Major topics

Employee Participation and

Retention Management
CHRM
Week 7

The depth of participation

Direct and indirect participation

Trade unions and collective bargaining

High commitment HRM and retention

managment

Participation
What do we mean by
employee participation?

Participation is the opportunity of employees

to influence management decisions.

Employee participation

Direct
Written and
electronic
communication
Meetings with
managers
Team briefings
task-based groups
attitude surveys
Financial
participation: PRP

Indirect
(Via employee
representatives)

Trade-unions
Work councils

The context

60s: job enrichment and enhanced worker

motivation
70s: industrial democracy, workers rights
80s: employee involvement and
commitment
90s: consolidation of employee participation
techniques , high commitment HRM
>2000: legal re-regulaton (EU directive),
best practice HRM

The depth of employee

participation
Control

Indirect participation

Codetermination
Consultation
Communication

Information

Source: Marchington and Wilkinson 2005

The Philosophy of Industrial

Relations:
The conflict of interest between
employers and employees needs to be
solved through negotiations.

The first six most important

trade-union activities
HUNGARY
1) Salary increase
2) Job security
3) Welfare provision
4) New workplaces
5) Workload and work
methods
6) Training

International Average
1) Job security
2) Salary increase
3) New workplaces
4) Welfare provision
5) Health and Safety
6) Decrease of
working time

(Mak, Novoszth, Verb, 1998)

Collective Bargaining
Definition:
Collective bargaining is the process
through which representatives of
management and the union meet to
negotiate a labour agreement on the
conflicts related to the allocation of
resources linked to employment.
(wages, working hours, welfare
provisions)

Collective Contracts
Percentage of employees covered by a
collective agreement:

Austria: 98%
France: 95%
Germany: 62%

Hungary: 25%

Japan:
USA

21%
18%

Work Councils

Building high commitment HR

systems through direct employee
participation

1) The right of collective decision making:

welfare provisions regulated in collective contracts

2) The right to give opinion:

Reorganization, personnel information system, training
plans, yearly holidays, new methods of work
organization, new performance standards

3) The right for receiving information

economic situation, new profile, investments, wages,
employment, working schedules, working conditions

Elements of retention management

(Best Practices by Pfeffer)

Winning Commitment

fostering communion
helping employees self-actualize
providing interesting jobs
hiring people with similarity of values
employees welfare
two-way communication
job security
above-average rewards
guaranteed fair treatment
(Dessler, 1993)

Participation
Employment security
Selective hiring
Commitment
Teamworking
High compensation related to organisational
performance
Engagement
Extensive training
Flat organisation
Involvement
Sharing information