Essay Example on Employee Relations @ McDonald's: A Conducive Work Environment

Introduction

Employee relations can be defined as the relationship that exists between the employees and the employer. Employee relations strategies are the plans that an organization has in order to attain its long-term objectives (Cloutier, Felusiak, Hill and Pemberton-Jones, 2015). The strategies should concern with employee welfare and relationships. At McDonald's, there is a conducive and flexible working environment that makes employees feel like part of the organization. The company also empowers the employee by continuously developing their skills and knowledge through training (Bomkamp, 2016). These employee relations strategies adopted by McDonald's help to ensure there is a better working environment c in the organization, and the employees feel they are valued by the organization hence aligning with the organizational strategy.

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Employee Relations Strategy/Policy

One employee relation policy McDonald's can adopt is involve its employees more in decision making. However, involving employees in decision making may pose its own risk to the organization (Tews, Michel, Xu and Drost, 2015). Through the concept of risk management, possible risks are identified, assessed, and necessary steps are taken to minimize the risk. Thus, employees can be fully involved in all issues that directly impact them and their welfare in the organization.

Employee Relations Strategy Objectives

The objectives of employee relations strategy objectives include minimizing the chance of turnover in the organization, to attract qualified employees to the organization, to develop good public image and reputation, have a healthy employer and employee relation and minimize employee-related disputes. The bottom line of developing healthy employee relations strategies is to align the organization towards being an equal employer where employees are valued and that there is no employee discrimination at the workplace.

Managing Employee Disputes

Disputes among employees in the workplace are a common phenomenon, and managing the disputes has to be aligned with the attainment of the organizational goals. Differences in opinions, lifestyles, discrimination, and workplace harassment can lead to employees' disputes in the organization (Wallensteen, 2018). Strict policies should be created to discourage unhealthy workplace activities that can lead to disputes. In case of disputes, the employer should fully understand the nature of the conflicts and its cause then professionally handle the situation without favoritism but in line with the attainment of the organizational goals.

Possible Areas of Conflict

There are many possible areas of conflict in an organization. Some of the possible areas include payment- wages and salaries, working conditions, supervision, individual advancement in career, and collective bargaining issues. These conflicts can be mitigated by ensuring there is good communication between the employer and employee (Wallensteen, 2018). On payment- wages and salaries, clear wage calculation formulae should be used. Employers have to provide employees with a conducive working environment. Supervisors need to be people of good character to effectively manage others in the organization. The employer should provide a conducive environment for individual career advancement, and finally, on issues of collective bargaining, the employer should have good relations with the trade unions.

Task 2

a. Key Points Considered When Negotiating Employee Agreements, Awards, and Contracts

There are many things to consider when negotiating awards, contracts, and agreements in employee rights and obligations. Among the critical points to include is considering the legal entitlements that employees are entitled to by labor unions. It is important to match the negotiated position with what is required legally by employee trade unions. For example, on the maximum weekly working hours, the negotiated maximum weekly hours need to benchmark the hours set by trade unions. Another important point to consider is flexibility in the agreement so as to ensure a win-win deal is secured (Jennings, McCarthy and Undy, 2017). By incorporating flexibility in the negotiation, both parties – the employer and employee arrive at a win-win position. On annual leave entitlements negotiations, representatives of employee unions are involved to ensure the agreed decision is in line with the union's decision-making structure.

b. The Terms and Conditions of Employment in My Organization

Terms and conditions of employment at McDonald's entail all aspects of employee relation and contract of employment. All the terms and conditions of employment are stipulated in Article 3 of the staff policy manual. All employees are entitled to work within the maximum working hours and the minimum rest periods. There is a minimum paid leave period per year. On payment, there is a set minimum pay rate and a maximum overtime pay rate. All employees are unionized, with the exception of temporary employees who work as school interns. There is a clear employee policy on hygiene, safety, and health; that all employees must abide. McDonald's is an equal opportunity employer, and there is equality and non-discrimination among employees (Bomkamp, 2016). There is a policy on how pregnant women and breastfeeding women employees work.

