Managing Employee Voice

Abstract

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define the terms employee voice, direct and indirect employee voice

• Identify the reasons for differences in employee voice across geographical boundaries

• Understand the theoretical basis for employee voice and employee participation

• Evaluate the contribution of employee voice

Key Questions and Learning Activities

• Question. 1 Discuss to what extent is employee voice an important consideration in your decision to work at an organisation?

• Question. 2 If given a chance, would you undertake a role of employee participation representative and engage in collaborative decision-making? Provide a brief rationale for your choice.

• Question. 3 Trade unions are losing their might and more hybrid forms of employee voice will be needed in future to provide sustainable conditions of employment that offer decent work. Discuss the above statement.

Learning Activity: Conflict in the Workplace and Need for Wellbeing (B)

Dr Stephen Treloar and Dr Vidya S. Athota, University of Notre Dame

The Insurance Arm of a Leading Australian Bank

My name is Stephen Treloar, sometimes I get approached to provide executive coaching direct to employees of companies and organisations, whom make contact with me (rather than being contracted by an employer) – this was the case with Jennifer. Jennifer was personally financing her own executive coaching, unlike the norm where executive coaching is financed by the employer. The Bank owned and operated its own insurance company as part of its widening of services to its customers, whilst the insurance company operated under its own insurance name brand, it was staffed by employees of the bank who were ‘seconded’ to work exclusively for the insurance company but under separate employment arrangements. The aim of the bank was to promote high performance work practices. But in reality not enough resources were provided to the staff members.

Jennifer was the newly appointed Claim Manager and was second in command in the business unit, she reported to the General Manager (of the insurance company), and had six direct reports. Jennifer was personally responsible for considering and approving all claims, with claims over 1 million dollars beings referred to the General Manager for sign-off approval. The insurance company was a relatively new arm of The Bank in having traded for less than 5 years. The company management did not conduct personality assessment if Jennifer was suited for the job. They assumed that Jennifer would be able to perform the high demand job.

Jennifer needed assistance in how to handle a situation which was having dire consequences on her health, well-being, and happiness in the job. During a particularly heavy period for insurance claims (there had been widespread damage caused by an abnormal number of bushfires) Jennifer reported she had been working 7-days per week for the past four consecutive months and was tired and weary! Based on the nature of the job, Jennifer needed pay attention to all details in the application. This required all her personal and family time to spend on reading the applications and assessing them. The boundaries between work-life balance were significantly decreased. She has been preoccupied her weekends and majority of evenings about work related issues. During these stressful times, she did not realise the severity of emotional wellbeing. Furthermore, Jennifer brings her stress and anxiety related issues to the work place. Fellow staff members started to observe this in Jennifer. It was clear that Jennifer health was going to be effected.

She was the delegated officer to assess and approve (or disapprove) claims, and was overwhelmed with both the workload and expectation from her employer. Jennifer clearly understood the consequences of disapproving (or reducing the value of claims) on claimants, for whatever reason but was also been driven to ensure the insurance business remained profitable with claims only approved in accordance to strict conditions of the insurance company’s own underwriter pursuant to its agreement.¹

Jennifer was on an annual salary of $80,000 (plus super) and had been promoted from within the insurance company, taking over from her predecessor who had suddenly left the company due to ill-health. This was a significant promotion for Jennifer and she wanted to do a great job and be recognised for her efforts and didn’t mind doing “whatever it takes”. It was her first appointment into a management role and was formerly a Claims Officer for the same company, on an annual salary of $55,000 (plus super). There was no provision for overtime, nor was there any “time off in lieu” provided for in her new role. In her former role, she was employed under an Enterprise Agreement, whilst in her management role was employed under a Contract of Employment. There were certain promises made about the possibility of performance bonuses in her new role but these were not specifically included in her Contract of Employment. She was hopeful this might be amended once she had “proven herself”. No bonuses had been offered to her or had been paid, nor had she been offered any time-off in lieu or other inducement or recognition for her service.

