harms the company in any
way, then the employee is responsible for his own actions.
Privacy disclosure issue:
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 Every company have few works, policies or documents that are meant to be kept private.
Employees can disclose these issues which can harm the company in various ways. most of the new products/ innovations by the company gets leaked through its employees.
Diversity and conflicts:
 The diversity of employees in context of cultures, religions, beliefs, values and thinking
working under one roof can become reason for conflicts among them. When the organization fails to manage the diversity of its employees it will reflect in
their poor performances at work (Shepherd and et.al., 2019).
Immigration laws and Visa holders in the workplace:
 Every employee is to be given the same employment rights even if they are holding visa
or not; Even when the employee breach contracts the organization cannot cancel their visa.
Communication Challenges:
 If the channels of communication are complex, the employees will hesitate to work with
each other at work.
 Communication become a barrier due to cultural and language changes. Poor communication will become a barrier in achievement of the objectives of the
organisation.
Health and Safety laws:
 Both the country's safety laws are not much different from each other. But it is necessary
for the chosen organization to maintain various laws. Non compliance of these issues will trigger actions.
Employer's Liabilities Laws: It will contain all the constraints on which the company is liable to its employees. When
the company does not keep up with these laws the employee can file suit on the company.
Harassment Laws:
 Protection from Harassment Laws states that if anyone involved in harassment of
employee at workplace can be prosecuted in the court and is punishable when found
guilty. These issues can harm the reputation of the organization.
Discrimination laws:
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 According to these Laws, it is considered illegal to discriminate a person based on the
factors like age, gender, disability, race, religion, and marriage, etc.
Minimum Wages Laws:
 This Act creates a minimum amount of wage rate that the every organization is obelized
to pay to its employees. Balfour Beatty have to change the wages rates according to the
changing rates in the subsidiary company's country.
 The rates defined by the Act can be changed by the government as per the economic
conditions of the country. The company must work complying with these conditions and
have policy regarding this Law.
Recommendations in context of employment relations issues
There can be a number of conflicts that can arise in the organization. These issues if not
resolved, can lead to poor performance of employees at workplace. To reduce or prevent these
issues from emerging at Balfour Beatty's subsidiary at Germany, the company can consider the
following recommendations
 To resolve the issues of employee conflicts in Balfour Beatty, the company should
encourage open communication system between the employees to reduce the
misunderstandings and grievances between them.
 The company should adopt a system where the employees can share their concerns and
suggestions anonymously. It will allow them to share their concerns without any fear.
This will make the employee feel like their issues are being heard and resolved.
 The chosen organization should prioritize health and safety of the employees at
workplace. The equipments and machinery installed should be maintained regularly and
the employees working on them must be trained before employing them on those
equipments and machinery.
 The appropriate security measure must be installed within those systems (Simpson,
2021).
 A policy must be created which will contain the allowance of overtime hours up-to
which the employees can work, so they feel do not feel fatigued or tired. This can also
help in deducting the rescheduling of work again and again (Weil, 2018).
 The chosen organization needs to ensure that their policies are in compliance with the
given State and Federal Law of Germany as well as with accordance to the Laws of UK.
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 To minimize the risk of leave disputes, the organization must explain the leave structure
to the employees in their orientation program so that they have clear idea about the leave
policies. This will leave no room for creating any disputes at the workplace regarding
their leaves from work.
 The organization must consider the leave management softwares. It will help the
management in creating a legal and clear leave structure and policies that will put an end
to the disputes providing that every employee has access to that software.
 Germany is much more advanced in technology than UK. The employees of UK might be
unable to operate the advanced technologies in Germany. So to cope up with this issue,
the organization need to provide necessary training programs to its employees.
Otherwise, the employees will not be able to achieve the goals of the organization (Oeij,
Rus, and Pot, 2017).
 Every employee must be trained according to the technological developments upgraded
in his workload and to use the various HR software which are used by companies in
Germany.
 The organization can implement various HR software or self service time keeping
software that can help track and monitor time and hours of work to the employees and the
management that can work in bother the countries.
 The company can provide training to its employees regarding using the software of both
the countries. It will also help them in scheduling and preventing unnecessary overtime.
These software will also help in creating fair wages and salaries of the employees.
 The organization must create the work environment compatible to employees that ensures
the basic facilities like water, ventilations and light.
 The environment should be cooperative and team spirit must be focused there. This will
ensure that employees do not take frequent leaves (Cobb, 2017).
 To reduce this issue, the company needs to implement bio-metric or other softwares that
can help in tracking the time-in and time-out made by employees from the workplace.
 If the employees have any issues then they can communicate about those issues from
their devices or the software directly. This will also provide them the ideas regarding
their pending work and delay in those works.
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 The chosen Organization can implement the rule of punishment if the discipline of the
company is breached in any situation.
