Explain how organisations obtain the cooperation of their employees.
You should explain all three of the points under the ‘Contracts of employment’ section below and three from the ‘Employee involvement techniques’ section.
Contracts of employment:
- Contractual entitlements
- A contract defines some key points of the job in subject, such as the pay, hours of work, leave, notice period and pension benefits. A contract should say how much the candidate should earn over a period of time – where it be annual, or monthly. There should be a section in the contract that should explain the hours of work the candidate is entitled to weekly. If a candidate wants to quite the job, there must be a leave condition and a notice period stated in the contract in regards to situations like this. Pension benefits could also be on contracts, although not on every one.
- Types of employment contract
- There are around 5 different types of employment contracts; full time, fractional, part time, temporary and casual. Full time contracts are usually stated for a full week's work, that is Monday – Friday, or even Saturday as well. Usually companies require a candidate to work from 35-40 hours per week to be defined as full-time. Fractional contracts are usually referred to as "term-time contracts", however, fractional contracts can be used within, as well as outside of term dates. Fractional contracts are used for employees in the educational industry (such as Universities, Colleges, Schools) who work a fraction of 52 weeks per year, whether it be a full – or a part-time basis. A part-time contract carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Part-time workers usually work in what's called "shifts", so that everyone gets their own time to work. Shifts can also be rotational to make it comfortable for every employee. Usually companies require a candidate to work fewer than 30 hours per week to be defined as part-time. Temporary contracts are usually used for like Christmas temporary jobs, where companies are looking for more employees to work for them, but they only need them temporarily. This temporary contract defines the dates that the candidate starts working from, and the date the candidate will finish working. At last but not least, casual employment contracts are highly popular in the United Kingdom (at least for employees) because it gives them the freedom of working whenever they want to. So if the employee doesn't work, he/she doesn't get paid; however, if they work, they are not limited to any sort of hours – the company will have to pay the employee no matter how much work they get done.
- Disciplinary procedures; grievance procedures; union membership; codes of behaviour.
- Disciplinary procedures are mentioned in employment contracts most of the time, alongside grievance procedures, union memberships and codes of behaviour. If disciplinary procedures are not followed correctly by the company, they can be taken to a tribunal for unfair dismissal. There is a process for disciplinaries in every businesses, and it's usually as follows; the first stage is where the circumstances have to be put in writing and presented to the employee, the second stage of the process is where the employee will have to be invited to a hearing to discuss the issues regarding them, and the third stage of the disciplinary process is where the employee has the right to inform the employer if they would like to make an appeal against their decision or not. Warnings given to employees can be either verbal, written or final written. Disciplinary procedures are not the same for adults and students. As I have explained above, the disciplinary procedures for adults at workplaces are very complex and serious; whereas with a student, an educational organisation cannot apply the same process – they must examine, and discuss the issues. Regarding grievance procedures, some contracts should touch on this subject; especially regarding how employees can raise grievance concerns. Code of behaviour is a set of conventional principles that the employer expects from the candidate. This is usually discussed within the contract of employment too, in further details. Union memberships play a big role in the lives of employees, and the conditions of this are usually stated in contracts of employment. Union memberships come in handy, because if an employee is part of a union, and they may get into a grievance with the employer (or another employee), that union is there to support them – obviously, this costs money, and is usually paid on a monthly basis.
Employee involvement techniques:
- Membership of work groups
- Work groups are present in nearly every organisations. There could be groups that work only within a specific area within the building, such as a department, or there could be the board members of the organisation. With organisations, work groups – specifically departments – help to group the employees into section, so it's not just everyone do whatever. Everyone is set into a department, and the department manager sets their work out for them. Nearly every big organisation has a group of board members, and every individual have their own say to anything that's regarding the business, and the way the business is ran. It is a highly rewarding place to be.
- Open communications; types of communication
- There are different types of communication that is used within a business, and they are mostly categories based on whether they are online or offline. However, those categories can still be split into sub-categories; formal, informal, top-down, bottom-up and later. Formal type of communications are used at staff briefings, newsletters and presentations – where it is required to both sound, and look formal and professional. Informal type of communication is where people chat with each other, discuss information with each other that the other person may not have known. So this can be done over a coffee for example, and it is likely to happen every day. Top-down is a form of communication where the information starts spreading from the top, making its way down to the bottom tier of the organisation. This is the same with bottom-up communication, however this way the information starts to be spread from the bottom tier of the organisation, and slowly making its way up the tiers. So you can sort of see that these two types of communication doesn't involve face-to-face communications with the "sender" and the "receiver" of the information. Lateral type of communication is mainly used with employees at an organisation that are at a high enough tear – so not exactly the bottom tier employees – such as managers of departments. These managers that are on the same level with each other, such as product distribution and product design departments, their managers would meet together for a lateral conversation to discuss how each department is going.
- Organisational culture
- An organisational culture is something that persists in every organisation. A business culture – or a workplace culture – can best be described by how the business is ran by the employees. How the employees work. How they speak to customers. How they treat each other. It's a culture, but in an organisation – therefore it being called organisational culture. This culture is made up of factors like the shared values of a business, beliefs and norms in the workplace, day-to-day typical work behaviour and so on. This culture is reflected easily, therefore even new employees can get the hang of the culture easily. The methods and process of recruitment, how the workplace is organised, methods of communication, contract negotiation and so on – these are all ways in which the culture of the workplace (organisation in general) can be reflected. Usually there are separate departments in every organisation who focus on separate parts of the business, and if they are located in separate buildings, the workplace culture could differ, which can reflect on that department's performance and motivation. Each department have their own mission, alongside the company's main goal – which all departments work towards.
Comments
Post a Comment