Labour Relations Training

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"Employee commitment is currently an important factor in the effective operation of most organizations. Under more traditional arrangements, especially with 'good' employers, employee commitment developed as part of a set of mutual obligations that included long-term employment security and career development offered by the employer. As job security and other perceived employer obligations dissolved, so did employee commitment. How organizations will function in the absence of employee commitment, where workers have a more individualistic orientation, is an open question."
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Employment Equity Act
  
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Twenty years ago I was asked to help a Swaziland company who were experiencing labour problems. At the first meeting with management I was surprised to learn that there was only one Swazi (Black) manager. The rest were White ex-patriates, mostly British and South African. Amongst others, one of the underlying causes of the strike was the company's use of ex-patriates in senior jobs.
  
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I was able to assist the Company with a number of initiatives, including a training initiative. This has stood the Company in good stead because last year we were called in to do an employee engagement audit and following that, to assist the Company to update their HR policies and develop a holistic HR/IR strategy.
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Real transformation
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What really struck me was that 20 years later, in the same company, all the managers were Swazis. The only whites were the MD and FD. This is pretty much the same in other Swaziland companies. There are now very few ex-patriates. Most jobs are done by Swazi nationals and the companies are just as profitable as they ever were!
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Contrast this with South Africa where we have the Employment Equity Act and BBBEE Act aimed at transforming the workplace and yet there is still unhappiness about the rate of transformation. Swaziland has an Industrial Relations Act which is based on our Labour Relations Act and which prevents arbitrary dismissals.
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Another thing that strikes one when doing business in Swaziland is the skills and intellect of the managers. Most have a university education with many of them having studied and worked overseas. This is reflected in their thinking.
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Ex-patriates
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20 years ago where both Swaziland and Botswana, were short of skilled personnel, they allowed employers to bring in ex-patriates on contract, subject to the condition that locals were trained to replace them. At the end of the fixed term contract, the employer could re-apply to re-employ an ex-pat but the employer would have to prove that it had a proper training programme in place to train locals.
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Added to this, both countries offered bursaries to promising students to study overseas. This has had two impacts. Firstly the standard of education offered by places like Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge are superior to anything local universities have to offer. And secondly, overseas travel is an education in itself. Students get to see a different way of life and take on different paradigms on the world.
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One engineer can create a hundred jobs
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One engineer can create a hundred jobs but can a vacancy in the Department of Works for an engineer create anything?! We need to seriously review our immigration laws and allow employers to bring in people with scarce skills - but with conditions.
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Peter Capelli et al Change at Work (1997) at 215.
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The secret to transformation is proper training and development, not restrictive legislation. Apart from creating jobs for inspectors, the EEA and BBEEE have not added value. In fact the opposite is true. In many cases they have led to ‘fronting' and various forms of corruption.
  
 
   
 
   
  
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Mr Capelli makes a point. My father retired in 1968 after having worked for one employer for 42 years - a very loyal and committed employee. Today his job no longer exists - it has been computerized! Had he stayed on longer, he might well have become a victim of restructuring.
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The good news
  
 
   
 
   
  
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While trade unions still place a lot of emphasis on job security, it does not carry the same weight it used to in the old days. Companies in responding to rapid global and technological change no longer guarantee job security. Most companies have been through some form of restructuring process, resulting in the retrenchment and/or early retirement of employees.
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We need to review our labour legislation and start again if we want peace, prosperity and real transformation. The good news is that the South African Board of Personnel Practice (SABPP) has embarked upon an initiative to improve the standards of Human Resource Management in South Africa.
  
 
   
 
   
  
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This however is rapidly becoming a two edged sword for employers. Employee attitudes have changed. People change jobs with little thought of the consequences for the employer, sometimes leaving without even serving notice. Changing jobs every few years has become the norm for young graduates. It enables one to gain experience and to improve one's economic position by trading one employer off against another. Add to this the pressures of BEE which has created artificial scarcities and we can see that employers have created a problem for themselves.
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HR standards have been determined and rolled out to the HR profession who has endorsed them. The next step will be for employers to be audited against those standards. The standards cover aspects such as Strategic HR Management, Talent Management, Workforce Planning, Learning & Development and Performance Management.
  
 
   
 
   
  
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How then does one go about attracting and retaining talent and most importantly maintaining a positive employee relations climate? The answer is to get back to basics!
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This will reveal where changes are required and as a consequence, initiate a programme of corrective action to address shortfalls. This should result in real positive transformation of our workplaces and we at B&A will do all in our power to support the initiative.
  
 
   
 
   
  
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    Make sure everyone is on the same page. Ensure the organisation's vision, mission and strategy is understood and forms the driving force of all business activities.
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For more on Employment Equity have a look at the Renate Barnard case here.
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    Develop and live good values! Effective leaders seek to get consensus on values that will create a positive organisational culture conducive to attracting and retaining talent. Integrity and respect are two values that must start at the top!
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    Develop and implement sound human resource policies and procedures. Good, regularly updated policies and procedures modelled on best practice lead to consistency. Inconsistency on the other hand, leads to unfairness and IR problems as well as being one of the major demotivators in organisations.
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    Develop a culture of self-discipline and accountability. Encourage employees to develop a sense of pride and responsibility by allowing them to make decisions. Self-directed/mission directed/empowered work teams - whatever you call them, are the way of the future. Supervisors need to be trained to think differently.
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    Make sure people know what is expected of them. Jobs need to be clearly defined and aligned to the organisation's business focus. The organisation structure should be ‘lean' and as flat as possible allowing for effective decision making and good communication.
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    Make sure people are fairly paid. There are a number of major job evaluation systems available, most of which correlate with each other so that pay between organisations can be compared. Jobs need to be described and evaluated and pay structured accordingly so that there is internal equity. Internal pay scales also need to be aligned to market rates to ensure that there is also external equity. If you have a top performer, make sure he or she is also paid accordingly!
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    Implement a performance management system. Focus on outputs not activities. Reward employees who ‘walk the extra mile' and do not put up with under-performers. A well thought out performance management system will not only encourage openness and communication; it should also identify talent and training needs.
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    Reward good performance. Team bonuses and deferred performance bonuses are a good way rewarding and retaining talent.
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    Apply a zero tolerance approach to discipline. Deal with small things while they are small. This will only happen if managers and supervisors are trained to identify troubled employees and take active steps to ensure they conform to rules and standards. Where serious misconduct occurs, this needs to be handled professionally. Do not lose disciplinary cases!
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    Pay special attention to training and development. We have a huge skills shortage in South Africa and the only long term solution is to train and develop our own people -  starting with our managers and supervisors.
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For more information on B&A's [http://www.bruniquel.co.za/training/labour Labour Relations training] and consulting services contact your local B&A office at Durban (031-3094627), Johannesburg 0861-474722, Cape Town 021-5270044, Port Elizabeth 041-3682019, Kokstad 039-7271773, Margate 039-3122698, Richards Bay 035-7531255 or click here
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For more information on B&A's [http://www.bruniquel.co.za/training/labour-relations-training labour relations training] and leadership training programmes and consulting services contact your local B&A office at Durban (031-3094627), Johannesburg 0861-474722, Cape Town 021-5270044, Port Elizabeth 041-3682019, Kokstad 039-7271773, Margate 039-3122698, Richards Bay 035-7531255 or click here

Latest revision as of 06:55, 9 September 2014

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