c. Training Opportunities and Its Cost-Benefit Analysis

Employees at McDonald's undergo continuous in-house training to ensure they offer the best quality products and customer service to customers. Each department conducts weekly in-house training on its employees on various aspects to ensure each employee delivers the best for the organization and the customers. The organization also sends some of its employees out of the organization to train on new and emerging issues that can improve the business. After attending the training, the employee comes and trains the other workers in the organization to ensure they are all well versed with the new developments in the industry. It is estimated that McDonals has allocated 10 percent of its budget on employee training (Bomkamp, 2016). Despite the cost of training, the company has been able to maintain highly-trained staff who have delivered unmatched quality to customers. Due to the high quality of service, McDonald's has also experienced an increase in customer base and revenues over the last ten years, an indication that employee training has significantly increased the company revenue.

d. Ideas on:

Employee recruitment

On employee recruitment, McDonald's relies on press advertisements and internal promotion to supervisory and management positions. Since most of the newly employed staff are young men and ladies, I am of the idea that McDonald's can recruit new young employees from education institutions and use private employment institutions. This would allow McDonald's to get the employees with the needed skills in the food industry and minimize the training costs the company incurs every year.

Employee retention

On employee retention, I am of the idea that McDonald's should have a minimum service contract and a reward scheme for long-serving employees. The company spends a lot on training employees, and high attrition leads to loss of the investment on the employees. A minimum service contract of 3 years would ensure the company reaps benefit from the training investment. Having a reward scheme for long-serving employees would ensure employees are motivated to serve the company for long.

Employee satisfaction

On employee satisfaction, I am of the idea that McDonald's should provide employees with flexible working hours and flexible working contracts. Other than the set working hours, employees can set the hours they wish to work. Secondly, the company can develop flexible work contracts like allowing employees to choose the season to work since others wish to take holidays in some seasons.

A short induction

The office building has a main door and three fire exit doors. In case of any emergency, use the nearest emergency door to get out of the premise and assembly at the fire assembly point. Reporting the incidence of authorities has to be done by the manager, who is the only authorized person to communicate on behalf of the company. Staff can access all public working areas in the company except places with limited access where they have to get security authorization. Employees have to dress official while at work. Casual dress code is not allowed at work. Employees are supposed to maintain high levels of discipline at work. There should be no use of personal phones and the internet while working. All employees have to report to their supervisors, who also report to the unit managers. The general manager is the higher personnel in the organization and the unit managers' report to the general manager.

e. Individual and Team Development Plans and Employee Performance Management Plans

Individual and team development plans are important for increasing individual and team knowledge and skills for improved individual and group productivity. For individuals, individual training, coaching, and mentorship program are important for improving individual skills and knowledge. For groups, training is important for improving group productivity and teamwork. Employee performance management plan is important for aligning the employee productivity towards the attainment of the company goal.

f. How Employee Relations Policies Should Be Evaluated and Revised

Employee relations policies need to be revised from to me to time to accommodate new contemporary developments in the workplace. Reviews can be done after every two years or when an expected change in social structures happens. For example, it has been a policy that all employees should give each other a warm greeting with a firm handshake or a hug, but with the sudden expected change in social structures due to the COVID 19 crisis, the employee relations policies need amendment. The employee relations policies need to be periodically evaluated based on their effectiveness towards the attainment of the company goal and meeting societal expectations.

Task 3

a. Early Intervention in Employees' Disputes Process

Disputes need to be addressed at the early stages, failure to which employee turnover, lower productivity, loss of morale will occur. At McDonald's, when there is a dispute between employees in the organization, the management calls for a meeting with the concerned parties so as to determine the cause of the dispute and try to solve the problem professionally (Bomkamp, 2016). If the dispute persists, the management refers to the issue to the dispute resolution committee that has the mandate to take disciplinary action on either of the parties. For disputes involving collective bargaining, the management tactfully works with the labor unions to solve the dispute in advance.

b. Problem-solving Processes

Disputes in the workplace involve a disagreement between the employer and employees or between employee and employee. In any institution, there is bound to be a dispute/disputes from time to time (Noe and Kodwani, 2018). At McDonald's, the procedure for solving a dispute is procedural. First, report the dispute to the management. The management is tasked to ensure any reported dispute is resolved within 24 hours. In the event the dispute is not resolved within the 24 hours, report the dispute to the dispute resolution committee in writing. The dispute resolution committee will handle the dispute and resolve it within 24 hours. However, to ensure no despites in the organization, everyone needs to support the processes.