Employee and Labor Relations

Introduction 

Employees may also be referred to as workers, staffs or laborers. They offer human resources services and humanitarian aid required in the effective running of any organization. These are among the core boosters which work towards achieving the goals and objectives of organizations. Despite the digitization of office work; the machines still require the personnel to operate them and hence this generates the benefit of employees in any corporate body. Moreover, labor relations is the process of handling employment conditions. According to ("Employee & Labor Relations | Human Resources," 2018 ) the desire of any organization is a have a good correlation between labor and management for the effective running of their activities. Additionally, the labor relations office merges the gap between the management and the staffs through offering services such as problem-solving, training and motivation, and counseling, which creates good relations and effective work environment among everyone in the workplace. This results in conjoint respect amongst employees and the management. 

The Case Study Review 

The case study is based in the hospitality sector and outlines the general running of the hotel by the name “The Georges Hotel." It has outlined the top level managers as well as other junior staffs. The top managers include Jeff Mitchell who is the CEO, Chad Mitchell the vice president of the community relations, Cindy Mitchell who is the Director, human resource and Dale Elsner, the catering service manager; the “Garden Terrace restaurant”. Moreover, Michael Mitchell is the Sales and association associate. It is evident that this is a family based business as shown by Jeff and Chad are brothers, Cindy is Chad wife, Michael is the elder son to Chad and Cindy, while Dale is the brother to Cindy.Additionally, the other junior employees are nieces, cousins, nephews and family friends. The aspiring employees are family members too; Brandon Mitchell aspiring to be the key chef and Julie Mitchell aspiring to work in the hotel in future. Michael Mitchell is anticipated to be the future CEO of the hotel. 

The only current employees who are not family members are David, Marie, and Lindsey who are all catering employees. Some of the senior employees tend not to concentrate much on their chores. Chad Mitchell; the vice president in community relations has no interest at all in this hotel industry, but still, he was recruitment as among the top managers. In the case study, he appears to relish much of his time outside the work environment by playing golf and doing visits. This calls for concern of a neglected area whereas he assumes that his wife Cindy Mitchell is in charge while he is not present. It can then be concluded that the sector of community relation is poorly managed, but the hotel has to keep the responsible person in charge to protect him and his name as Mitchell sons’. 

The hotel has plans for expanding the family business to a second hotel and a third too. In their goal of having a hotel at different states, therefore they will need more staffs in all the categories of management. Cindy as the Human Resources Manager sees the need of changing the human resource structures to a more integrated one to create space for management roles. She also has to change her recruitment format from referrals to more effective recruitment criteria, to accommodate better multinational performance and standards to run their future hotel businesses. A diverse workforce will hence be implemented to facilitate the professional performance of their upcoming hotels as well as the effective running of the hotel activities. 

HR Issues That Might Arise Due to the Situation 

The human resources manager, in this case, operates on family referral bases to recruit new employees. Some of issues may arise due to this trend operating various types of business. Recruitment of unqualified staffs who are unprofessional in the way they handle their assigned tasks. This may also lead to poor working relations making the working environment unhealthy for workers survival. Also, adequacy of staffs may not be achieved, as a family cannot create a pool of qualified employees who may be required for effective management of organizations. Also, there may be poor performance of employees, due to poor attendance as their family and friends’ colleagues will always protect absenteeism cases, delay in assigned tasks and poor deliveries. In this situation also the supervisors tend to be resistance in their superior chores by favoring their friends and family staffs who misbehave and don't perform their tasks as expected. Moreover, the seniors may tend misusing their powers by discriminating some workers, disrespect and excessive application of their authorities to the juniors. 

In this case, therefore, guides to complaints procedures will not be followed to ensure that employees are protected from torture and harassments such as sexual harassment and lawful retrenchment. Some employees may establish strong confidence in their job security despite their misconducts due to the family relations resulting in unaccountability towards any mess. Furthermore, the workers may not follow the set policies and guidelines as they tackle their duties due to supervisors’ negligence and also the family links who at the end will protect them. 

Undergraduate Questions 

What should Cindy do about Lindsey’s termination? 

Cindy should call Lindsey back to work and listen to her complaints. She would later use her complaints to set new policies to effect change in the hotel on how to handle the staffs’ opinion in a professional manner. Later Cindy should organize a meeting with Dale and outline the professional areas of improvement in the catering services sector which he is in charge. She should later inform Dale that Linsey is back to work, and give orders to him to respect her and peacefully work with her. To ensure that Lindsey's case does not occur again in other departments, Cindy should also meet the other supervisors and manager to update them concerning the changes which need to be impacted in their departments too. She should explain to them what she expects in future in terms of Employee and supervisor relationship while performing the tasks required of them. An effective means of communication should also be implemented to promote awareness of the current issues in the Hotel. They should input communication tools such as emails, notice boards bulletins and updates, effective phone calls during work hours in case of a concern or emergencies and also text messages 

How should the organization manage the current EEO complaints ? 

The organization has to implement new procedures for solving employees’ problems and complaints within the hotel premises. Additionally, it has to improve employee-management relations to create a cohesive working environment with mutual respect among each other. These measures will ensure that their employees complain to their supervisors and not to the EEO. Also after solving the problems within the hotel premises, Cindy should also attend the meeting of the Equal employment opportunity commission and listen to the complaints posted to them by their employees. This will also add to what she may have obtained earlier as the challenges facing her employees and this information will boost the content of the policy she is planning to put in place so as to avoid future EEO issues and warnings. 

How can they reduce the likelihood of future complaints? 

The employees have to be given the lawful rights to mention their opinions about day to day issues affecting their productivity. The leaders in different sectors of management have to exercise their authority in an effective manner and in a manner that does not harass their juniors. Moreover, Cindy as the current human resource manager has to implement a relevant way of recruitment which makes the hotel to employ competent and professional staffs; both the seniors and the juniors, who can handle various tasks in a professional and ethical manner, hence creating a peaceful work environment. Healthy working schedules and shifts have to be applied to avoid overcoming the staffs which may lead to complaints and also poor productivity and resignation cases too. Finally, the hotel should avail complaints boxes where their employees can post the issues affecting, which will enable the management to take action before the situations worsen. Moreover, the staffs can be given a privilege to nominate employees representatives at different departments who will always avail the matters of concern to the top leaders, and a solution is brought to place instantly before the complaints happen. Motivational strategies can also promote employees satisfaction at job place reducing their complaints in the future. 

Conclusion 

All organization in all sectors of operation should always make sure that they have a good human resource department which will cater to employee management relations. Staffs should be given freedom to express their views and opinions to avoid many complaints at the workplace. Finally, the top management’s personnel should practice their authority in an operational and skilled manner to facilitate the smooth running of tasks and create a peaceful working environment. 

References  

Employee & Labor Relations | Human Resources. (2018). Retrieved from https://hr.ucmerced.edu/employeelabor-relations