Employee Relations: Rights, Duties, and Stakeholders at Tesco

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee relations within Tesco, a major British multinational retailer. It begins by highlighting the value and importance of employee relations, discussing factors such as employee engagement, retention, conflict reduction, and job satisfaction. The report then delves into the fundamentals of employment law, including contracts, health and safety regulations, salary and wage stipulations, and equality and discrimination policies. It outlines the rights, duties, and obligations of both employers and employees, providing practical advice for fostering positive employment relationships. A stakeholder analysis is conducted, examining the impact of both positive and negative employee relations on various stakeholders. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and recommendations for Tesco to maintain and improve its employee relations practices.

Managing Employee
Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Section 1..........................................................................................................................................3
Value and importance of employee relations in Tesco................................................................3
Fundamentals of employment law...............................................................................................4
Different types of rights, duties and obligations an employer and employee has within the
workplace.....................................................................................................................................6
Advice relating to rights, duties and obligations of the employment relationship......................8
Section 2..........................................................................................................................................9
Stakeholder analysis....................................................................................................................9
Impact of both positive and negative employee relations on different stakeholders.................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Employee relations refer to efforts of the organisation to build and maintain harmonious
relations that are free of any kind of possibility of conflicts in employee and employer. This
means that an organisation with employee relations program in it ensures fair and consistent
treatment to all employees of the organisation, from the side of employees this contribute in their
commitment to job and loyalty to organisation. This report will discuss about employee relations
in context of its value and importance along with fundamentals of employment law. Later duties,
responsibilities and obligation of employee and employer will also be discussed. Followed by
this report also involve stakeholders and impact of positive and negative employee relations on
the stakeholders. This report will contextualise Tesco for the discussion. Tesco is British
Multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer. Company was founded in 1919 and is
headquartered at Hertfordshire, England. Company is one of the top retailers in UK and operates
in around 9 countries with serving around 6800 locations.
Section 1
Value and importance of employee relations in Tesco
Tesco is one of those organisations that have effective practices for employee relations.
These practices are used by Tesco to boost engagement of employees in organisation that is one
of the very important objectives of every employer concerned with maintaining and practicing
employee relations activities (Unsal and Brodmann, 2020). Some other factors that shows value
and importance of Employee relations are as follows-
Improved Engagement of Employees- This is one of the valuable factor of employee relations
in which Tesco can ensure that employees in the organisation are effectively engaged with
organisation and as well as their job. Employee engagement is a state in which employees
actively participate in their job role that they are able to perform effectively and along with this
they are able to contribute in overall organisational performance.
Retention of Loyal Employees- Loyal employees are those who are willing to work in favour of
the organisation and are loyal and respectful towards organisation. Tesco by maintaining and

employing effective practices for employee relation retain loyal employees in organisation. This
is another importance of employee relations.
Decrease in workplace conflicts- Workplace conflicts is natural and they cannot be completely
removed however with effective practices for employee relations can help in decreasing
workplace conflicts. This is another important factor that makes employee relations valuable in
the organisation. Decrease in workplace conflict will help organisation in achieving its objectives
effectively and also reduces potential negative impact on the work quality in the organisation
(Sahoo and Sahoo, 2018). Workplace conflicts in Tesco can also have an effect on customer
satisfaction and reduction in conflict ensures positive impact on workplace productivity and
overall performance of the Tesco.
Increased Job satisfaction- This is another importance of having positive and favourable
employee relations. Positive relation with management and with other employees in organisation
makes Tesco a happy place for the employees to work for. There are several benefits associated
with this in such kind of an organisation employees can share their knowledge and experiences
with other employees in order to improve work efficiency of every employee in the organisation.
Positive relationship of individuals enhances motivation of the employees and this result in job
satisfaction and work efficiency of the employees. This also result in positive work relations a
reduced absenteeism of the employees and this reduces negative impact on the productivity that
results from absenteeism and employee turnover.
Enhance Trust in employee and employer- Trust is important for a feeling of secure and trust
also enhance performance of employee. This enhances understanding in employee and employer
and followed by this performance also gets improved and feeling of trust is also important.
Fundamentals of employment law
Employment law can be defined as collection of rules and regulations that regulate
relationship between employee and employer. Several concepts are included in employment law
when it comes to managing and maintaining employment in Tesco (Levin, 2017). Fundamental
of employment law are-
Contract of Employment

