HRM7016 Strategic Employment Relations and Employment Law Assignment Sample

Introduction -HRM7016 Strategic Employment Relations and Employment Law Assignment Sample

Strategic employment relation (ER) is the plan of actions which emphasis over creating an environment for meeting the needs of both employees and employers. It is very pivotal process which helps in increasing the worker’s engagement, addressing workplace conflicts, reduces employee turnover which ultimately result into boosting overall productivity. Effective employee relation helps in fostering the sense of trust and confidence among team members which contribute towards managing the worker’s retention rate. Tesco is the multinational groceries and general merchandise organization which was established in the year of 1919 by Jack Cohen.

Tesco is having revenue of 68.81 billion and secured third position as the largest retail organization in UK. Firm is having large number of division that includes Tesco stores, bank, mobile, Ireland, family dining, Dunnhumby, Spenhill and booker group. Further, Tesco provides the wide range of product that includes fresh food, entertainment product, grocery, bakery, home, pets, beauty product and electrical goods. Tesco is operating in 11 countries across the world through more than 4600 physical stores which help in reaching to the larger target market. Moreover, firm has employed 330000 workers and has a market share of 27.3% (Description of Tesco, 2024). The current report will include critical analysis of Tesco’s employment relation policies and role of trade union within the organization. Moreover, it also includes various engagement strategies that followed by Tesco and its subsequent impact in managing the workforce.

Organization’s approach to employment relation

Tesco has adopted an effective approach for maintaining the employment relation with the aim of controlling overall performance and productivity of business entity. Tesco has concentrated on analysing all the internal and external factors while setting up the ER policies such as culture, resources, market trend & opportunities and threats (Brierley, 2022). System theory, pluralist and unitary approaches have been followed for analysing Tesco’s approach to employment relation:

System theory: This theory defines that there is a complex and dynamic relationship between employers and employees which also influenced by the multiple factors such as technology, environment culture and structure (Moore, 2024). This theory suggested that organization should allow room for improvement and adaptation which helps in effective employment relation. In this regard, Tesco is involved towards creating an inclusive working environment which helps employees to feel connected with the organization and also aids in enhancing productivity and innovation. Moreover, Tesco is also aiming at changing its leadership style from democratic to transformation which helps in easily adapting the new changes and supports in enhancing the employment relation. Tesco has also introduced holistic approach which includes initiating regular communication with the workers that aids in determining underlying issue that impact the workers’ satisfaction. However, Tesco has not emphasised over establishing the personalised employee engagement strategies which create issue in adequate ER.

Unitary approaches: This theory explains that employers & employees work together and collaborate with the aim of attaining common goal and objective. This theory stated that employers and employees have similar needs so there is no scope of conflict within the team members (Duggan et al, 2020). In this context, Tesco has adopted the unitary approach for increasing employee’s engagement and communication. In this regard, Tesco has used “Team approach” in which leaders recognised themselves as “We” rather than “I” that helps in developing sense of belongingness. Moreover, success and failure are celebrated as team rather than individual help in creating effective relationship and aids in avoiding any conflicts (Unitary approach of Tesco, 2024). On the other hand, even after establishing various new policies, Tesco is unable to mitigate scope of conflict as firm has been accused for pay discrimination which results in impacting on overall relationship.

Pluralist approaches: It is contradictory approach to unitary which emphasises that each organization includes diverse individual with differential set of goals, objective and values (Pluralist approach, 2023). This theory stated that conflict is inseparable part of firm and it also provide legal rights to worker for forming union which helps in ensuring that workers’ point of view are valued and respected. This approach has been used in the decision making process of the company in which manger is listening to the viewpoint of diverse employees that helps in taking the effective decision (Spurk and Straub, 2020). This strategy defines Tesco’s willingness towards respecting the diverse viewpoint which eventually helps in enhancing the employee’s engagement and sustains positive relation. However, Tesco is unable to establish effective strategy which has resulted into the formulation of Trade union. On 12^th December 2024, employees protest for gaining equal respect and representation in the firm which describes inefficiency of entity in effectively managing relationship with the employees.

