Topic for Discussion - How HR Should Stay Connected with the Employees

Dear Members,
On one of the WA groups, Administrator of the forum has brought a topic for discussion. Today's topic is on decision based on head or heart. He has raised the following questions:
Q. 1 How should we as HR Professionals get connected with employees?
Q. 2 What methods/tools need to be followed so that trust will prevail amongst employees?
Q. 3 Does local or regional language play vital role to understand each other or the regional language is the best medium to get connected with employees?
I have given replies to his questions. My replies are as below:
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Dear Mr Rajaram Thorve,
Replies to your question are as below:
Q. 1 How should we as HR Professionals get connected with employees?
Reply: - To connect with the employees, two fundamental things are important. One is that there should be sufficient strength of HR professionals and second one is whether HR professionals have time to connect with the employees. In the IT companies, where most of the activities of erstwhile personnel management are outsourced, and HR professionals handle only the hardcore HR activities even then also, the ratio is 1:200 With this ratio, how HR can stay in touch with the employee is matter of conjecture!
In the SMEs, where most of the HRs are nothing but personnel managers, are laden with routine work like payroll processing, activities related to the labour laws and above all recruitment. Even if payroll processing and statutory activities are outsourced then also challenge of timely recruitment keeps HRs on their toes. This leaves them no time for staying in touch with the employees proactively. Many times, it is just firefighting.
Therefore, before we discuss “how HR should stay connected with the employees”, we need to ponder on “Do HRs have enough time to stay connected?”.
Q. 2 What methods/tools need to be followed so that trust will prevail amongst employees?
Reply: - The method of communication should be personal communication. It has no parallels. Another challenge to HR professionals is how to gain insight through exit interviews. Most of the HRs complain that exit interviews are useless because these do not reveal anything. It is important to investigate disconnect between HODs and his/her subordinates. In the IT companies, project managers take feedback from the team leaders and they just do not know exactly which team members is working and who is not working. HR is also ignorant about what’s happening in the project teams. Secondly, HRs also ignorant on how project managers or HODs are passing their time. Unfortunately, many team leaders or project managers spend their time in stock market or real estate activities and this goes unnoticed. Therefore, if HR wanted to gain trust, they should find out what exactly going on and take corrective action thereafter.
Q. 3 Does local or regional language play vital role to understand each other or the regional language is the best medium to get connected with employees?
Reply: - Question of communicating in local language arises for the lower level employees. However, in mature organisations or MNCs, most of the staff are well-versed in English. In many organisations, English is official language of communication. In these organisations, language of communication is not a barrier.
Final Comments: - The question is asked about how HRs should stay connected with the employees. Obviously, the better answer is communication. Nevertheless, in addition to the communication, HRs should also gather organisational intelligence. HR should get insight on fights or fracas that take place in various departments, strained relationship, romantic relationship, who could quit organisation out of frustration and so on.
The second challenge as to why HR fails to stay connected is because they do not understand the business issues. Ask operations professionals and they just quip what HR knows about operations. Same thing is about marketing or supply chain also. Those who are dismissive of HR, can they be expected to be in touch with HR? Therefore, the major challenge of HR is to understand the terminology used in each discipline of management i.e. marketing, production, supply chain etc. Staying connected does not mean friendliness in the lunch room or while having a smoke. Sometimes polite behaviour also masks the mental disconnection!
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Q. 1 How should we as HR Professionals get connected with employees?
Have an open door policy.
No barriers on meeting HR people.
Considering work load, whether it is feasible for HR top brass to visit various departments for interaction with employees and also to get an understanding of how the product is manufactured or an understanding of business practises.
Mail,PhoneWhatsup, are all routine methods of getting in touch.
Q. 2 What methods/tools need to be followed so that trust will prevail amongst employees?
The actions of HR affect all employees.
Open transparent and documented actions will enhance trust.
HR employees need to show that they do not have linguistic, regional or any type of bias.Task is difficult, but by shunning regional languages or any language during interaction which everyone present does not understand.
Q. 3 Does local or regional language play vital role to understand each other or the regional language is the best medium to get connected with employees?
Language is a binding mechanism.But remember in an nation where employees speak different languages, it is essential to avoid lingo when mixed audiences are present.
Languages should be facilitator and not a means to exclude those whodunit know the language.
Choose your language of communication in appropriate manner.
I speak lingo when needed, but never allow lingo to bias me in decisions.
Keep this quote in mind
“You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.”
– Renee West

