Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Time to take the fear out of partnerships

by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2000
by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2000

The
Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union’s national officer John Lloyd
wrote in this column about the partnership agenda and asked if it was still a
slippery concept  (14 November). Good
for him. This subject needed airing and Lloyd is a great catalyst. What he
recognises is that there is no one way to partnership between employer and
employees – that solutions and formulae will vary from company to organisation.

I believe
that there is a need to explore what partnership demands in terms of commitment
and what it can produce in terms of added value. There is also a need to
overcome fear and create the opposite: a passion for and belief in what
partnership can achieve.

Tackling
the fear is the first priority – it freezes management and other employees
alike and is self perpetuating. Management is afraid to communicate  because it doesn’t have all the answers and
employees fear to challenge because management is not involving them. Their
belief is that they are not trusted and their ideas are not wanted. So
companies remain inefficient and the productivity gap becomes worse.

I attended
the launch of The Silent Stakeholders paper by Industrial Society recently. It
argues for UK legislation on employee consultation based on evidence that good
consultation leads to higher productivity and profits. I agree on the necessity
for consultation but I’m not sure about the route to getting there.

The CBI
argues against more legislation and regulation because of the perceived burden
on business. To me it is about effectiveness. Will extending the compulsion on
consultation create the enthusiasm in industry to make it work? The business
case is strong, the application of consultation and partnership is weak.

Partnerships
that work do so because the participants believe in them and have redefined
their roles and arrived at a solution that fits the enterprise.

What is
unarguable is that involvement leads to high productivity and profit and a
potentially sustainable business. The companies and unions that have practised
effective partnerships have achieved this. Lloyd is right. Each one needs to
arrive at the solution that suits and needs to go through a process, learning
best practice from peers, both management and unions.

This is happening
at the centre for thought leadership on the shore of Rutland Water. Management
and unions are meeting at the Whitwell centre to participate in joint training,
facilitated by Whitwell Learning and Ruskin College. People are looking to
learn, participate, contribute to research and explore the partnership agenda.
The aim is to dump costly adversarial approaches and create wins that secure
jobs and futures.

So what do
you think, Lloyd? Do you want to join us? 
You and your colleagues are most welcome, as are CBI members and other
employers.

By
Professor Clive Morton

Independent
HR consultant, chairman of Whitwell Learning, author and former vice-president
of the CIPD

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Government moves to back public sector over New Deal
next post
Is your organisation’s IT department one of the best places to work?

You may also like

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+