Jennifer was almost 12-months into her new role and was happy with being promoted to the job, however, when the bushfire season hit, she was deluged with work and, as earlier reported, was working 7 days per week for the past four consecutive months. She was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Moreover, the pressure from work somewhat confused her thinking and had completely forgotten an important family reunion celebrating her parents 40th wedding anniversary. Jennifer was planning to arrive late in the afternoon on a Sunday after attending work that day but had “some-how” completely overlooked the occasion, despite having an entry in her diary. This caused a great deal consternation with her immediate family whom (wrongly assumed) she failed to recognize the importance of the occasion. Given the nature of her provider, Jennifer was able to access a housing loan of just 1.5% PA enabling her and partner to purchase a unit in the burgeoning Sydney market. She was also able to exceed the normal borrowing ratio of loan given in recognition of the nature of her employment.² The downside was she felt “trapped” insomuch as committed to a mortgage through her employer knowing that if she left her current employment she would struggle financially to either replace the loan with another loan provider, or at the very least pay a much higher interest rate if she continued the loan through her current employer.

When asked “had she spoken to her Supervisor about her dilemma?” Jennifer responded, “she had” but “…the General Manager was not very responsive to her concerns or need”. The General Manager was described, by her as “old school” quoting that “…young people moving into management, had to earn their stripes”. She felt ‘trapped’ and was also concerned about the effect long hours was having in the personal relationship with her partner. Jennifer’s partner was demonstrating annoyance and frustration with her high work levels and time away from home; he was becoming increasingly “snappy and short” – beginning to show signs which resent the situation of long absences away at work. Jennifer felt uncomfortable and frightened that her relationship might entering “rocky-ground”. At home, Jennifer was preoccupied these unpleasant thought and experiences. The Bank, and its independently operated insurance arm adopted a culture of ‘high performance work practices’ with promotion and the payment of bonuses heavily weighted to performance. The insurance company arm had met or exceeded all its growth KPIs for new customers and premiums since Jennifer took up the role, for which the General Manager seemed to have taken took most of the credit for. Whilst there was a ‘blow-out’ in expected claims due to the unprecedented number of recent widespread bushfires, these were mostly covered under its own underwriter risk management protection policy. In short the insurance company appeared to be going very well although the General Manager didn’t provide any positive feedback of accomplishments. This also led to unhappiness to Jennifer and her team which was beginning to affect their motivation, enthusiasm and even physical/medical wellbeing. Jennifer was becoming very unpopular with her direct reports as she allocated increased workloads to each staff member. The absentee rates from her direct reports were running at over 15% and she had “heard by the grapevine” that one of the employees (although unsure which one) was planning to report oppressive work conditions to Work Cover.³ Jennifer’s wellbeing started to negatively impacted by workplace challenges.

Questions of the Case Study

• 1. Identify each of the parties affected by events reported in the case.

• 2. What are the issues of concern for each of the affected parties?

• 3. What are the general responsibilities of parties for workplace health, well-being, and safety in the workplace? How might these be addressed in the case?

• 4. What are the risk management exposures revealed in the case? And, how might these be addressed?

• 5. What advice would you provide to Jennifer?

Glossary

Employee voice

refers to the conditions where employees are allowed to have a meaningful say in matters affecting their terms and conditions of employment. This may be through individual or collective mechanisms and can also be direct or indirect.

Industrial democracy

is an idea that is rooted in the political economy literature and argues that workers should further their emancipation and involvement in workplace decisions that have an impact on their conditions of employment.

Trade unions

represent a lawful and an institutionalised form of employee representation for the purposes of bargaining the rights and responsibilities of employees towards their organisation. They can operate at a worksite level through an industry to a national level and sometimes may have a wider role than setting the terms and conditions of employment. For example, a number of trade unions in the services industry also provide a platform for skills and professional development and other benefits to their members.

Work councils

is another form of institutionalised employee representative council that seeks to protect the conditions of employment of workers in an organisational setting.