Employment Relations

Employment relations can be defined as the existing affiliation between an employee and his employer or between employees. This is a relationship that is categorically witnessed in all organizations despite their levels or mode of operations.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Employment Relations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is however a challenge to always uphold good employment relations between people in an organization because disagreements are by nature inevitable and are usually expressed in different ways. Nonetheless, conflict can both be positive or negative and thus generating different kinds of consequences on the work environment. Positive conflict can be a motivation for higher productivity as well as breed creativity and better decision making practices among the workforce. Negative conflicts on the other hand can increase the obstacles to both individual and organizational efficiency. The incl ination to conceal disparities within a company rather than tackling them, more often than not results in negative effects. This is because differences often cause no or poor communication and when viewpoints and other information is not sufficiently shared, the possibility of unveiling errors and taking risks is considerably lowered. In addition, there may also be a loss of interest in work and thus increased stress, lack of motivation and sometimes can result in absenteeism or disruption among employees. Employees are very essential for the flourishing and survival of an organization because no company can run without them. It is therefore imperative to ensure the comfort of employees and for good employment relations to be built and extended there are certain advantages and legal constitutions that have to be established for the sake of the workforce (Bamber, Lansbury and Wailes 2004). Every company has its own dynamics of employment relations that work for both its employees, em ployers and the whole organization. As for the fast food industry globally employment relations remains quite essential. This paper is concerned with the employment and work relations in the fast food industries in Germany and United states as compared to those of Singapore. Fast food restaurants are a great convenience for the modern person and have been for many years. The first fast food chain which is McDonalds was initially opened on April 1955 and to date many other fast food chain restaurants have entered the market all over the globe.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition to McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, Pizza hut and Wimpy are some of the other examples of fast food restaurants that are in the global market. As the number of fast food restaurants increased, the job opportunities increased as well. Thus, with the coming on of such a large labor force the i ndustry at that instant faced the responsibility of coming up with models of labour management in order to handle the workforce (Royle and Towers 2002). Being the pioneering fast food chain, most of the fast food industries chose to assume the McDonald’s model of labour management. There are two sides of argument on the labour management policies and practices. The critics usually depict employers as offering low-wage work that is often unchallenging and monotonous to the workers. On the other hand, the supporters of the management policies argue that the fast food industry offers young workers training and preparation opportunities as well as the prospects of building up a career and course into employment. Although this interpretation portrays that fast food work does not signify a long-term career for most of the people who do it, either of these two standpoints is a clear indication of the kind of alliance that exists between an employer and his/her employees. Industrial relations, work organization and human resource management can be referred to be the main points of focus in labour management and employment relations. In connection to the same, there are also numerous themes identified, which relate to the alignment of preferences in the fast food employment relations. These are such as the personnel not having enough knowledge on industrial relations or they do not like certain features of work management, yet they react positively to other aspects of human resource management policies and practices. They could also be the issue of the personnel lacking sufficient information of general labour management issues. In addition, as they get older, most of the young workers seem to grow an aversion to the aspects of fast food labour. Luckily, there are a few of them with particular unique characteristics who seem to continue liking the McDonalds approach even as they age. With Singapore being in the Southeast Asian region of the Asian Continent, and Germany and United States being in the European and North American continents respectively, there are obviously bound to have differences in all aspects of operations including the employment industries as well as the characteristics of work and employment relations and labour management.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Employment Relations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However with McDonalds, which is an American franchise, being the current market leader of the fast-food industry in Singapore and Germany, similarities in employment relations are also highly expected. Generally, employers in America have a great deal of freedom on establishing the conditions of employment in their companies as compared to other employers in the other industrialized nations. In relation to the fast food industry, its progression was largely based on the promise of low prices and quick services. As a result, the profitability is greatly reliant on keeping the labour and operation costs down. However, the increasing number of fast-food restaurants and chains has led to sturdy and competitive pressure in a background that allows employers significant discretions and yet does not guarantee the employees to have a say in control