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Employee Councils
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I'm interested in hearing about your experiences, good and bad, with Employee Councils. We are a not-for-profit health care organization of just under 100 employees, going through significant shake-up
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Forums » Topic Forums » Work Views » Employee Councils
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Employee Councils
posted at 10/12/2004 1:14 PM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 10/12/2004 Last: 10/12/2004 |
I'm interested in hearing about your experiences, good and bad, with Employee Councils. We are a not-for-profit health care organization of just under 100 employees, going through significant shake-up, cultural change, reorganization. An ad hoc group of employees is advocating for an "Employee Council" as a positive change. I think that, with a well-thought-out plan and clear purpose, an employee council could, indeed, be worthwhile. But, lacking purpose, goals, clear responsibilities, I fear such a council will devolve into a social function planning group. Your thoughts on how to support this idea while avoiding pitfalls. Is there a body of literature/knowledge about employee councils? |
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Employee Councils
posted at 10/13/2004 1:54 AM EDT
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Posts: 1783
First: 11/11/2003 Last: 5/13/2010 |
You need to take great care with how the "Employee Council" is structured and with what issues the "Council" would address so that you do not run afoul of the National Labor Relations Act. If the Council were to deal with conditions of employment then it could be construed to be an employer-sponsored union, which is illegal under the NLRA.
Rather than having a standing group, you could convene focus groups to get their feedback on a specific issue. |
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Employee Councils
posted at 10/24/2004 9:25 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 10/24/2004 Last: 10/24/2004 |
I have had experience facilitating Employee groups to address organizational change issues. A few things I might suggest:
1) Establish a specific goal for the group. If you want them to discuss a particular initiative and determine a plan of action - say just that. When a specific goal is established, the group can use it to focus the discussions. 2. Hire an external facilitator - this may sound self-serving (on my part), but an external professional facilitator can ensure that the group uses a structured process for their discussions and can keep the group on topic. Also, an external person can often pose those "unaskable" questions to get the group to address the real issue at hand, rather than playing politics. 3. Establish an accountability mechanism. Task the group with specific accountability regarding their work. This can be done when the goals are established, and can include things like submitting a report with recommendations, or communicating a strategy with an associated plan of action, etc. 4. Make the groups dynamic. Make sure that there is a process for rotating in new Employees on occasion to keep the flow of new ideas coming in. 5. Communicate successes early and often. In many cases, these working groups can be viewed by other Employees as being ineffective. By communicating progress and successes that are coming out of the group's work, other Employees can see visible results. 6. Give them the authority to get things done. A sure-fire way to make sure these groups fail is to neglect to give them the requisite authority to get things done. By entrusting Employee groups with the authority to gather critical information and feedback, you will ensure that decisions are made and progress is achieved. Hope that helps. |
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Employee Councils
posted at 3/11/2005 3:46 AM EST
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Posts: 148
First: 9/30/2004 Last: 12/12/2008 |
When I was the VP/HR at a for-profit fundraising company, we has the Staff Response Committee, which I facilitated. The staffers were selected by their colleagues for the committee. My role was to listen to their preceptions, feedback, and ideas and report them (unedited) to the Executive Management Committee. The committee members were dedicated to hearing from their colleagues prior to the meetings.
The company owners considered the SRC as a benefit to management because we learned how to correct perceived problems before they evolved into something larger. We did have governance guidelines, codified roles and responsibilies, and identified processes for management to respond to the SRC. |
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Employee Councils
posted at 5/6/2005 7:23 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 5/27/2003 Last: 5/6/2005 |
We have recently implemented an Advisory Group in our Call Center. The goal of the group is to have a direct voice to me (I am the Department Director) on issues and items they feel are important to them. This is an team-owned group, represented by individuals elected by their peers. We meet bi-weekly and report all activities in our staff meetings.
The first thing the group did is get consensus as to what they thought the role of the group was. They set their mission statement and shared with the entire team for their approval. The mission the group defined was to: Facilitate work as a cohesive team by: « encouraging communication, « understanding and « on-going training which will assist in reducing staff stress and concerns. The entire staff endorsed the mission statement. The group accepts issues directly from team members, from email and submissions to a confidential suggestion box. We have dealt with not-so-popular topics as limited make-up time, performance statistics and rumors. I have noted that the overall tone of the items submitted is very positive and we have implemented a number of changes suggested. It has been a very positive change in our culture and we have found that it has greatly contributed to team morale. |
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Employee Councils
posted at 6/29/2005 4:49 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 6/29/2005 Last: 6/29/2005 |
HI MY NAME IS TIFFANY KILCREASE, I AM A STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX. I AM HAVING TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION ON THE TOPIC: HOW A MULTICULTURAL WORKFORCE NIGHT AFFECT TEAMWORK AND COMMUNICATIONS IN LARGE COMPANIES
I AM JUST ASKING FOR SOME INPUT ON THAT |
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