Contract of employment is written statement of employment of employee and employer.
This is an agreement that consist of different terms of employee and employer relations, and this
is must to be accepted and followed by employee and employer. This contract involves all the
terms on the basis of different laws and rules of employment law. This involves conditions for
dismissal, termination, resignation and different conditions for employment, that employee will
require adhering while working in Tesco. This also involves terms for payment and other
conditions. Contract of employment is aimed at protecting and safeguarding interest and rights of
employees.
Health and Safety
This is another fundamental of employment law in which organisations are required to
maintain all the conditions in such way that organisation is free of all threats to health and safety
of the employees working in Tesco. Health and safety of the organisation is maintained
according to Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Sappideen, O'Grady and Riley, 2016).
This act provides provision and regulations for workplace through which they can ensure
workplace is safe for the employees to work in Tesco. There are different regulations and laws
for organisation through which they can maintain safety at the workplace and what can be done
to prevent threat from hazardous activities.
Salary and Wages
This is another fundamental of employment law, this fundamental of employment laws is
concerned with wages and salaries. There are different rules and regulations that regulates salary
and wages that is given to employees in exchange of their services to the Tesco. Salary and
wages is important factor of employment and this is why it is considered as fundamental
employment law. This is governed by National Minimum Wages Act 1998 and in this
Employment Rights Act, 1996 is also considered as important for regulating and protecting
employees’ rights. Different acts regulate different kinds of wages and salaries based on different
types of employment.
Equality and Discrimination

This is concerned with maintaining equality in organisation, this means that Tesco needs
to ensure adherence to equality act 2010, this act consist of regulations according to which Tesco
cannot discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender, marriage, civil partnership, race and
religion (Yankovskaya and et.al., 2019). This create basis for anti-discrimination laws and Tesco
needs to ensure that equality is maintained in recruitment, employment opportunity and payment
and wages in organisation.
Different types of rights, duties and obligations an employer and employee has within the
workplace
Employee and employer both have rights, duties and obligation when it comes to
employment relationship. Employees have rights that become duties and obligation for
employer. Employer also has some of the rights that become duties and obligation for employee.
There are different rights, duties and obligations for employee and employer, that are-
Rights of employees
Fair Treatment and Wages
This is one of the important rights of employees, they are authorised to get fair treatment
from employees (de Iulis, 2018). This avoid any kind of abuse that employer Tesco, can do over
employees, this avoid workplace discrimination. This requires Tesco to ensure that employees
get fair treatment that is free of discrimination and they are allowed to work in effective work
environment. This means that Tesco needs to ensure fair labour treatment is given to all
employees working for Tesco. This ensures that employees are able to work effectively and
productively. Unfair treatment affects quality of work of employees, and also affects their
motivation and job satisfaction. Fair wages is concerned with allowing adequate and equal and
fair wage according to regulations of employment and payment.
Safety
This is another right of employees this is concerned with getting a workplace that is free
of all kind of threats to health and safety of employees. Tesco needs to ensure that employees are
safe when they are working and for this they need to ensure availability and maintenance of all
kind of equipments for safety and employees are also provided training for safety.

Rights of Employers
Right to confidentiality
This is one of the important rights if employers. This is related to maintaining
confidentiality of organisational policies and activities that they can expect from the employees
(Pandya, 2019). Employer in order to ensure confidentiality can get Non-Disclosure Agreement
signed by the employees. This mainly consists of trade secrets and client related information.
Right to implement work-policies
This is another right that employer can exercise and this is concerned with creating and
implementing different policies for the work that employees are required to follow while
working. This means that employer can define code of conduct, working hours, timings, policies
for leave etc.
Duties and obligations of employees
Completing the work they have been hired for
This is concerned with completing the work by employees for which they have been
hired (Darcy, Taylor and Green, 2016). This means that employees are responsible for
completing the work individually for which they have been hired in organisation.
Following instructions of the employees
This means that employees are required to follow instruction of the employer. This
involves their adherence to code of conduct of Tesco, following policies and work guidelines of
the organisation. Following all the disciplinary actions and ensuring to avoid any kind of
situation that can put themselves or others in danger.
Duties and Obligation of Employer
Adhering to employment laws

This is one of the important responsibility and obligation of the employer (de Iulis, 2018).
In this employers are required to ensure that their conducts and practices are according to
employment laws regarding employees.
Giving adequate information to employee regarding their rights in employment contract
This is another responsibility that is required to be fulfilled by the employer. this requires
Tesco to give all the information to employees regarding their rights in employment and
according to their contract.
Advice relating to rights, duties and obligations of the employment relationship
Law and regulations have defined different rights and responsibilities that employers and
employees have for each others. But to maintain effective and harmonious employee relations it
is important that employees and employers are willing to go beyond the regulatory requirements.
Advice related to this is as follows-
Creating psychological contract
Psychological contract can be defined as set of promises and expectation that are
exchanged between parties regarding an employment relationship. Important element of this is
that unlike formal contract these are tacit and implicit (Ahmad and Zafar, 2018). These contracts
are based on informal arrangements, mutual beliefs, common ground and perception in the
parties. For example, raise in salary and promotions are part of psychological contract. Similarly
on the part of employer psychological contract involves expecting hard work and loyalty from
employees. Creating and maintaining psychological contract can make effective and important
contribution is ensuring effective employee relations.
Support in maintaining work-life balance
This advice is mainly for the employer, this means that Tesco should contribute and
support employees for maintaining their work-life balance. This means that existence of
employee is not limited to being an employee they also have personal and social life. Employer
should ensure that they are able to maintain balance in their social and personal life. In order to
do this several measures can be taken, for example, flexible working condition, flexible timing,
shift working etc. these are some of the examples through which employers can support