of the working conditions. This in turn attributed to low paid wages, negligible benefits, stretched recruitment of staff and added efforts to increase labour. On the other hand, Germany has its own model known as the model of co-determination. It is based on indirect participation with selected worker representatives and formal organizations with rights that are supported in law. There are three pieces of legislation that cover private businesses and one of them is the 1952/1972 Works Constitution Act, which concentrates on co-determination at the workplace through various forms of works councils and one form of co-determination at board level for limited liability companies that ha ve over 500 employees. This Act presents for a works council in any business that has five or more employees who are beyond 18 years of age. The works councils have certain responsibilities and powers and thus can make proposals to an employer and in fact, in some areas where the works council has co-determination rights, an employer cannot go against the decisions or wishes of the works council. However, in the case of Singapore, there was a consolidation of various labour laws and policies by the government in 1968 which led to the introduction of the Employment Act and the amendment of the Industrial Relations Act. By leaving out matters such as promotions, transfers, retirement, retrenchment, dismissals and work assignments the latter Act gave a lot of authority to the employer as it left such concerns to be negotiated between the employers and employees. However, unlike in the United States, the Singapore government has incorporated some laws which counter the pro-employer bias and afford basic safety to the employees. This law grants a 44-hour working week, 7 days paid annual leave, eleven public holidays, 28 days paid sick leave, two months paid maternity leave and an overtime rate of time as well as a half and double time on Sundays and public holidays (Perry et al,. 1997, p. 55).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Singapore’s government intentionally designed the employment laws and polices so as to regulate the labour market and despite an overwhelming manifestation of the state being pro-employer in the employment relations system, it is not easy to argue that workers have been meeting inadequate treatment. In the United States, various features of the fast-food industry have made organization of unions to be a challenge. For example, there is decentralization whereby workers are usually employed by franchisees rather than direct employment by the fast-food companies. In addition, the characteristics of jobs as well as the nature of the jobs create more obstacles to the process of unionization. Conversely, union membership is very high in Singapore as the most significant measure that the government launched was to give employees the right to choose whether or not to join a union. There was intentional build up of hawker centers in all the public housing estates by the Singapore gove rnment after the national independence in 1965, which was meant to accommodate both the merchants as well as the patrons. However, in the 1990s, many of these hawker centers began to renovate themselves in order to bear a resemblance to the ‘food courts’ originating in American shopping malls. Despite McDonald’s Restaurants having a high degree of centralized control, it was unexpectedly, not the first American-styled fast-food restaurant to be founded in Singapore. Before it was A W’s Restaurants and Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, which were introduced in Singapore through a structure of local franchising that was there in the 1970s (Royle and Towers 2002). In the United States, the fast-food industry predominantly employs young people of about 20 years or younger who mostly view their jobs as temporary with plans of moving on to other fields of employment. When McDonalds was initially established in Singapore, the most significant event is that the headquarters team was filled with experienced and highly qualified professionals with most of them being university graduates who had worked as managerial level executives before joining McDonalds. Restaurant managers on the other hand were mainly secondary school leavers while the crew workers had low levels of educational credentials. Like in the United States, most of the crew employees were part-time workers and most especially individuals who had other full time commitments such as young people in full-time education or mothers with school-going children. The extreme routinization of work is a common feature observed in the fast-food industry in these three countries. Routinization of work refers to when each worker repeatedly executes a limited number of errands and does it according to the directives that are given by management. Routinization is especially made easy when an industry is dominated by a workforce of young, inexperienced part-time employees who do not settle on the job for long. This ends up minimizing if not virtually eliminating, as in the case of the fast food industry, the need or opportunity for workers to exercise diplomacy. Most of the fast-food restaurants have adapted this sort of standardization due to the several benefits it affords them. Managerial control over the operation is dully increased and wage costs are cut through the elimination of the need to hire skilled workers who demand higher salaries. Simplified jobs are easy and quick to learn thus making employers less dependent on experienced skill and workers. Routinization also proffers the competence to uphold consistent results or products. Since the advertising campaigns always promise fast-food customers to provide a particular standard of food and services, they ensure the delivery of those promises by propagating clear-cut instructions that specify every detail of the food preparation as well as the customer service (Bamber, Lansbury and Wailes 2004). Technology has also changed and greatly influenced our lives immensely. This includes the introduction of the internet, electronic mails, which