Employee Relations: Value, Law, and Stakeholders at ASDA

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee relations, focusing on the context of ASDA, a British subsidiary of Wal-Mart. It begins by explaining the value and importance of employee relations in fostering organizational success, highlighting the significance of a positive work environment, training, motivation, and fair treatment. The report then delves into the fundamentals of employment law, emphasizing its role in protecting employee interests and shaping organizational policies, including discussions on working hours, safety, and anti-discrimination measures. The report further examines the rights, duties, and obligations of both employers and employees, stressing the importance of transparency, ethical conduct, and adherence to labor laws. It also provides advice on maintaining a proper workplace environment, aligning business objectives with legal standards, and conducting stakeholder analysis to understand the impact of employee relations on various parties. Finally, it analyzes the effects of positive and negative employee relations, concluding with insights on building a strong and effective employee relations strategy within ASDA.

PRACTICE AND PROCESS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1. Explaining the value and importance of employee relations in context of ASDA...................3
P2. Explaining the fundamentals of employment law in ASDA.....................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P3. Explaining the different types of rights, duties and obligations of an employer and employee
within the workplace........................................................................................................................6
P4. Determining proper advice related to the rights, duties and obligations of the employment
relationship in an organisational context.........................................................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Conducting and completing a stakeholder analysis for ASDA.................................................8
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
P6. Analysing the impact of positive and negative employee relations on different stakeholders..9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Employee relations have become a mandatory aspect for every business organisation on their
way to success. Employees are the pillars of any organisation and determine the entire
performance of the companies that is ultimately reflected in the sales growth. Employee relations
focus on the relationship between the employers and the employees working together in an
organisation and have a common objective towards which both the sides need to give their full
efforts. An improved employee relation contributes to the constant development of an
organisation and is the cause for leading the way to immense success. Thus, most of the
companies are paying attention towards establishing an effective process of maintaining
employee relations to improve the environment of the workplace and make a balance of the
entire work process. Building an effective employee relation automatically aids the process of
working in a cooperative and coordinated manner among the employees working in a company
towards the attainment of a specific goal. The management of a company has to build strategies
that facilitates improved employee relations as that would subsequently contribute to the entire
organisational process in the long run. The processes and practices employed by the employers
in relation to their employees determine the outcome of employee relations in the workplace.
Hence, considering it as a significant factor to orchestrate the organisational performance in the
contemporary times, employee relation with specific reference to the British subsidiary of Wal-
mart, ASDA will be discussed in the assignment.
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LO1.
P1. Explaining the value and importance of employee relations in context of ASDA
A healthy employee relation in an organisation supports the success of every endeavour that the
company aims to achieve. In order to boost the productivity rate of selling organisational
products and services and gaining maximal profits at the same time catering the customers as per
their requirements an organisation must work on building a strong and effective employee
relation, opines Leat (2009). The major advantage of employee relations is it empowers the
employees to such an extent that they are capable of avoiding issues and resolving them for the
benefit of the organisation. This thinking grows in an employee when he or she gets a suitable
workplace to work in where their health and safety are assured. Moreover, the employees should
be given adequate training for working out on a particular project and do not face issues while
communicating. Motivation, increments, performance appraisal are regularly conducted for
giving the employees a proper corporate feeling and enhance the employee relation of the
organisation, observes Lewer (2013). This helps in making the employees to inhibit a positive
feeling about their workplace and spread a similar vibe of positivity among the others. Good
employee relation is a sure shot aspect for a company to work more efficiently and boost their
sales level, remarks Abiodun (2014).
Despite the importance of employee relations in an organisation effective measures cannot be
implemented for improving the conditions of the company. This is the fault of the employees,
but mostly the employers who are actually responsible for moulding their employees as per the
requirement of their organisational targets. It is a common scenario in majority of the
organisations circumstances arise that hampers the relationship between the employees and the
management. ASDA is one of the biggest organisations and balancing the huge number of
employees often faces certain setbacks (Edwards, 2006). Keeping a balance of employee
indiscipline, employee stress and employee grievances are the major concerns that play a
considerable role in improving employee relations. Problems are inevitable, but the management
needs to be employ practices that would enable them to cut through the problems.
