No man is an island, and this saying holds especially true for organizations which rely on their human capital to run and do business in the first place. Unhappy employees will adversely affect the company not just in terms of the environment but eventually, its bottom line too. Not only should there be an environment that fosters cooperation, harmony, mutual respect, and open communication within the organization and its team, but this must also be present across all levels of the organization, be it amongst members of a given team, those employees who are all at the same level, superiors and managers, the senior leadership, and more. At the end of the day, be it a private or public limited company, with five, or five hundred, or five thousand companies, employee relations is an aspect that can make or break an organization’s culture and climate. When employees are comfortable in their workplace, and this includes various aspects of the workplace (not just the physical or social but also the workplace environment, policies, facilities, and of course, colleagues), they will also be more motivated and willing to not only do their jobs but go the extra mile for their employers and their organization.
The physical, emotional, intellectual, and practical aspects of an employee’s relationship and needs within the organization are covered under the term employee relations. While the concept of employee relations originated from the Industrial revolution era, where there arose a need to manage conflict and expectations between management and workers, today the term encompasses a lot more than just conflict management and resolution, and indeed, has come to have much greater significance as well. Numerous case studies and researches have shown that there is a strong, indisputable link between employee satisfaction levels and productivity in any kind of organization, be it industrial or manufacturing, intellectual capital related, educational, retail, etc. And since every organization is dependent on its employees to fulfill its mission and goals, including that of being profitable and successful at the business, be it a product or service at hand, the happiness (with regard to the workplace) quotient of employees is important. And in order to be able to gauge whether employees are happy, whether they consider the organization a good place to work, as having fair practices, and fulfilling their needs and expectations as employees, there has to be a person or team in charge of employee relations.