have drastically affected the working environment and employment relations as well. Over the years, there has been progressive introduction of several technologically advanced machines that have standardized the work of crew workers and minimized the amount of skills required. These are such grills and fry vats that have lights and buzzes to guide workers, food products that only require heating, rehydration or assembling, computerized cash registers that can calculate tax, give change and monitor work. There are also computerized systems which help in scheduling work shifts, handling payroll, ordering supplies and monitoring of sales, inventories and waste. In Singapore, the unions criticized fast-food companies for the pay levels, conditions of employment and their negative reactions in regard to the election of work councils. However, the establishment of a human resource management program that fostered corporate values and discouraged employee resistance. In Germany there was an establishment of a new employers’ federation known as the BdS (Bundesverband der Systemgastronomie) to provide a lobbying vehicle, which negotiated with the NGG for a collective agreement (Royle and Towers 2002). In conclusion it is evident that employees are the backbone of the fast food industry and proper labour management laws and regulations should be put in place to address their needs. In return for getting profits from products and services sold by the company, management should employ staff to carry out tasks and responsibilities according to job specifications and pay the employees for their services. This is a practice that should be upheld in all sectors including the fast food industry. Furthermore even with the constantly changing workforce, proper training should be given to all and new employees so as yield the orderly and quick s ervice that every client expects. Royle Towers (2002, p. 85) opines that â€Å"this could be done successfully using an effective employee manual to train new employees on what is expected of them in regard to the general practices and procedures of proper employee conduct.† Reference List Bamber, G. Lansbury, R. Wailes, N. 2004. International and comparative employment relations: globalisation and the developed market economies. London: Sage. Royle, T. Towers, B. 2002. Labour relations in the global fast-food industry. New York, NY: Routledge. This essay on Employment Relations was written and submitted by user Elle Spears to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How to Create Successful Community Service Projects

How to Create Successful Community Service Projects SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Have you considered doing somecommunity service work during high school but can't find anything that fits your interests? Do you want to have more ownership over what kind of service work you do? If so, then making your own community service project may be the right idea for you. Read on for a step-by-step guide that will tell you everything you need to know to completeasuccessful community service project. Why Should You Do Community Service? Community service work can be a great way to spend some free time in high school, but did you also know that it can also be a big help when you apply to colleges? Colleges like seeing community service work as an extracurricular activity because it shows that you are actively involved in something that will better yourself and the world. By doing community service, you show that you have a real interest in making a positive change in your community. Community service shows admissions officers that you have a number of the "intangible" qualities that they're looking for in students. For example, through service work, you can show yourability to balance a lot of different activities at once while also maintaining your course load.This shows that you can stay organizedand take initiative. Finally, community service can help with some of the more concrete aspects of your college applications as well. The work you do can be great subject materialfor an application essay, can lead to good letters of recommendation, and - perhaps most importantly - can lead to scholarships! For more benefits of doing community service, see our guide. Why Should You Starta Community Service Project? If you're ready to start doing some community service work, you may want to considerstartingyour own community service project. Usually, students will choose to volunteer their time for a pre-established organization. However, creatingyour own community service project gives you the opportunity to have greater control over what you want to work on and what you want to achieve. Community service projects are different from traditional community service work because they areusually focused around one event or one goal and havedistinct end points. For example, you may decide to host a race to raise money and awareness for a certain disease, or you could plan a blood drive to help out after a disaster. These kinds of projects require a lot of planning and careful execution, so they're best attempted by students who have confidence in their ability to follow through in those areas. Though planning community service projects can be considerably more difficult than traditional community service work, it can also pay off in big ways, especially when considering your college applications: It shows leadership skills. This is a big thing that colleges want to see in your extracurricular activities. According to a DoSomething.org survey, over 50% of admissions officers agree that being a leader in a project or running your own project isthe best way to learn from community service experience. Why do admissions officers love leadership? Remember, they are on the lookout for the leaders of tomorrow. Show them now that you have the gumption to be one! It shows the ability to plan and organize. While leadership can refer to an intangible ability to inspire others, the planning and organization skills it takes to pull off a successful community service project are noteworthy in their own right. To run a large-scale event, you will need to coordinate many people, accurately predict expenses, and create a timeline. All of these are important skills that will help you in college and the future. It shows your ability to work with others. Most community service projects will be undertaken with a group. By organizing one, you are showing that you have great people skills. You can recognize different people’s talents and understand how to use them to maximum effect. You will show initiative and innovativeness. You saw a problem and decided that you were going to be the one to fix it. Moreover, nobody else told you how you were going to go about doing that. This shows great critical thinking and problem-solving skills that colleges love to see. Now that you know some of the reasons for making the effort to do a community service project let's go through the steps of successfully planning a project. 