Employees should be given fair chances and equal opportunities to express their concerns and
work without any discrimination, as opined by Abu El-Ella et al. (2013). This helps in
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developing an understanding between the employers and the employees about the each others
perspectives and improves a sense of mutual cooperation through effective communication and
regular interactive sessions where the problems will be discussed and resolved. Moreover, the
mechanism of performance appraisal provides immense motivation and job satisfaction to the
employees in the workplace (Krot and Lewicka, 2012). Employees should be rewarded for their
hard work so that they do not feel de-motivated under any circumstance and the ones failing to
meet their targets need to be given proper training instead of rebuking (Page, 2008). Employee
relation can be strengthened in this way that will ultimately prove helpful for the organisation.
P2. Explaining the fundamentals of employment law in ASDA
The employment law is a necessary inclusion in every organisation. The rules and regulation of
the law protects the personal interests of the workers within the organisation. Encircling the
boundaries of the employment law, the organisational policies are designed. This shows the
significance of the law the entire scenario of the functioning of an organisation successfully. The
labour law as framed under the jurisdiction of the European Union focuses on achieving high
employment and ensuring strong social protection, along with improving the living and working
conditions and protection against social cohesion in the workplace (Europa.eu, 2016). The proper
maintenance of the employment laws influence the company’s employee relations in a
roundabout manner, as the labour laws are strictly design to protect the employees regarding any
kind of conflicts in their workplace. These rules are extremely rigid and needs to be incorporated
within organisational functions without failure, thus creating a work life balance for the
employees which again contribute the development of employee relations (Europa.eu, 2016).
The fundamentals of the employment law determines the limit of office politics and the influence
of the trade unions in causing impact to the employee’s work experience. In most of the
companies, office politics is seen as a significant existence which has high chances of driving the
employee relations to a negative side. Thus, the employment laws have been designed as such to
mitigate any problems that may arise from the prevailing office conditions and balance the sides
to establish employee relation without failure.
The fundamentals of the employment law automatically supports the organisations to build their
employee relations effectively by incorporating the terms of the law as mentioned. It concerns
the working hours of the employees and their rights to safety and security. Discrimination of any
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kind is prohibited under the law and every employee is to be given the equal advantage of
working under same conditions and having exposure to the same opportunities. ASDA has been
marked in times for its conflicting employee relations and inclusion of union problems over
employees’ rights (Macalister, 2005). Under these circumstances it is extremely crucial for the
company to take all its business decisions in compliance with the employment laws, so that they
can execute their business functions without hindrances. The terms and conditions of
employment and other contracts related to work should clearly describes roles and
responsibilities, timing, leave policies and other obligations to eliminate all scopes of ambiguity.
Moreover, the rules set under the law are the standard practices that are helpful in determining
employee satisfaction within the workplace (Chebet and Rotich, 2015).Thus, abiding by the
same will be a profitable bargain for the company in raising maximal benefits of sales through
the establishment of a powerful employee relation among the management and employees.
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LO2.
P3. Explaining the different types of rights, duties and obligations of an employer and
employee within the workplace
The duty of the employer is to look after the welfare of their employees. Employees are the
biggest resource for an organisation for giving shape to a reality from the basic concept, observes
Wilkinson (2014). Hence, their wellbeing should be of primary concern for the employers. The
management of the company has full rights to take actions for the conductance of business
programs and utilise the expertise of its workforce. However, in generating the effort of the
employees they should not forget about their obligations towards the employees within the
workplace. It is the responsibility of the employer to protect health of the employees in the
workplace and ensure the incorporation of mechanisms and other practices that would not collide
with their safety. The health and safety laws define the strict conditions that are necessary to be
present in an organisation for ensuring safety of the workforce (Hurt and Abebe, 2015). Other
than the health and safety issues, the employer is responsible for introducing policies that are in
accordance with the employment laws for motivating each of the employees without any impact
of discrimination or other factors that might deny them of their basic rights in the workplace.
