A Successful Business Depends on a Healthy Relationship Between the Employers and Employees

A successful business depends on a healthy relationship between the employers and the employees. One of the best ways to establish this is through employee handbooks. The handbook is a compilation of company policies, procedures, and expectations clearing up confusion and avoiding conflict down the line. Furthermore, they create a structured work environment in the organization.

Employee handbooks can also be a reason for its downfall. They can ruin the prestige of a reputable company if it is poorly written and can create a hostile environment in the workplace, making people blame your organization for promises that are even unknown to you. It will create a false or wrong image about your company in the minds of your employees.

Thus, proper steps must be taken to be on the safe side. Under proper guidance, you are sure to create an employee handbook that not only establishes a concrete relationship between employer and employee, but also to the target audiences whom you want to reach. A statement is signed between the two (employer and employee) stating that the employee understands the norms and conditions of your organization and has received a copy of the employee handbook.

An organization must clarify all the doubts of the employee regarding work. This will resolve issues quickly, allowing employees to work more productively. It also sends a good message to employees, letting them know that you care about them. This in turn creates a healthy atmosphere to work in.

Companies with low manpower may face a problem to meet the demands or to clarify the problems of those they employ. A structured HR can help to solve these issues increasing the company’s reputation, making the company have a positive image in the mind of the people working in your company, which will immediately reflect upon how your clients will perceive you. A good HR team can help to manage this image, whether the company has 10 or 1000 staff or volunteers working for them.

As employers, the organization should look at retirement plans, health insurance, holiday plans, and maternity/paternity leave issues and implement plans that satisfy the staff’s needs. A proper and structured HR team can guide them regarding these issues, as well.

Employee rights should not only be maintained, but should be checked and modified from time to time. Consumers now are increasingly more socially aware and thus the constant support from the organization to satisfy their needs helps increase their external image, as well. This concern includes workers to know their rights, thus you should aim to be an organization that looks after their employees and the surroundings out of choice, but not in compulsion.

What Is Outplacement and How It Can Be Advantageous to an Organization

Outplacement literally means the process that involves the efforts made by the downsizing company to help their former employees to get new jobs and enter the job market. Outsourcing is generally done through individual sessions or in a group. The various topics under outplacement are: career guidance, career evaluation, resume writing, etc.

Termination involves the ending of employment in an organization. There are two types of termination:

•       Voluntary Termination        
•        Involuntary Termination

Termination gives rise to outplacement and career transition services. The companies largely depend on HR Consulting firms for the outplacement services. The HR Firms work accordingly with the employee and the employer separating and fulfilling the needs of both the parties.

Following are a list of procedures followed by the HR firms to do the outplacement jobs:

·    Pre-termination phase (involving a detailed planning of employee termination and outplacement with the organization).

·     Termination phase (including the actual declaration of termination to the employee).

·      Post-termination phase (it involves all activities essential for an organization to retain the trust of the retained employees.  In such cases, the HR firms try to eradicate the anxiety from the minds of the employees by properly training them).

Following are the services provided by the HR firms through the above three steps:

• Career evaluation
• Planning the career continuation and development process
• Career guidance
• Resume writing
• Interview preparation
• Network development
• Job search and research
• Job market analysis
• Administrative assistance - preparation of concerned documents and letters, etc.
• Handling exit meeting
• Skill development programs
• Workshops to deal with the period of transition
• Checking legal compliances
• Preparing severance packages

Besides this, the HR firms also help conduct HR meetings to communicate the news amongst the terminated employees, as well as, the other staff showing that the organization is concerned about the retained employees.

HR plays an important role in the selection of employees. Each employee has to be checked whether they match with the specific job criteria employers are looking for.

There are certain advantages of outplacement:

•   Avoid the risk of litigation.
•   Maintain a positive public image.
•   Improve morale and productivity.
•   Helping displaced workers to find new jobs quickly and easily.

According to the Wall StreetJournal; ‘in 2009, "More than two-thirds of 265 U.S. employers with layoffs during the past two years offered outplacement, at an average cost of $3,589 an employee, according to a June survey for The Wall Street Journal by the American Management Association and Institute for Corporate Productivity."

Thus, Outplacement and HR are both interlinked terms. The HR Firms plays an important role in managing this service making it smooth, quick and easy. This in turn also improves the reputation of an organization.