The Field of Employment Relations

 

Human resources (HR) and employment relations (ET) are distinct subfields, and together they make up HRER.

HR and ER are different and distinct subfields of management. HR can be defined as the set of organizational functions that focus on issues related to personnel management. These include recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits, performance management, safety, wellness, training and development, and other related functions.

ER, on the other hand, is the set of organizational functions by which an employer or management interacts with a union or an employee association formed as part of a union organizing drive. This interaction usually takes place in the context of the following settings: an organizing drive to convince employees to unionize, the negotiation of a labor contract or agreement through collective bargaining, or the grievance and arbitration process through which the parties try to resolve disputes over contract application or enforcement. Each of these steps will be addressed in much greater detail throughout the course.

As Figure 1.1 suggests, HR exists in all workplaces. That is to say that the HR functions of hiring and recruitment, payroll, benefits administration, training and development, and others must be performed in every workplace, union or nonunion, big or small, factory or office, private sector or public sector, profit or nonprofit. On the other hand, ER happens in unionized workplaces (where employees have at some point chosen to be represented by a union). It also happens, on a much reduced scale, in the small number of nonunion workplaces where a union is seeking to represent the employees during a union organizing drive. ER does not, however, happen in the vast majority of nonunion workplaces where there is no union activity.

Practitioners in the field of employment relations are involved in the management and administration of this relationship. The two main groups of practitioners include individuals who represent employer interests (titles vary but include employment relations managers, labor relations managers, and sometimes, directors of human resources), and those who represent the interests of employees and their unions (local union leaders, union staff representatives, and business agents). Two other groups of practitioners are involved in the employment relations process. They include representatives of government agencies that assist the parties and monitor the laws pertaining to the relationship (the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the National Labor Relations Board) and professional neutrals (usually arbitrators) who help unions and employers resolve disputes that may arise between them.