Payment of wages and allocated leaves also consist within the employers’ duties along with a
hoard of particular responsibilities. Breaking of the legal policies will automatically disrupt the
functioning of the company as a whole and would lead to failure at the end of a certain period
(Corby and White, 2002).
Transparency is very important between the employer and the employee to understand the
importance of each action that is planned by the management and through effective
communication it needs to be conveyed to all or avoiding any cohesion that may arise due to
confusion (Loretto et al., 2013). It is also the duty of the employees to have a duty of care for
their colleagues and report immediately regarding any mishap. Similarly, any discrepancy apart
from the approved clauses of the labour law should be reported to the authorities to protect
themselves from workplace conflicts and also others who may be suffering from such problems
from long time. The ethical code of conduct is applicable at the same time that determines an
employee’s satisfaction in the job and the efficiency of the employer to carry out its business
processes. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs gives a perfect example of the psychological
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contract that the employees have regarding their personal satisfaction in their workplace that
determines their desire to work on building a productive employee relation in the organisation
(Gennard and Judge, 2005). Work life balance and salary are the two most crucial factors that
determine the level of satisfaction of the employees in the psychological level. This influences
the employee performance to the highest extent and if the employers can manage to build an
effective employee relation, these satisfied employees will contribute to the success of a
particular venture to the utmost level (Itika, 2011).
P4. Determining proper advice related to the rights, duties and obligations of the
employment relationship in an organisational context
In order to abide by the legal policies of ensuring a proper workplace environment for the
employees, the management of the company has to first decide on its objectives. It will help in
reinforcing the fact of how much important a project is for the sales profit of a company. This
will automatically lead to the designing of business operations that have to be followed for
attaining the objective (Xesha et al., 2012). While charting out the programmes, the laws that are
necessitated under the employment law have to be incorporated for carrying out the functions
without any failure. Thus, it is always beneficial for the company to consider the approved
standards while conducting any business purpose which will not only help them to operate
smoothly, but also ensure maximum rates of profit earning due to a good employee relation that
exists between the employers and the employees.
An employee is always motivated through increased opportunities in his or her way and by
recognition of their efforts to contribute in the company’s success. These are very practical
aspects of employee motivation, also it plays a psychological contract that makes them satisfied
with their present conditions in the workplace, thereby leading to improved exhibition of efforts.
Organisational conflicts usually show employee dissatisfaction with their stagnant salaries or
having worked for extended hours. Lack of opportunities is also a cause for conflict in an
organisation. This leads to protests through a union that ultimately hampers the work flow of the
company. Hence, it is better than such circumstances are avoided from the very beginning. Else,
the management needs to enter into collective bargaining with the union for reaching a
negotiation (Kochan, 2015). The problem may be solved, but inclusion of union in organisational
decisions reflects on the weak employee relations of the company. If the relationship with the
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management was good, there would have been no requirement of including the union for solving
problems.
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LO3.
P5. Conducting and completing a stakeholder analysis for ASDA
A company has different stakeholders where each of them plays a significant role in determining
its success. Stakeholders are the bodies who have certain expectations from the company and the
company as well receives benefits from meeting the preferences of the stakeholders. Thus, a
stakeholder analysis will be helpful to understand the broader context.
Employees: Employees are the most important asset for ASDA. Without their efforts the
organisational strategies would have fell flat. Thus, the company utilizes the efficiency of its
employers in meeting its objectives. On the other side, the employees expect proper
communication and support from the management and regular performance appraisals that
would recognize their efforts and reward them mainly in terms of increasing their salaries. The
work time is also a factor and they want to get paid for any extra time apart from the office
hours. ASDA was a lot of problem regarding their employee relations and responding to it the
management decided to pay the employees for the extra hours that they would work for under a
new contractual employment (Corporate.asda, 2018). The company has shared its profits with
the employees as rewarding them for their hard work (Thomas, 2005). This has enabled the
company to mitigate conflicting situations and a weak employee relation to contribute to their
biggest success in the following years after those steps.
