Employee Relations

Management:
Grievance Handling and Employee
Discipline
Punut, Milanisa I.
BSBA-FM 2-6
Employee Relation Management

▪ ERM refers to managing the relation between the various

employees in an organization.

▪ It is an art which effectively monitors and manages the relation

between individuals either of the same team or from different
teams and a process of adopting controlling methods and
practices to regulates employee relations.
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Grievance Handling
Grievance Handling

 Grievance handling is the management of employee

dissatisfaction or complaints (e.g. favouritism, workplace
harassment, or wage cuts).

 By establishing formal grievance handling procedures, you

provide a safe environment for your employees to raise their
concerns. You also create a channel to explain your policies and
rationale for actions or decisions.
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What is
grievance?
A grievance is any dissatisfaction
or feeling of injustice having
connection with one’s employment
situation which is brought to the
attention of management.

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▪ Dissatisfaction – is anything that disturbs any employee, whether or
not the unrest is expressed in words.

▪ Complaint – is a spoken or written dissatisfaction brought to the

attention of the supervisor or the shop steward.

▪ Grievance – is a complaint that has been formally presented to a

management representative or to a union official.
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Four (4) Key Features of a Good
Grievance Handling Procedure by
Torrington and Hall
1. Fairness
2. Facilities for Representation
3. Procedural Steps
4. Promptness

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Employee Grievance Handling – Six (6) Main Objective

▪ To enable the employee to air his/her grievance.

▪ To clarify the nature of the grievance.
▪ To investigate the reasons for dissatisfaction.
▪ To obtain, where possible, a speedy resolution to the problem.
▪ To take appropriate actions and ensure that promises are kept.
▪ To inform the employee of his or her right to take the grievance to the
next stage of the procedure, in the event of an unsuccessful resolution
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Reasons of Grievances
▪ Economic – Employees may demand for individual wage adjustments.
▪ Work environment – It may be undesirable or unsatisfactory conditions of work.
▪ Poor quality of supervision – It may be objections to the general methods of supervision
related to the attitudes of the supervisor towards the employee such as perceived notions of bias,
favoritism, nepotism, caste affiliation and regional feelings.
▪ Organizational change – Any change in the organizational policies can result grievances.
▪ Employee relations – Employees are unable to adjust with their colleagues, suffer from feeling
of neglect and victimization and become and become an object of ridicule and humiliation, or
other inter-employee dispute.
▪ Miscellaneous – These may be issues relating to certain violations in respect of promotion,
safety methods, transfer, disciplinary rules, fines, granting leaves, medical facilities, etc.
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Grievance On the production:
• Low quality of production
• Low productivity
Lead to: • Increase in the wastage of material, spoilage/leakage of machinery
• Increase in the cost of production per unit
On the employees:
• Increase in the rate of absenteeism and turnover
• Reduction in the level of commitment, sincerity, and punctuality
• Increase in the incidence of accidents
• Reduction in the level of employee morale.
On the managers:
• Strained superior-subordinate relations
• Increase in the degree of supervision and control
• Increase in indiscipline cases
• Increase in unrest and thereby machinery to maintain industrial peace.

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The following elements for a sound grievance handling procedure are
suggested:

▪ Well defined communication channels.

▪ The procedure should be simple, to understand.
▪ Properly defined steps for redressing of grievances.
▪ Should have logical sequence of steps.
▪ Favourable attitude of concerned authorities responsible for redressing.
▪ Fact base approach for redressal of grievances.
▪ Proper communication of procedure to all employees and authorities.
▪ Respect for decisions of redressing authority.
▪ Periodical review of grievance handling procedure.
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Grievance Redressal Procedure

1. Quick action
2. Acknowledging grievance
3. Gathering facts
4. Examining the causes of grievance
5. Decisioning
6. Execution and review
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 • It encourages employees to raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
• It provides a fair and speedy means of dealing with complaints.
• It prevents minor disagreements developing into more serious disputes.
• It saves employers time and money as solutions are found for workplace problems.
It helps to build an organizational climate based on openness and trust.
• It is a channel for an aggrieved employee to express and present his grievance.
• It is an assurance for dispassionate handling of one’s grievance.
• It provides assurance about the availability of some machinery for prompt handling
of grievance.
• It is a means by which an aggrieved employee can release his feelings of
discontent or dissatisfaction with his/her job.

Following are some effects of Grievance Handling:

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Employee Discipline
What is Employee Discipline?
“Discipline is a
force that prompts
▪ Actions imposed by an organization on individuals or
groups to observe
its employees for failure to follow the rules, regulations
and procedures
organization's rules, standards, or which are deemed
to be necessary for
policies. the effective
functioning of an
organization” -
Calhoon

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Employee Discipline – 5 Important Objectives

▪ To obtain a willing acceptance of the rules and regulations or procedures of an

organization so that organizational goals may be attained.
▪ To develop among the employee a spirit of tolerance and a desire to make
adjustments.
▪ To give direction or responsibility.
▪ To increase the working efficiency or morale of the employ­ees so that their
productivity is stepped up and the cost of production brought down and the quality
of production im­proved.
▪ To create an atmosphere of respect for the human personality or human relations.

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Employee Discipline – Characteristics
▪ Immediate - immediate disciplinary action must be taken for violation of rules.
▪ Consistent - there should be high consistency in a sound disciplinary system.
▪ Impersonal - impersonality should be maintained by refraining from personal
or subjective feelings.
▪ Prior warning and notice - a sound disciplinary system should give advance
warning to the employees as to the implications of not conforming to the
standards of behaviour/code of conduct in an organization.

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Employee Discipline – 7 Major Factors to Consider in
Discipline
1. Seriousness of the Problem
2. Duration of the Problem
3. Nature of the Problem
4. External Influence
5. Degree of Familiarity
6. Disciplinary Practices
7. Management Support

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The important causes of indiscipline are analyzed under three heads:

1. Organizational Factor
2. Individual Factor - Individual differences caused by education, experience, values,
attitudes, beliefs, intelligence, personality, etc., cause employees to behave differently
in an organization. Therefore, some individuals conform to rules and standards of
behaviour in much wider context than others.
3. Environmental Factor - Since an organization is also one of the members of the
society, discipline observed by the society manifests in organizations. Indiscipline
prevailing in family, educational institutions, political system, religious institutions,
break-down of social control mechanism, etc., casts its ugly shadow on the
organizational climate.
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2 Kinds of Punishment: Minor and Major Punishment

Minor Major
▪ Oral Reprimand ▪ Pay cut
▪ Written Reprimand ▪ Demotion
▪ Punitive Suspension ▪ Suspension pending enquiry
▪ Loss of Privilege ▪ Discharge.
▪ Fine
▪ Transfer
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4 General Types of Disciplinary Actions Available when Employees Fail
to Meet Expected Levels of Performance

1. Verbal counseling
2. Written warning
3. Suspension
4. Termination

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THANK YOU
Presented by: Punut Milanisa (BSBA-FM 2-6)
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