10Steps for Startinga Successful Community Service Project Step 1: Find Out What Is Needed in Your Community There are many ways to do this. Start out by asking your friends and family members if there are things that they have seen that need a solution. Talk to neighbors. Engage in a community discussion board such as Nextdoor.com. Talk to community officials (local government) and police officers, and speak with non-profit groups in the area. Once you have an idea of the issues present in your area, spend some time researching them. What is the history of the issue? Is it a new thing or has it been around a long time? What realistic steps can be taken to address it? What, if anything, have other groups done in the past to fixthe issue? It’s also a good idea to research what kind of events have taken place in your community in the past. What projectswere successful? What sort of activities had nobody show up? You can do this by talking to your local city government or local non-profit groups that have held events. You may also know from personal experience of events that you have attended. Which were the most engaging and resonated with your community? Step 2: See What You Have the Ability to Do It's time to start asking yourself the tough, specific questions. Remember to be honest and realistic as you answer them: What skills and talents do you have? How many people do you realistically think you will be able to get to help you? What skills and talents will they have? How many hours per week can you devote to the project? How soon do you want to do the project? What is a realistic amount of money you will be able to raise for the project? Do you have any materials at hand that will be helpful? Step 3: Choose a Project List your activity ideas. If you have a group of people you're going to work with, allow them to help yourank the ideasfrom most to least important. Vote on or decide which activity you want to do. Make sure it is reasonable, within your means, and that you can actually make an impact. Be honest with yourself and your group when assessing how to make the most impact. For example, imagine that you have decided to build a home for a homeless family. Would the experience of building the home yourselves add any value for the homeless family? On the flip side, could it cause any harm? Would it be more efficient and beneficial for the family if you simply raised the money for the home and allowed professionals to do the work? Be realistic withyour expectations and honest about the best way to reach your end goal. Step 4: Develop a Plan To start, write down exactly what you are hoping to accomplish. This will includea big-picture goal as well as the specific smaller tasks that you will need to doin order to get to that main goal. You also need to go into the practicalities of the project. How much equipment will you need? How many people will you need to successfully complete each part of the project? How much time can each person commit to the project? How will you organize different volunteers? Remember that you're responsible for the success of the project and one large part of that is that it takes place safely and legally. Do some background work to check out your liabilities and research the potential complications that can arise from the project you're planning. Step 5: Recruit Your Volunteers If you don’t already have a group of people helping you, now is the time to get some people involved. You can advertise in local newspapers, online forums, or websites like VolunteerMatch.org. Also, ask friends and family if they know people who would like to be involved. For each person, make sure that you have their contact information (email and phone number), as well as what areas they are best able to help in (making food, publicity, etc.). Get specific time commitments from your members. How much time can they contribute every week? How much time can they contribute on the day of the event? Make sure they are realistic and don’t commit more than their schedules will allow. Step 6: Make a Budget Now that you know your goals, you have to get specific with how much money is going to be needed to make your plan come to life. There are severalprograms out there that can help you make organized, detailed budgets. You can also do this in Excel or Word. Make sure you list the type of items that you need – be specific! How many will you need of each item? What is the cost per item? What is the total cost? Don’t forget that your budget has to includemore than just the physical items involved in your project. If you need a license to have an event or if you are going to pay someone to make an appearance, that will need to be factored into the budget as well. Finally, be sure to consider practical needs, like the cost of transportation and food on the day of the event for your volunteers. Step 7: Make a Timeline You should already have a rough idea of how long your project will take, but now you need to narrow it down to the specifics. Pick an end date for your project that will give you enough time to put it together. Make sure that the date is approved by all necessary authorities. Make specificschedulesfor each of your volunteers basedon how much time each