Customers: Profit margin for the every company depends on its customers. They are the
determinants to change the entire market scenario and possess as a massive influence that has to
be considered in the first places. ASDA needs to consider the preferences of the customers
regarding their products and services and based on that the other business plans are charted out.
The customers, on the other side expect good quality products at normal prices and very good
customer service, states Edwards (2003). This creates pressure on the employees again who are
the resources for meeting the customers demand. Hence, ASDA needs to work on maintaining an
effective employee relation that will cater to the entire line of actions. The extra payment for
extra hours satisfies the employees thus improving employee relations, at the same time the
customers also get services throughout that ultimately benefits the company.
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Apart from these major stakeholders, suppliers are equally important who provide raw materials
for the production of the products and demand for constant orders from the company at good
rates. The company cannot complete its production without the raw materials, hence it is
important to give them the best rates. Thus, making profit is extremely vital that gets enhanced
through effective employee relations (Marginson, 2015).
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LO4.
P6. Analysing the impact of positive and negative employee relations on different
stakeholders
The main impact of positive and negative employee relations is on the employees. From them the
entire process of stakeholder association with the company gets impacted. Positive employee
relations reflect on good communication, trust, respect, ethical approach, negotiation of conflicts
and an efficient HR culture (Eftimie et al., 2012). These policies directly influence the
employees to exhibit their best efforts and enhance employee relations in the organisation that
subsequently engages customer satisfaction, earning of profits, supplier needs, maintain the
governmental and legal policies. Problems can be solved effectively with active participation
from the employers and the employees. The company can smoothly proceed further in achieving
other goals and earning the utmost profits. Presence of conflicts is also less that combines with
the overall balancing of an outstanding employee relation (Euwema et al., 2003). Positive
employee relations need to be maintained in the upcoming phases as well to continue with
organisational advancement.
On the contrary, poor teamwork, no communication, employee absenteeism, grievance and stress
are the results of negative employee relations. This drastically affects the entire output of the
company in meeting its goals, thereby highlighting dissatisfaction and emergence of problems
with all the other stakeholders (Markey and Townsend, 2013). The unhappy customers won’t
take much time to shift their brand preference to some other company when ample options are
available. This will affect the entire sales ratio of the company and the entire business operation
will come to a halt. However, a business organisation never sits back with its lessons of failure.
Similarly, learning from their mistakes they can start afresh to work on building their employee
relations and achieve success with complete dedication and determination. Conflicts can be
resolved and avoided through the medium of trade unions, who work in favour of the employees,
thus leading to a betterment of employee relations (Năstase, 2010).
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Conclusion
In this assignment, the significance of employee relations in an organisation has been elaborated
in details with respect to a particular organisational context. This has enabled in understanding
the practices that accounts for improving employee relations while others that causes a negative
impact in the organisational performance due to improper implementation of various processes
that mars the factors of motivating the employees working in the company. the essay has picked
on factors such as employee motivation through equal opportunities for all, avoiding
discrimination and respecting cultural diversities that play an instrumental role in satisfying the
basic needs of the employees and helps in retention thereby pointing towards a successful
relationship among the employees within the workplace.
The UK retail market of ASDA has been taken into account for conducting the evaluation of the
practices for building employee relations and also those practices of the company that disrupts
the creation of an effective employee relation. There have been several occurrences of
conflicting situation within the workplace that impacted the performance of the company in
relation to its employee relation. On most occasions, the acts of not abiding by the dictums of the
labour law are a major drawback for the company. The stakeholders are the first set of people to
get affected from employee relations. Thus, it will be best for the company to adopt measures
and implement them in the workplace context for avoiding further conflicts and ensure
outstanding performance at the end of every fiscal year. Motivating the employees in several
ways, enhancing communication among the employers and employees, maintaining transparency
in conducting organisational operations and a lot more improves employee relation and
contributes to the overall achievements of the company.
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