Elements of employee Relations

Any team’s success is rooted on the relationship between the employer and employee. These are the five crucial elements that you must consider while building rapport with your staff.

Respect

A connection between an employer and employee must be based on mutual respect. A worker who treats his boss disrespectfully has the potential to undermine the workplace’s hierarchical leadership system and reflect poorly on the business. Maybe a worker gossips about his supervisor behind her back at work, which inspires other workers to adopt the same rude behaviours. Alternatively, the worker may take his complaints about his supervisor to social media, which might be a PR issue for the business. The morale, output, and harmony of the workplace may all suffer greatly from any of these consequences.

The manager has no right to treat her staff disrespectfully, even if she is at the top of the hierarchy or close to it. A boss who screams at his staff, threatens them, or makes fun of team members is an example of how to behave disrespectfully and intimidatorily. These actions not only damage the relationship between the employer and employee, but they may also turn into actual harassment or abuse. Such a problem may result in penalties and legal action, as well as poor staff retention and negative word-of-mouth. A positive employer-employee relationship does not include problems like verbal abuse and sexual harassment.

Communication

Any successful relationship, including the one between an employer and employee, is built on open communication. Transparency is part of your job description as the boss or employer. Ensure that every employee is aware of their roles and the standards that are expected of them. Inform your staff of any changes that have occurred at the organisation, including new objectives and projects as well as overall performance metrics. Keeping your staff informed about these crucial elements can help them feel like they are a part of the bigger picture.

Workers must be willing to voice their opinions. Employers and workers have an equal obligation to communicate, whether it’s about a management style issue or a loss in the family that might affect output.

Support

Employers must assist their staff in building respectful and trusting relationships. There are several shapes that this element might take. For example, a company ought to be interested in the objectives of its employees. After hiring, one of the first things that should happen is determining what the employee wants to receive out of the position in terms of experiences, new skills, knowledge, or the like. The employer should then deliberately try to assist the worker in achieving those objectives. This might include giving the worker particular project assignments or assisting her in locating educational and career-development possibilities that will benefit both of them.

Simply having your workers’ backs on a daily basis may also be considered support. When a manager ignores an employee’s error or fails to meet a deadline, it is not a helpful behaviour. While it’s sometimes appropriate to provide constructive criticism, it goes against the grain of creating strong relationships to point the finger at workers for mistakes rather than pointing out areas that need work.

Boundaries

Every connection between an employer and employee needs limits. The first is the line between a person’s personal and professional relationships. Many managers like interacting socially and amicably with their staff members. But forming intimate friendships—or, worse, love ties—is a risky business that might result in accusations of partiality or sexual harassment.

The border between work and personal life is the second one that should never be crossed. An employer is not respecting boundaries if they believe it is okay to email, text, or phone workers at all hours of the day. Bosses should have a policy of not getting in touch with staff members after work unless there is a true emergency.

Appreciation

Employers must demonstrate that they value and acknowledge the contributions that their staff members make to the business in order to build healthy relationships with their staff members. Strong performance reviews, employee of the month awards, salary increases, bonuses, or job promotions are just a few ways that this sort of appreciation might manifest itself. In summary, employers need to keep in mind that both praise and criticism have a significant role in the workplace.