Emerging Employee Relations Issues
As the new year begins, it can be helpful to consider some of the emerging employee relations issues which will affect employers in the coming decade. Unless you are an independent contractor working on your own, these emerging issues will have an influence upon your workplace. An awareness of these issues will help management to better plan and respond to changes in the workplace.
A tight labor market with continued difficulty in recruiting qualified workers is expected to remain as a significant challenge to management. Over the past year, the unemployment rate has hovered near the four percent mark. Employers from nearly all sectors complain that job vacancies remain open longer and that the availability of qualified workers remains very slim.
In response, many firms are using more innovative ways to recruit. Newspaper ads will continue to be the linch-pin of employment recruiting efforts. Internet recruiting is quickly emerging as a leading job connection source for employees and employers. The tight labor market also enhances the market position of recruiting agencies to help employers find qualified workers. Schools, community organizations and referrals from current employees should also be part of broadened recruitment efforts.
The recruiting issues described above are contributing to a growing diversity of the workforce. The continued shortage of workers prompts greater opportunities for workers who in time past may have been overlooked by employers. One significant effect is the growing participation of Hispanic, Asian and European workers in the workforce. Some of these workers, however, have limited english skills. Progressive firms are taking pro-active steps to respond to these communications issues, such as hiring bilingual supervisors, providing English as a second language training for employees, and second language training for supervisors. Translation of written policies and procedures is growing in frequency in response to these issues.
Workplace Privacy concerns will continue to result in conflicts between employees and management as this area of employment law evolves. Employer response to problems of drug and alcohol abuse and security concerns will create conflicts with employee expectations of privacy in the workplace. The absence of a single clearly defined statute on workplace privacy issues will mean that the current common law definitions of privacy will be resolved through privacy complaints in the form of privacy litigation, gradually providing guidance to employers on permissible and inappropriate practices.
The primary protection for the employer is to define job related reasons for implementing workplace controls that may threaten an employee's expectation of privacy, and then to communicate clearly to employees the purpose and administration of the policy.
High tech communications tools will influence business communication and prompt the need for guidelines on proper use of these tools. Computer E-mail, Internet access, use of laptop and hand held computing devices and use of cell phones open new avenues of communication while creating significant potential for abuse. For example, "Cyberslacking" or unauthorized web surfing for personal matters is a growing concern, and E-mail seems to have emerged as the medium of choice for those with a bent on sexual harassment.
Training for employees and carefully defining policies on proper use of these high-tech communications tools will be an employer's first line of defense.
The "baby boomers" born in the late fortys and fiftys are maturing, causing an aging of the workforce. This will lead to more older workers working longer, increasing demands on health care systems and benefits, and a growing frequency of retirements. Rather than the old practice of "putting older workers out to pasture," these changing demographics will prompt employers to find new ways to use the talents and experience of seniors.
The bottom line is this: business organizations accomplish results through their people. So it is important that business owners and managers truly treat employees as their most important resource.
William S. Hubbartt is president of Hubbartt & Associates, a St. Charles, IL consulting firm specializing in employee compensation, employee handbooks, personnel policies and supervisory training. (www.Hubbartt.com) Mr. Hubbartt is author of The New Battle Over Workplace Privacy, published by AMACOM Books.
