Case Scenario:
Do Quest is a privately owned company that has accepted union recognition for its employees. It produces high-end adventure clothing and has seen a consistent increase in growth during and post the pandemic. You have recently taken on the role of Employee Relations manager at Go Quest and at your first meeting with the Directors they explain that they are keen to draw on your knowledge and experience of working in the public sector within employment relationship management as this is an area that the company management seeks to improve. They have asked you to produce a report for senior and line managers that provides them with knowledge and understanding of approaches to employee voice and how these can be best used to foster engagement, performance and better working lives. Additionally, they need to understand the different forms of workplace conflict behaviour; disputes and sanctions; the role and main provisions of collective employment law; third party interventions; and managing discipline and grievance resolution.
To complete both sections of the report, you should provide written responses to each of the 16 points below, making appropriate use of academic theory, case and statutory law, research and good practical examples to substantiate your response and illustrate key points.
Section One:
The first section of the report should provide knowledge and awareness to Go Quest's management on approaches that might be adopted to facilitate direct and indirect forms of employee decision-making processes and support engagement, performance and better working lives.
To assist the reader, please make use of headings and assessment criteria references to signpost the assessment criteria being addressed.
The points that need to be addressed in the first section are:
1. Review emerging developments to inform approaches to employee voice and engagement.
2. Differentiate between employee involvement and employee participation and how it builds relationships.
3. Assess three employee voice tools and two approaches that might be used to drive employee engagement.
4. Critically evaluate the interrelationships between employee voice and organisational performance.
5. Explain the concept of better working lives and how this can be designed.