 The company will link its objectives with the personal objectives of the company so that
employees are motivated to work.
 The company can also develop Personal Development Plans for the employees through
which their personal and professional growth can be maintained significantly (McLellan,
2017).
 The company will be connected to the social media accounts of its employees in order to
consider it as a reference check of the employee.
 The company must get the document of privacy and disclosure signed from its employees
with mentioning the legalities to be charged if the contract is breached.
 The company must take out insurance against accidents and illness of employees so it can
keep up with the various Employer's Liabilities enforced by the government (Lockwood,
Henderson and Stansfeld, 2017).
 By following the Health and Safety Laws, the organization must consider setting up the
emergency procedures, providing training programs to the employees, provide experts to
help them in installing he arrangements for risk assessment and control.
 The company must formulate a policy regarding the discriminations and the harassments
faced by employees at workplace (Becton, Gilstrap and Forsyth, 2017).
 The chosen company must provide the remunerations in the forms of wages and salaries
in compliance with the National Wages Rates set by the governments of both the
countries accordingly.
 The company's management must be trained well to manage cultural diversities at the
workplace (Novak and et.al., 2017).
 The organization must create a grievance redressal committee in the organization
separately which can resolve issues without any biasness.
 Communication channels must be open and easy for all the employees at all the levels of
management.
 The company will formulate the policies regarding temporary work or the visa holder
workers in prior to their recruitment, so that they can take appropriate actions if the
contract is breached under any circumstances.
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CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the employment relations are the legal bindings between the
employees and employers of an organization. They are an integral part of the organisation. The
relationships between the parties exists when the employee agrees to follow certain criteria and
renders his performance or services in exchange for remuneration provided by the employer.
There are 4 pillars of employee relations; communication, recognition, feedback and investment
in employees. There are various issues that an organization faces in the management of its
employees such as conflicts, compliance to various laws, work life issues and salaries issues etc.
Various recommendations like prioritizing the health and safety, providing basic facilities,
various policies of harassment and discrimination at workplace for the employee are given in
context of Balfour Beatty PLC. The organization will follow the set of these recommendations to
avoid/reduce various issue of employee management at its workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Badubi, R.M., 2017. A critical risk analysis of absenteeism in the work place. Marketing. 2(6).
pp.32-36.
Becton, J.B., Gilstrap, J.B. and Forsyth, M., 2017. Preventing and correcting workplace
harassment: Guidelines for employers. Business Horizons. 60(1). pp.101-111.
Budd, J.W. and Bhave, D.P., 2019. The employment relationship: Key elements, alternative
frames of reference, and implications for HRM. The Sage handbook of human resource
management.
Catley, B. and et.al., 2017. Workplace bullying complaints: lessons for “good HR practice”.
Personnel Review.
Cobb, E.P., 2017. Workplace bullying and harassment: New developments in international law.
Routledge.
De Clercq, D. and et.al., 2019. The relationship between workplace incivility and helping
behavior: roles of job dissatisfaction and political skill. The Journal of psychology. 153(5).
pp.507-527.
Dieuaide, P. and Azaïs, C., 2020. Platforms of Work, Labour, and Employment Relationship:
The Grey Zones of a Digital Governance. Frontiers in Sociology. 5. p.2.
Lal, A., Sahu, K.K. and Mishra, A., 2021. Workplace safety: both physical and emotional. Acta
Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis. 92(2).
Lockwood, G., Henderson, C. and Stansfeld, S., 2017. An assessment of employer liability for
workplace stress. International Journal of Law and Management.
McLellan, R.K., 2017. Work, health, and worker well-being: roles and opportunities for
employers. Health affairs. 36(2). pp.206-213.
Messenger, J., 2018. Working time and the future of work. ILO future of work research paper
series.
Novak, J. and et.al., 2017. Do effective workplace relationships with management and an
effective maintenance culture affect organisational safety outcomes?. Reliability
Engineering and System Safety Journal.
Oeij, P., Rus, D. and Pot, F.D. eds., 2017. Workplace innovation: Theory, research and practice.
Springer.
Rogers, B., 2020. The Law and Political Economy of Workplace Technological Change. Harv.
CR-CLL Rev. 55. p.531.
Shepherd, S.M. and et.al., 2019. The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace:
perspectives of healthcare providers. BMC Health Services Research. 19(1). pp.1-11.
Simpson, K.R., 2021. Workplace Safety. MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child
Nursing. 46(4). p.243.
Weil, D., 2018. 9. Income Inequality, Wage Determination, and the Fissured Workplace. In After
Piketty (pp. 209-232). Harvard University Press.
Williams, N. and Kumar, S., 2018. Managing Obesity in the Workplace: Turning Tyrants into
Tools in Health Practice, Book 3. CRC Press
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