What is Employee Relations? Employee Relations Examples, Purpose, Types, and Importance

Employee Relations


What is employee relations / 

What is employee relations in human resource management?

Employee relations examples

What is the purpose of employee relations?

Types of employee relations

Importance of employee relations

What is employee relations? / What is employee relations in human resource management?

Employee relations is the term used to describe the relationship between employers and employees.

Employee relations is about creating and maintaining a positive working relationship between an organization and its people.

The definition of employee relationship refers to the efforts of an organization to create and maintain a positive relationship with its employees. By maintaining a positive, constructive employee relationship, companies expect employees to be loyal and more engaged in their work. Typically, an organization’s human resources department manages employee relations efforts; However, some organizations may have the role of a dedicated employee relationship manager. The general responsibilities of an employee relationship manager include acting as intermediaries or intermediaries between employees and managers, and other employee issues such as fair compensation, useful benefits, proper work-life balance, reasonable working hours, and policy making. When it comes to employee relationships, an HR department has two primary functions. First, HR helps prevent and resolve problems or conflicts between employees and management. Second, they help create and implement fair and consistent policies for everyone in the workplace.


In order to maintain a positive employee relationship, an organization must first see employees as stakeholders and contributors to the company rather than just salaried workers. This approach encourages employees in management and executive roles to seek feedback, value their input more, and consider employee experience when making decisions that affect the company as a whole.


Employee relations examples

Below are 9 examples of employee relations in action. 

  1. Making sure new team members fit into the company culture.
  2. Onboarding support for new recruits
  3. Providing ongoing support for employees
  4. Analyzing performance
  5. Dealing with employee misconduct
  6. Resolving ongoing conflicts
  7. Exploring new ways to further-improve employee well-being
  8. Extra-curricular initiatives
  9. Office health and safety procedures.
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What is the purpose of employee relations?

The main goal of each employee relationship strategy is to improve relationships and collaboration in the workplace. Good leadership is identified as the most important thing that attracts new candidates and retains existing staff. 

In other words, The purpose of the employee relationship is to strengthen the employer-employee relationship by identifying and resolving workplace problems.

What is the purpose of employee relations management?

Employee Relationship Management (ERM) is a process that takes organizations to build healthy relationships. ERM efforts build morale, connect team members and identify pain points within the organization.


Types of employee relations

Following are the well-known types of employee relations:

Vertical employee relations

Simply put, both vertical and horizontal employee relationships are of a hierarchical nature. This means that the relationship between the manager and the employee is vertical.


An employee-manager relationship is unique because such relationships have some limitations. Managers must strive to be empathetic, communicative, grateful and friendly with their employees. Managers need to understand that they don’t need to get legitimacy from their subordinates but they must be open to new ideas and changes. There is a fine line between an ideal boss-employee relationship.


Horizontal employee relations

Internal employee relationship is the relationship between team members or employees of the same level within the company. An example of a great horizontal employee relationship is the relationship between those who engage in casual water cooling discussions. These employees may not be part of the same group or even the same vertical but they have strong relationships due to their casual conversations several times a day.


Horizontal employee relationships can be mapped by active HR professionals to find influential employees within the organization who cannot be given too much space in the classification.

Other Types of Employee Relations are as follows:

  1. Employee Branding
  2. Recruiting 
  3. Onboarding 
  4. Leadership
  5. Public Relations
  6. Performance Management


Importance of employee relations

When employees have a strong, healthy relationship with their employers, the whole company benefits. Research has shown that employees who maintain a mutually respectful relationship with their employers are more likely to be happy, loyal and productive in the long run.

The importance of employee relations is pertinent because it provides ways to ensure healthy work environments.


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