Why some employee forums fail (and how to change that)

The challenges?

There are some significant pressure points currently:

• The unions are active and feeling powerful. As a result, many unions are putting pressure on employers to formally recognise them. Setting up or revamping an employee consultative forum instead is a sensible option for many.??
• Employees are unsettled, many in new roles, constant change, cost of living crisis, strikes are impacting outside of work. Employee Representatives have often been used for communication, to listen to the employee ‘pulse’, letting the leadership know of where the challenges may lie.?
• A recession is forecast, meaning that many employers will be considering strategic moves in respect of recruiting, development and even potential redundancies, all amid a need to reconfigure or innovate in order to stay viable as a business.??

Our experience: why employee forums fail

Whilst many organisations have representative committees, not all find they are working satisfactorily or effectively. In fact, there is often a lot of frustration around how to unlock the value from a group of representatives so that the organisation, employees and representatives themselves all benefit.??

A common refrain from employers

They (the representatives) expect too much, they don’t understand business issues, they’re not organised, they just communicate with a small circle of associates, staff don’t know who represents them, they come to meetings with an ‘us and them’ attitude, we didn’t set up a forum only to discuss parking and the quality of the loo rolls.

A common refrain from employees

It’s all a bit pointless, I don’t know who my rep is, meetings seem infrequent and outcomes always vague, the committee has no teeth, I don’t know who puts items on the agenda, my rep was nominated rather than volunteered so doesn’t even want to do the job.

A common refrain from representatives

The company isn’t listening to us, we have no power, whatever we suggest is rejected, my manager thinks time off for this is a waste of time, other staff have no respect for what I’m trying to achieve, we lack focus, I don’t know what I should be doing, I don’t know the other reps, I feel used.

Many workplace challenges – but here are our solutions

? Employees want to be heard

Employees love to know that someone is asking for their opinion and listening to what they say. Having an effective forum that is part of that ‘listening’ process is as critical, as doing employee surveys, exit interviews and upwards feedback during performance reviews.??

Action?– Set up or revamp your representative committee.?

? Employees want to feel included

Representatives need to be visible, communicating with everyone rather than just with those they work closely with, they need to be asking for opinions, communicating back after meetings, demonstrating their value.??

Action?– Help your committee/forum with its ‘PR’ to ensure the necessary visibility and communications.?

??Employees want to know that they are properly represented

The unions offer this in spades with their training and certifications of union reps. Employee representative groups are often too understated or vague in their role to be able to impress on their colleagues that they know what they are doing and can properly represent them.??

Action?– train your employee representatives so they understand the role, the parameters of the role, how to support in formal meetings, how to influence the organisation, how to gather employee views and how to feedback after meetings etc.?

??Employees want to be taken seriously

They feel duped when there is a forum that they see their line managers not taking seriously, when their representatives complain about having no power and not being listened to. That feeling of being duped escalates if they see their HR team or senior management team not taking the committee seriously.??

Action?– Communicate with your HR team, your leadership team and management team too so that everyone understands and values the work your representatives do. If you don’t have understanding and alignment about purpose and value of the committee across the organisation, you have probably failed at the first hurdle”.

??A professional approach for a professional role

Planning and preparation will impact the outcomes you can achieve when putting in place a representative forum. As part of this we recommend a job spec, an FAQ document for new reps, a clear constitution/remit for your forum, plus training as this is such a new (and pretty scary) role for most newly elected representatives.

A little feedback from representatives?

Here is ‘one word’ feedback from representatives following a recent training session – this will give you a feel for what they valued.

• Prepared?
• Well informed?
• Empowered?
• Confident?
• Aligned?
• Better equipped to support?
• Supported?
• Ready!?

And finally?

An aligned, informed, professional committee of employee representatives can be a powerful force for good within your organisation. The benefits can be huge when it all works well, you’ll see improved communications, employee relations, relationships, decision making, collaboration etc. All it often takes to get it working well is a little time spent getting the paperwork together, training your representatives and communicating with managers about the value you place on having a successful forum.??

If this is outside your skill set, resourcing abilities or even perhaps outside your comfort zone then please do?get in touch. Jaluch can support not just with?effective training for representatives?but also supporting with representative elections, drafting constitutions, resolving employee representative fall outs and working with/educating managers to ensure the value is understood.??

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