Employee Relationship Management (ERM)

Employees are the major assets of an organization. It is essential that the employees perform together as a collective unit and contribute equally towards the realization of a common goal. No task can be accomplished if the individuals are engaged in constant conflicts and misunderstandings. It has been observed that targets are achieved at a much faster rate if the employees work together and share a warm relationship with each other. Employees must be comfortable with each other to deliver their best and enjoy their work.

What is employee relationship management ?

Employee relationship management refers to managing the relation between the various employees in an organization. The relationship can be between employee and the employer as well as between employees at the same level.

What is Management?

Management is nothing but a technique which brings people together on a common platform and guides them so that they achieve their desired targets without fighting with each other. In a layman’s language, management is nothing but managing things effectively so that tasks are accomplished without any hassles and confusions. Management is required everywhere.

Every individual goes for shopping. The moment you enter in an outlet, a sales person would come to you and assist you in your shopping. He would try his level best to convince you and guide you in selecting an outfit according to your taste as well as budget. The moment you finalize something, you automatically would be directed to the billing section for the monetary transactions. Your shopping basket in no time would reach the packing area where the officials would nicely put the outfits in a smart carry bag flaunting the logo of the store. Finally there would be a supervisor who would recheck your bill and thank you for your valuable time.

How do you think such a smooth coordination is possible? Not a single moment, there was any confusion. All this is possible through management. Every thing was well managed and organized effectively to avoid confusions and meet the ultimate objective of the store ie selling the product as well as making the customer happy.

Employee relationship management is an art which effectively monitors and manages the relation between individuals either of the same team or from different teams. Employee relationship management activity helps in strengthening the bond among the employees and ensures that each one is contented and enjoys a healthy relation with each other.

Employee relationship management includes various activities undertaken by the superiors or the management to develop a healthy relation among the employees and extract the best out of each team member.

Let us go through certain activities which are imperative for a healthy employee relationship management:

• Transparency in communication is of utmost importance for a healthy employee relationship management. A single point of contact must be assigned who should be made responsible for handling queries of all the team members and escalating it to the seniors.

  Confusions are bound to arise if all of them would walk up to their superiors with their problems. Let the team members decide their SPOC. In such cases employees actually know who to get in touch with in case of a query and in the absence of their superiors. The hierarchy should not be too complicated and every employee should be accessible to each other.

  Important information must be passed on in the presence of all, where everyone has the liberty to express his opinions freely. Important information can also be put on the notice boards for everyone to read and get a common picture.

  If any one has performed exceptionally well, do display his name on the bulletin board. Let everyone read it and get inspired to perform better next time. Encourage morning meetings where individuals can come together and know each other well. Exchanging information through emails is also an important way to improve the relation among the employees as everyone knows what is being communicated to the other individual.

• Encourage group activities at the workplace. Motivate individuals to work together probably in a group so that the comfort level increases. The more they talk, the more they get to know each other. Give them a target, a deadline and ask them to take each other’s help and reach to a conclusion. They would definitely come closer this way and start trusting each other more.

  An individual spends the maximum time at his workplace and one should treat his team members as a part of one’s extended family. It is important to celebrate festivals at organization, the same way we do at our homes.

  Celebrate each other’s birthday and do ask for treats. Such informal get togethers go a long way in improving the relation among the employees. Individuals come together, enjoy together and come to know lot many things which actually they don’t bother to find out during the normal working hours. Families must also be invited for a better bonding. The team leaders must ask their team members to take their lunch together so that they discuss other things apart from their daily work.

• Assign challenging work to your team members so that they feel motivated to deliver their level best. Do not assign something which they do not find interesting. The responsibilities must be divided equally among the team members and no employee should be overburdened. Every employee should be aware of his key responsibility areas to avoid confusions. No way should the work get monotonous.

• The concept of workstations and cubicles must be promoted rather than closed cabins. People sitting in closed cabins tend to get cut off from rest of the employees in the organization and are generally lost in their own sweet world. They would enter their cabins in the morning and come out in the evening and thus sometimes even don’t get the opportunity to exchange greetings with their fellow workers.

  People sitting in workstations tend to talk to each other more often even in between work and thus relationship improves. One can even walk up to the other’s desk to have a brief chit chat in order to take a small break and feel relaxed. Employees sitting together discuss many things and even share their secrets, thus the trust increases. It is commonly observed that if any of your colleagues sitting next to you is on leave for some days, you start missing him.

• The employees must be motivated to avoid politics and blame games at work. Such activities are considered highly unproductive and spoil the relationship among the employees. Backbiting is a strict no no at the workplace. Avoid getting into unnecessary controversies and useless criticism at work. Respect your team members as well as your superiors. It is important that one trusts his management rather than unnecessarily cribbing and finding faults. Avoid conflicts and try to adjust with each other. It is okay to be friends with your colleagues but don’t have unrealistic expectations from anyone.

• Last but not the least the superiors or the team leaders must not act pricy and try to dominate their team members. The “Hitler approach” does not work now a days. No one should be afraid of his boss, instead treat him as his well-wisher and mentor who is always there to support him.

  The employees must be able to fall back on their team leader anytime. The team leader must understand the needs and expectations of his employees and should not be too harsh to them. If they want a leave for a genuine reason, do grant them. Don’t be after their life if you find them chatting with their family or friends over the phone once in a while or log on to any social networking site. These things are natural but make sure the work does not suffer.

• Partialities must be avoided for a better employee relationship. Treat everyone as one and every individual must respect each other’s privacy. There is a limit to everything and thus over indulgence in each other’s work, too much of a friendly nature should be avoided.

For a better employee relationship management, it is important that employees have a positive frame of mind and don’t always consider their colleagues as their enemies. Don’t always assume that your fellow team member would say something against you in front of your boss. Avoid disputes, misunderstandings, instead work together, enjoy together and make the organization a better place to work.