Dear collegues,
The main role of the Human Resource Department is to managing people effectively. The main objective of HR department staff should to establish a cohesive environment for all for free,fair open to discussion of their feelings.
There should be a flexible and caring management style of functioning so that staff will be encouraged and motivated.
The good functional HRM practices are instrumental in helping achieve departmental objectives and enhance productivity.
Everything can be functional where a good system is on process both for written & verbal communication. The essence of good communication lies on medium, so there should be acceptable language to be preferred for both verbal and written communication.
To share the information across the employees in a transparent manner.
** Articulation of Vision, Mission and Values:
** Role of each one
** Vision, Mission and Values of the organisation
** Projecting its short & long term plan for employees
** What is PMS and its procedures
** Training & development policy for enhancement. And up gradation of skill.
Drawing up HRM Role:
• HR actions to address HR issues debated, approved and prioritized by the top team
• Conflict redressed mechanism and its functionality
The acceptbility of HR personnel is solely depends upon one's approach towards others, how he "Greets & Ttreats" the personnel.

In many organisations, HR people stay aloof and do not show much interest in the business operations. Whether they are technically qualified or not, awareness of business operations will give them insight into the kind of manpower requirements, skill levels, issues that arise in a particular business segment, customer base, specific teams, regional issues, imbalances, customer focus etc. Unless they show involvement in business, they cannot recruit right kind of manpower, right skills etc. As rightly pointed out above, they should communicate properly with all levels of employees in all segments to get the feel of the business, the undercurrents that happen in different levels.... These things can happen only if HR plays their role with passion than doing the routine jobs.. what I call - TWO PUNCH AND ONE LUNCH Attitude ! Lolzzz

HR should be involved in every aspects of organisation and the HR people should Pearce through all the functions of an organisation like Planning, Development, Manufacturing, Integrated Materials Management, Finance etc., They need not perform all the functions of the above departments but should allowed/able to participate in important decision making meetings so that the HR also are informed of the commitments made by all the departments towards targets and try to help each department employees regarding their welfare activities so that the employees can contribute core production jobs.
Transparency, flow of information from top to bottom and also from bottom to top through HR is an important activity in an organisation. These are some of things to be implemented. In addition the suggestions given by other seniors are also very important.

HR have always been the medium of communication between management and employees so its always very important of being update on the management decision and timely communication on any decisions taken or changes done by the management.on the same management should understand this on part of HR then only HR can get connected to employees.

Happy employees are productive employees. Successful businesses know how to manage relationships to build lasting employee satisfaction. Learn the meaning of employee relations and understand the essential elements of an effective employee relations program.
Workers Are Important
The most important part of any business is its people. No business can run effectively without them. But people don't work in a vacuum; they need to communicate and work with others to get their jobs done. Employers need to manage relationships in the workplace to keep the business functioning smoothly, avoid problems, and make sure employees are performing at their best.
Definition of Employee Relations
The basic purpose of an employee relations area within the human resources department is to maintain solid working relationships between the employer and employees. Strengthening the employer-employee relationship sounds like a tall order; however, seasoned employee relations professionals are comfortable with addressing issues in each of the human resources disciplines.
Employee Relations vs. Labor Relations
The terms employee relations and labor relations are sometimes used interchangeably; however, in large organizations that employ both union and non-union workers, there is one primary difference between the two. Employee relations specialists generally handle matters involving employees who are not members of a bargaining unit. Labor relations specialists are responsible for handling matters involving labor-management issues, such as union contract negotiations, grievances, arbitration, work stoppages and strikes. Employee relations specialists, on the other hand, manage employer responses to non-union employee complaints, performance management and employee recognition.
Employee Relations and Fair Employment Practices
For many employee relations specialists, their primary role consists of identifying and resolving workplace issues concerning complaints of discriminatory employment practices, sexual and unlawful harassment, and employer representation during unemployment hearings. Workplace investigations require knowledge of employees' civil rights, employment laws and procedures for formal matters before fair employment agencies.
Complaints about discriminatory employment practices are serious matters within the realm of employee relations, therefore, human resources staff members in this area usually receive extensive training on employment laws and dispute resolution.
Connection Between Employee Relations and Human Resources
A fully staffed human resources department does well to have an employee relations specialist; however, the human resources manager should be well-versed in all of the field's disciplines. In this case, the HR manager is expected to assume responsibility for employee relations. Likewise, employee relations specialists who are extremely proficient in every HR discipline can reasonably anticipate promotion to a human resources manager role given their well-rounded knowledge and expertise in all HR disciplines.
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Empathise with employees when they come to you with an issue or a grievance
All programmes and tools we use should be based on EMPATHY.
Thanks
T Sivasankaran

Dear Members , Based on the topic . we need to realize that employees are very important to the organizational productivity , so we should keep in mind and given priority to deliver what they have tasked for .
Thanks ''
Abshir Abdirahman

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