Employee Voice
This article covers meaning, importance & example of Employee Voice from HRM perspective.
What is Employee Voice?
Employee voice, as the name suggests, is the voice of employees being heard, the participation of employees and taking into consideration the views of employees. Employee voice can have many forms like - the employee addressing his grievances, the employee being part of the trade union and is involved in negotiations as a part of collective bargaining, the employees take in the decision making process etc.
Now the concept of employee voice can be very much ambiguous in nature. It depends on the type of organization, it depends wholly on the culture and tradition which is inbuilt in the organization. Employee voice is used especially in the organizations which are not exactly hierarchical in nature, except in the case of industrial relations where trade unions are involved in voicing their views. Employee voice is a very popular concept in organizations now a days as slowly organizations are turning out to be employee friendly and the decision making process is evolving into that of a participative decision making process.
Importance of Employee Voice
Agile HR is a very trending concept now a days. Now what is Agile HR, is the next prevalent question. Agile HR is nothing but a reformed form of decision making process and a redefined concept of HR. Earlier HR was just concerned to manpower planning systems. But in the recent years, HR has gained its importance throughout all the industries. Team management and formation, participative decision making and most importantly two way communication system – these three broadly defined concepts define Agile HR in crisp. The two way communication part actually highlights the importance of Agile HR in the form of employee voice in organizations. Employees are no more subordinates in an organization which helps in employee motivation. Irrespective of the positions they are holding, they are an integral part of the major decisions being taken in the organization. The employees’ views are given due respect and consideration. Mostly we can say even though the organizations maybe having high levels of hierarchy, they are evolving into mechanistic designed structures. The employee grievance handling is a major part of HR activities. Employees’ concerns are addressed and thus organizations are building a base for employee engagement. With respect to trade unions part in industrial relations, collective bargaining is a part where negotiations are done by unions to attain their objectives, especially their concerns. Trade unions are a part of Indian system way back form 1927, when the trade unions act was passed. Employee voice is now reshaping from the typical IR defined definition to a definition that can be widely used in big corporates.
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Similarity between Employee Voice & Feedback
Employee voice can be taken as a form of feedback process or grievance handling mechanism. But the term employee voice is not so unidirectional. It is a multidimensional concept which takes into account everything where an employee can say and address any issue or any view that s/he thinks to be relevant and important. So feedback mechanism or grievance handling mechanism are all parts of employee voice.
Example of Employee Voice
In an organization, employee voice can take many forms. Taking a very simple example. If an employee is not well and would not be able to attend a meeting which is scheduled on that day, if the organization is employee friendly and takes care of the concerns of the employees, then the employer would allow the employee to take a leave by just asking him to fill up a medical leave form. Had it been a very strict organization, firstly they would not have granted him a leave, also even if they allow they would have first asked to submit a fully authenticated medical certificate with medical bills and prescription. I the above case where the employee was allowed to take a leave , he also would be doing all the formalities but a day or two is given to him so that he takes care of his health and comes back to office as soon as possible.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Employee Voice along with its overview.
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