Communication and Involvement

All jobs have the potential to be alienating, making the job holder indifferent or hostile both to the job and to the management, who are seen responsible for obliging the employee to continue doing the job. According to (Torrington and Taylor, 2005) employee relations are largely concerned with preventing or alleviating that type of alienation.  These issues are usually often collective, concerning a number of people. 

According to (Bratton & Gold, 2007) employee participation is to help with quality movement and improving the human resources within the organisation. So the employers are trusted to make important decisions for the organisation as well as themselves.  

Employee participation is part of a process of empowerment in the workplace which consists of decentralising power within a company. Team members encourage each other to make important decisions for themselves with guidelines and support. 

Employee Relations involves the body of work concerned with maintaining employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale.   Essentially, Employee Relations is concerned with preventing and resolving problems involving individuals which arise out of or affect work situations. 

Advice is provided to supervisors on how to correct poor performance and employee misconduct. In such instances, progressive discipline and regulatory and other requirements must be considered in effecting disciplinary actions and in resolving employee grievances and appeals. Information is provided to employees to promote a better understanding of management's goals and policies. Information is also provided to employees to assist them in correcting poor performance, on or off duty misconduct, and/or to address personal issues that affect them in the workplace. Employees are advised about applicable regulations, legislation, and bargaining agreements. Employees are also advised about their grievance and appeal rights and discrimination and whistleblower protections. 

Mark and Spencer use questionnaires to encourage staff involvement. They send out questionnaires every six months and encourage their own staff to fill it out; one incentive they use to ensure that the employees fill out is that they will be eligible for a mini reward. Another organisation that tries to encourage staff involvement within their business is New Look. They have a suggestion box, where the employees are able to put forward any ideas they may have. 

Social networking has grown in popularity in the UK over recent months. The site Facebook, for example, has witnessed a membership growth of 3 million over the last 6 months. Sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo allow people to communicate online through a variety of networks and share photos and videos. Each user has a profile with a certain amount of personal information visible to the public.

As the years have gone by, the technology world has improved. A lot of businesses are now using the internet to recruit potential new staff to their business. According to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey, more companies are recruiting on social networking websites and even more organizations not using the sites currently are open to utilizing them in the future.  Only 21% of surveyed companies stated that they currently do not use social networking sites and have no plans to do so.

Linkedin, naturally enough, is the top site for social recruiting, followed by Facebook and Twitter:

• LinkedIn - 95%
• Facebook - 58%
• Twitter - 42%

Ernst & Young, which created a Facebook community showcasing the company with flashy videos and a Q&A section. More than 9,500 people are part of this group.They send out messages and inform people on what they will need to exactly do to apply for the jobs available

Conclusion

It is essential that staff are free to have their own opinion whilst working in the workplace for the reason that it will the business work more efficiently. Another reason is that it will help them motivate the employees. It is also useful for businesses to undertake new ways of communicating to their employees for example via Facebok.
Social websites like Facebook provide a lot of information which can be considered important to different businesses for example their age and marital status.
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References
B net (n.d) Business dictionary [online] Available at: http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/employee+involvement.html [Accessed 4 May 2010]

Bevan, S and Reilly, P (2001) Employee financial participation. Ise [online] Available at: http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=373 [Accessed 4 May 2010]

Evans, D (2004) Supervisory management principle and practice [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=b6Of2LsJV0kC&pg=PA520&dq=employee+participation+management&cd=2#v=onepage&q=employee%20participation%20management&f=false [Accessed 30 April 2010]

Taylor, S and Hall, L (2005) Human resource management [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CIcmwkH_C8wC&pg=PA462&dq=individual+involvement&cd=1#v=onepage&q=individual%20involvement&f=false [Accessed 4 May 2010]

Top Ten Review (2010) Social networking websits review [online] Available at: http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/ [Accessed 2 March 2010]

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