employees in maintaining work-life balance (La Barbera and Lombardo, 2019). This will support
and contribute in improving employee relations and Tesco will be able to get all the benefits of
harmonious employee relations.
Giving adequate attention to complaints of Employees
In case employee has any kind of complaint regarding practices of Tesco they can
express it by issuing complaints. This requires employer to pay adequate attention to employees
so that they get answer and solutions for their complaint. Employer when do not pay adequate
attention to complaints of employees, this can also affect their mutual trust.
Section 2
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholders are those parties that are capable of affecting decisions and practices of
Tesco and also can be get affected by decisions and practices of Tesco. Stakeholders can be of
two types that are internal and external. Internal stakeholders are those that work within the
organisation and affect and influence its practices and decisions (Eskerod and Larsen, 2018).
External stakeholders are those who do not work within organisation yet are capable of
influencing and affecting decision of organisation. Importance of stakeholders in an organisation
varied on the basis of their power and interest within organisation. This can be measured and
analysed on the basis of Stakeholders Matrix. Stakeholder analysis for Tesco is as follows-

Figure 1 Stakeholder Analysis Matrix
This matrix helps in identifying stakeholders and prioritising them on the basis of their
importance in the organisation. They can be prioritised as follows-
High Power, High Interest
These are on highest priority of stakeholders, these are those people and parties that are
required t be managed closely and at the same time they are required to keep highly satisfied. In
relation with Tesco, all employees and shareholders of the company can be considered as those
with high power and high interest. This means that Tesco need to work closely with these
stakeholders, they have rights to say in decisions of the organisation and also have high interest
with decisions and results of the practices of the Tesco. Specifically shareholders with high
stakes and employees on high authorities in the organisation have this priority.
High Power, Less Interest
This are kept at second priority and Tesco requires making adequate efforts through
which they can be kept satisfied. However, more than required efforts are not made for these
stakeholders. Concerned with this it can be considered that creditors and government do possess
this priority in stakeholders of Tesco (Guðlaugsson and et.al., 2020). This is because their power
is high yet their interest is low creditors are required to keep satisfied with regular payments and
government is required to keep satisfied by following all the regulations and guidelines.

Low Power, High Interest
These are those stakeholders that are required to keep satisfied and ensure
communication with them in order to ensure no major problem is arising with them. This
category involves suppliers, lower level employees, they are required to keep informed about
decisions.
Low Power, Low Interest
They are only required to monitor and extra efforts are not required for these people and
parties. For Tesco this involves local communities, pressure groups, these are required to
monitored.
Impact of both positive and negative employee relations on different stakeholders
Positive impact-
Communication-
When the relationship between the employees are maintained by the management of the
company the level of communication is clear between both of them which helps them to offer
high level of satisfaction to their customers. This way the communication between the clients
will also remain up to the mark and their needs will be heard which will help the team of the
company to serve them on the basis of that.
Trust-
Positive relations between employees means that there will be level of trust established
between which is beneficial for the upper level of management such as board of directors and
department heads as they can trust their employees and rely easily on them. With the help of this
they are given autonomy through which they are allowed to take decisions on behalf of managers
which helps management of the company to focus on other areas of work.
Ethical Approach-
When the relations are maintained with the employees it is easy to make them understand
the importance of ethics which helps them to work fairly and follow all the rules. These way

customers of the company are never cheated by the employees and the upper level of
management is satisfied with it.
Resolution of conflicts-
In the members of the team conflicts can arise at any topic which can affect the work as
until both of them works in coordination work won’t be completed that is why work is affected.
This results in decreasing the share of the market which upsets the shareholders of the business.
This is why if relations are maintained with employees managers can easily settle the dispute that
has happened between them so that they can continue to work and achieve the goals and
objectives for the business.
Poor Employee Relations-
Turnover of employee-
If the relations that are maintained with the employees are negative then it will reflect
negatively on the company. This is because of the level of employee retention will be decreased
because employees will look for another job when they tend to feel that they are not getting
respect for their work.
Absenteeism of Employees-
Employees tend to take more leaves from work when the relations are not properly
maintained with them as they begin to lose interest in their work and become lethargic because
they know that anything they do won’t be recognized. This will create a bad experience for the
customers. With this the company will tend to lose their value in the market and take many
customers from them which will stop investors to put money in the business.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that employee relations are very
important for successful operations of the organisation and along with this employee also play
important role in achieving objectives. This requires that employee relations are harmonious so
that employee can contribute their best efforts and bring most effective results. Maintaining

employee relations is also contributed by employment laws and regulations. Concerned with
employee relations employee and employer both have some responsibilities and obligations,
fulfilling these contribute in ensuring that they are making efforts to maintain their harmonious
relations. They along with responsibilities and obligation employee and employer also have
some of the rights that they can exercise in relation with their employee relations. This
discussion was followed by discussion over stakeholder analysis and impact of positive and
negative employee relations in stakeholders.

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