Employee relations strategies and practices

Employee relations belong to employer-employee relationships that give satisfactory productivity, motivation, and self-confidence. Employee relations are involved with preventing and resolving problems related to individuals that occur or change work situations. Supervisors are given advice on how to correct poor performance and employee misconduct (Gennard, 2005). On the other hand, employees are given information on how to promote a better understanding of the company's goals and policies. For this paper we have chosen Tesco plc and its employee relationship. Tesco plc is the largest global grocery store based in UK. This is the second largest retailer in the world when measured in terms of benefits and third when measured in terms of income. The company has employed more than 326,000 employees around the world where 237,000 of them in Europe where it has its largest private employer.

Strategy Integrating Job Performance and Training

Job Performance and training forms the vital element of an organisation. Tesco Plc conducts effective training programs in order to fulfil the learning needs of its employees and keep itself updated for coping up with the increasing modernization and developments occurring in the global markets. For this purpose, they conduct extensive surveys, analyze the organisational needs and implement adequate and sufficient training programs to cope up with the existing and upcoming competitions (Gennard, 2005).

The term 'Training' refers to the planned efforts which are made by the organization and its management to teach and assist its employees and workers in order to develop in them the skills, job-related knowledge, abilities and such behaviors, the application of which, helps them in their jobs at hand. The aim of the entire training process is to assist employees in achieving their job related goals. Thus, the purpose of training caters to the needs of employees' current jobs. It is imperative that employees feel like an asset to the organization and they should be treasured. Training helps underscore this message. Training your employees is a practice that shows that the management is concerned towards the employees and wants to see them doing better and bigger.

Good training programs not only polish the skills in the employees but are also a positive reinforcement in their behaviors. Training helps strengthen employee loyalty and can help revitalize personnel in terms of their organizational performance. Training emphasize upon the employees that they are valued and respected. It gives a feeling that they are equally important for the company and therefore the company is struggling to make an effort in providing them with lessons on and off the job in order to prepare them for the competitive business scenario (Hollinshead, 2003).

Performance Management Challenges

The researcher identified five performance management challenges that influence an employee's performance at Tesco. The first challenge is person characteristics, which consist of skills, knowledge, abilities, and attitudes. The second challenge is input, which consists of information provided about the what, when, and how of a position and what resources and supports are available. The next challenge is outputs, which consist of performance standards for a position. The next factor is consequences, which consist of incentives, rewards, and disciplinary actions (Hollinshead, 2003). The challenge factor is feedback provided to the employee regarding information about their performance effectiveness.

There are few authors who described an evaluation as a process through which an organization gets information on how well an employee is doing their job. An evaluation can take the form of a performance appraisal, which measures the employee's performance normally against performance standards. Researchers have also recommended the use of continuous feedback and evaluation mechanism with volunteers (Venkatraman, 2000). They even recommended supervision and appraisals of volunteers. Few of them noted that, the purposes of an effective performance management system are to link employee activities with the organization's strategic goals, furnish valid and useful information for administrative decisions about employees and give employees useful developmental feedback.

Performance Management Initiative that Improve Employee Performance & Encourage Employee Retention

Despite economic changes, employee retention is still an issue for most of the organizations. The lack of labor plagued employers at the height of the economic boom that has not vanished. It may be off the radar now, but it is returning strong as ever. Tesco plc realizes by having an effective employee retention strategy will help them sustain their leadership and growth in the marketplace (Roger, 2001).

The best way to retain employees starts off from the phase of recruiting. Attracting new employees and then retaining them may not be two similar things, but each one reinforces the other in real sense. These functions require creating a repute of the organization internally as well as externally so that good employee generation is possible and once employees are hired, they may be so satisfied that they do not want to leave. If the organization represents itself more realistically, it will create an impression on the employees and will result in positivity all the way. However, employees too have to be honest while passing through the recruitment phase (Roger, 2001). They must be true in whatever they say about their expectations, culture, and demands and about the organization itself.

Improving Employee Relations

In order to improve employee relations, employee participation, involvement, and engagement are encouraged. Employee participation is sharing some degree of power in relation to organizational decision making. Employee involvement through making of suggestions offers employees limited influence over decision making. Employee engagement is an employee's involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work. This integrates the classic constructs of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Employees are one of the important stakeholders of an organization because, for example, more employee commitment will lead to improved performance. Employees are regularly better informed about their work tasks and processes than their managers. Employee participation, involvement, and engagement provide employees with greater intrinsic rewards from work. The rewards will in turn increase job satisfaction and enhance employee motivation to achieve different goals.

Participative decision making is likely to lead to better-quality management decisions, so that empowerment represents a win-win situation with gains available to both employers, as increased working efficiency, and to employees, as job satisfaction (Lewis, 2003). On the other hand, employees are given information on how to promote a better understanding of the company's goals and policies. Advice is given to employees about applicable regulations, legislation, and bargaining agreements.