Role of trade unions

Trade union refers to the group of employees that are working at the same workplace. The main aim of trade union is to offer effective working condition and pay for all it members. This trade union is formulated with the aim of protecting and safeguarding the interest of employees at the workplaces. Tesco’s employees have formulated The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) with the aim of collective bargaining for the pay and effective working condition (Green, Tappin and Bentley, 2020). This trade union depicts that Tesco is following pluralist theory which helps in forming the trade union. Various benefits and limitation of trade union for diverse stakeholder could be understood as follows:

Benefits of Trade union:

• Trade union helps employees in negotiating for better pay and effective working condition which aids in the overall growth and well-being of the workers. This union also help employees in fulfilling their training needs which lead overall growth and development of the workers.
• This also helps organization in identifying collective needs and wants of the employees based prominently on which adequate strategies could be formulated by business entity (Alsawafi, Lemke and Yang, 2021). This helps Tesco in determining their needs and aids in taking adequate actions which ultimately results in avoiding any type of future conflicts.

Limitation of trade union:

• Trade union creates issue for employees to share their viewpoint independently rather they are forced to involve in the protest even after their disapproval. Further, this also results in losing some of employees pay and also creates stress and pressures for workers.
• Further, formulation of Trade Union also creates negative impact on overall goodwill and reputation of the business entity (Bonaccio et al, 2020). This union defines the firm’s incapability in fulfilling the needs of employees and providing adequate working condition which adversely impacts the overall reputation.

Alternative approach for employment relation:

For avoiding such type of trade Union, Tesco should be involved in adopting the radical theory which stated that there is a conflict between employees and employer for control and resources. This approach indicates that firm should avoid creating oppressive and hostile working environment rather focused on promoting social justice and recognize the workers’ needs & rights for effective relation (Yamin, 2020). It is an effective approach which helps in increasing employee retention as it values their perception that contributes towards enhancing the workers commitment and loyalty. However, this method provides wide disparity in the employer’s power which creates dehumanizing and exploitative relationship among the employee and employers.

Further, individualism theory of employment relation should be adopted by Tesco instead of collectivism which emphasis’ over paying attention towards worker needs rather than dealing with the organized labour. This method supports Tesco in providing credence to employee’s sentiments and feelings which helps in developing the effective employment relation (Kang and Lee, 2021). On the other hand, individualism theory creates issue in effectively understanding and providing adequate solution to needs of each employee which increases the level of anxiety, stress and burnout of the workers. This approach will ultimately create issue in managing the effective relation among employees and employers.

Engagement strategy of organization

Employee engagement implies to the amount of dedication and enthusiasm which a worker feel towards its jobs (Nasifoglu Elidemir, Ozturen and Bayighomog, 2020). This refers to the emotional investment worker made with the organization and also includes their passion, motivation and involvement. Following are various strategies which Tesco has been initiated with the aim of engaging with its team members:

• Tesco has introduced colleague engagement activities through HUB, TV screen, Emails, notice board and Yammer which helps in boosting communication. This strategy fosters open communication with the team members which assists in enhancing the overall trust and confidence of employees resulting in higher engagement.
• Firm is also involved in arranging Colleague Briefing session (CBS) with the aim of ensuring that employees are the first one to hear about all the crucial news of the company (Chadwick and Flinchbaugh, 2021). In this context, leaders are involved in directly communicate with their colleagues and provides regular information regarding the CSR activities, upcoming events and other strategies which help employee feel connected to organization. However, in this session leaders does not concentrate on identifying employees’ viewpoint regarding the strategy which result into reduction in the employees’ engagement.
• Tesco is concentrated over creating inclusive workplace environment which helps in fostering the sense of belongingness, empowerment and trust that aids in boosting employees’ engagement. For creating inclusive environment, managers are focused on celebrating culture, personality and preferences of colleagues which help in boosting employees’ engagement (Knezović and Drkić, 2021). On the other hand, from the survey it has been identified that female are provided with the less opportunity as compared to males which evolves dissatisfaction among the team members.
• Along with this, organization is also involved towards drafting career development plan which aims at fulfilling both personal and professional goals of the employees. Under this, Tesco is involved in regularly reviewing worker’s performance and arranging effective session by which their productivity could be enhanced (Employee engagement strategy of Tesco, 2024). Moreover, this strategy help in defining firm’s concern towards workers; welfare and growth that eventually results in boosting overall employees’ engagement and retention. However, it is not possible for entity to provide training session according to needs of diverse employees which creates dissatisfaction among workers.
• Moreover, Tesco is also involved in arranging talent showcase events on quarterly basis which help workers in displaying their additional skills such as dancing, painting, signing, comedy etc leading to increasing workers’ engagement level (Rubel, Kee and Rimi, 2021). This is effective engagement strategy as it aids in developing informal relationship with team members which result in managing overall engagement level.

There are various other strategies which should be introduced in Tesco with the aim of increasing employee’s engagement which are as follows:

• Tesco should involved in regularly appreciating and rewarding workers for their efforts instead of annual basis as it help in enhancing overall satisfaction of employees.
• Company should also emphasis over fostering effective interpersonal relationship which help in enhancing workers’ engagement within organization (Chatterjee et al, 2021). Moreover, worker should be provided with mentoring opportunity which helps in creating bond at all level of organization and support in professional development.
• Moreover, two ways communication process should be introduced at workplace which provides employees with the freedom to effectively share their view point leading to increasing engagement. This could be achieved through employees’ engagement survey, feedback from which help in enhancing employees’ overall engagement.

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Effectiveness of psychological contract

Psychological contract implies to intangible and unwritten agreement between employee and employer which describes informal expectation, understanding and commitment that make up their relationship. There is various significance of employment relation which is as follows:

Reduce employee turnover: The major goal of maintaining employment relationship is to reduce employee turnover rate which improves the overall organization’s performance (Collins, 2022). Ineffective employment relation result in unresolved issues which further reduces the level of satisfaction and ultimately leads to high turnover rate.

Enhance communicational and coordination: Effective employment relationship helps in enhancing overall communication and co-ordination among the workforce. This relation helps in reducing the scope of conflict and miscommunication which eventually boosts overall employee’s productivity.

Create healthy culture: Effective employment relation supports in providing adequate experiences to employees and reduces the scope of workplace conflicts which ultimately creates the better workplace culture (Johnstone and Dobbins, 2021).

There are majorly two type of employment relation which includes formal and informal relation. Following is the various factors which impact on formal and informal relationship among employees:

Formal: This refers to the contractual employment relationship between an employers and employee which is formulated by organization (Wang, Albert and Sun, 2020). In this relationship, both parties are required to follow the chain of command and define rules and regulations. This type of relationships could be effectively managed by providing adequate monetary benefit and creating effective workplace culture.

Informal: It is the type of employment relation which not formed for attaining the organization’s goal rather concentrated over attaining the social needs of employees. This relation is not linked with any fixed regulation or chain of command rather all the employees have freedom to share their view point. This type of relation is highly influenced by respect towards other employees, avoiding politics and supporting each others.

Tesco is also focused on aligning with psychological contract theory which helps in developing trust, commitment and engagement of employees. For fulfilling psychological contract, manager is involved in understanding expectation and needs of employees by listening to their feedback and concern (Waddington, 2020). This help manager in identifying their issue based on which effective actions are taken. Moreover, manager has also concentrated over clearly and consistently communicate with employees and does not involved in making any unrealistic promise as it negatively impact employees’ trust. Further, managers is involved in regularly appreciating employee’s efforts and respect their perception in decision making which help in forming effective formal and informal relationship. By effectively fulfilling psychological contracts, employees are able to determine leaders concern over their needs leading to establishing adequate relationship.

Key legislation and its Impact on employee relationship

Tesco have aligned with large number of legislation with the aim of sustaining effective employment relation which is as follows:

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998: It is the central legislation which aims at fixing minimum wage rate for workers as to preventing them from exploitation (The National Minimum Wage Act 1998, 2024). Tesco in effectively aligning with this legislation which depict firm’s concern towards providing adequate wages leading to enhancing overall satisfaction. Moreover, organization is also aiming regularly reviewing the guidelines based on which timely changes are initiated. In year 2024, Tesco has increased hourly pay rate of store worker from 11.02 to 12.02 pound and other workers will receive 13.15 pound per hour (The National Minimum Wage Act 1998, 2024). This legislation helps employees in gaining effective reward for their effort which help in boosting satisfaction and effective interpersonal relation.

The Employment Right Act 1996: This legislation defines the right of workers in varied situations such as dismissal, parental leaves and redundancy (The Employment Right Act 1996, 2023). Tesco is effectively aligning with the legislation by offering flexible working opportunity which helps individuals in managing their personal and professional life. Moreover, Tesco also provide clear information regarding the pay deduction which helps in avoiding any unlawful deduction. Further, Tesco is adhering with statutory minimum length break and also follow working hour policy of 48 hours which help in avoiding any health issue for workers. This alignment depicts manager’s focus on fulfilling personal and social need of employees which eventually result in improving interpersonal relation. Further, this act helps in avoiding situation of conflicts which contribute towards improving overall organizational environment.

Equality Act 2010: This legislation aims at legally protecting workers from any type of discrimination at the workplace (Equality Act 2010, 2024). Tesco is effectively aligning with such this legislation by creating inclusive working environment. Firm concentrate over celebrating culture, personalities and preferences of all the employees and also emphasis over treating each employee with equal respect and power. This also helps in creating positive image in the mind of employees as leaders are not discriminating them on any basis which helps in gaining their trust and confidence. Further, this will help in boosting employee retention rate which contributes towards high organisation performance.

Trade union and labour Relation (consolidation) Act 1992: This act depicts the legal framework for recognising and functioning of trade union and set principle for governing labour relation (Trade union and labor Relation (consolidation) Act 1992, 2024). Tesco is effectively aligning with this act which provide employee with right to protest against any unfair or unethical practices within the organization. This help in enhancing employment relation as it foster effective communication among team members leading to avoiding conflicts.

CONCLUSION

By summing up the report, it has been identified that employment relations is very crucial for maintaining retention rate and enhancing overall performance of the organization. Tesco is effectively aligning with the Systems theory, unitary approach and pluralist approach which help in enhancing employee engagement. Under system theory, firm has focused on fostering adequate communication for avoiding any misunderstanding. Moreover, unitary approach is used for developing feeling of team working and coordination which help in boosting overall relationship. Further, it has identified that trade union support employees in clearly conveying their view point and help in creating awareness among manager. On the other hand, this union suppressed individual view point and also negatively impact on overall goodwill and reputation of business entity. It has been identified that Tesco arranged various engagement program such as Colleagues engagement activities, colleague briefing session, inclusive working environment with the aim of enhancing employee’s engagement.

Further, company is involved in arranging wide arrange of T&D session which help in developing required skills and competencies among workers. Moreover, it has determined that there are two crucial type of employment relation group which includes formal and informal group. Tesco is able to effective manage balance between both the group which help in boosting overall employee engagement level. Firm is also effectively aligning with The National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Employment Right Act 1996, Trade Union and labour relation Act 1992 and Equality Act 2010 which help in promoting effective employment relation. Tesco should shift towards radical and individual approach of employment relation which helps in fostering effective interpersonal relationship among employees.

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