can contribute. This is important – you don’t want to end up having to do everything yourself at the last minute because you assumed that people would be putting in more hours than they actually can! Try to be realistic with your expectations of what can be accomplished every hour. Markspecific goals on your timeline. By a certain date, a certain amount of the project should be completed, etc. Make note of specific things that are critical to success. What are the dates of fundraising events? When will yousend press releases to the media? Step 8: Raise Money There are a number of ways to raise money: street collection, organized events like raffles or an auction, direct mail donations, asking for contributions through church newsletters,and more. Increasingly, people are raising money through crowdfundingwebsites, such as GoFundMe, CrowdRise, DonorsChoose, or Kickstarter. See if any of these are viable options for your plan. You can also contact local businesses for sponsorship. Offer them some sort of advertisement in return. Whatever you choose to do, you will need to develop a strategy. Decide what your plan of attack will be to raise the amount needed. Top Tips for Raising Money: Get in touch with local officials to see if they have any tips, advice, or restrictions on how you can raise money Check into grants. Many charities will give money to projects that benefit their causes. Try to get money from a variety of sources so that you're not too reliant on just one if it happens to fail. Always have a backup plan. Step 9: Get Publicity Make a list of contacts at TV stations, newspapers, blogs, magazines, and radio stations. You are generally looking for journalists and editors. There are a number of ways you can get in touch with people who might be interested in covering your story. Start by looking for journalists who have written about similar causes or events in the past. You may be able to find an email address or other contact information by looking atpreviously-published articles. You should alsocheck local papers to see if there is information about whom to contact for local stories. Finally, you can search websitessuch as LinkedIn, much of which can be accessed even if you don't have an account. Initial contact can be made through social media (such as Twitter), or you can try to call or email the right people. You'll want to talk with them both about the specifics of the project, and why you're doing it. Make sure you let them know who is going to benefit from your project. Once you have your contacts and they're on board with advertising your project, make sure you stick to your schedule. Send out press releases at the appropriate time. Also, keep your contacts updated with any exciting milestones or achievements (such as reaching your fundraising goal). You can also easily advertise on your own. Set up a social media account (Facebook and/or Twitter) for the event. Make up a catchy hashtag you can use when talking about the event, and try to get others to use it as well. Step 10: Do the Project Now it's time toexecute all of your planning! On the Day of Your Event It may seem like the hard work is done at this point, but the actual event needs to go off without a hitch! The first step is to make sure that as much as possible is done and set up the day before the event. Don’t stress yourself out more than you need to on the day of! It’s also good to send out lots of reminders the day before to volunteers, participants, media,and anyone else whois important. Make sure you have a detailed schedule for what you will do the day of the event.Also, make a list of volunteer contact info, vendor contact info, and who will help in emergencies. Keep this with you at all times. Try to enjoy yourself, but stay on top of how things are progressing! Don’t forget to take pictures and stay active on social media during the event. Congrats on finishing your project! What to Do Afterward Once your project is over, you hopefully have experienced and learned new things. Take some time to reflect on this on your ownand also get feedback from the volunteers and participants. What didn’t go to plan? Consider how you could have done things differently and avoided problems. What went well? Why were those things successful? What have you learned about yourself? This can be many things like teamwork, leadership, or planning skills. Also, make sure you stop andconsider if you actually were successful in your goals. Did you help your target group? How can you tell that you have made progress and an impact? Take notes of these things. Finally, take some time to celebrate. You’ve just undertaken and accomplished something that many people would shy away from. 3Tips to Make Your Project Easier If the abovesteps seem daunting, try some of these tips to help make your project a success: Try setting up your project through your school. This may make it easier for you to recruit fellow students to volunteer for your event, and it can also give you a convenient place to meet to work on theproject. Reach out to a wide range of helpers to work on your project. You can do this by advertising in local newspapers, newsletters, through your city government, or on local websites. When your volunteers have a wide range of skills, it canmake certain tasks - like contacting the media or making a budget - easier because there is a good chance that someone will have done it before. Partner with a local charity or non-profit if you have a mutual cause. The charity may already have registered volunteers so you will have to recruit fewer people, and it may be able to either donate money to your projector have ideasthat will make your fundraising easier. What’s Next? If you would like some inspiration for choosing a community service project, see our list of community service ideas. If you want to learn more about why volunteering might be a good choice for you, check out the benefits of community service for teens. Already done a community service project? Learn how to write about your extracurriculars on your college application. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: