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This episode is sponsored by JazzHR.

In episode 98 of “The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast,” JoDee and Susan discuss creating and maintaining a positive relationship with employees.

JoDee and Susan share their experience with employee relations and briefly discuss employee relations in union environments. Organizations with unions have collective bargaining agreements, which reflect most of the agreed upon behaviors. In non-union environments, you may not have that rulebook to follow, so this episode focuses more on them.

The hosts discuss a blog from Smarp suggesting five things to do to start an employee relations program. Once you have a solid employee relations infrastructure built, it’s important to periodically assess whether your approach is still working for you and relevant to changes in employee needs and business conditions. JoDee and Susan share the things they think should be covered when you’re doing a self-assessment on your employee relations function. You need to ensure consistent and fair treatment across the organization, run good internal investigations, and track employee relations issues. Create a safe space for employees by making good faith efforts if you’re an affirmative action employer, having a central point of contact on EEOC charges, and making an effort to include people with different backgrounds, experiences, thoughts, and ideas. And finally, make sure you’re educating employees and asking for their input on things.

In this episode’s listener question, a listener shared feedback on our hosts’ idea for getting out of disclosing your salary to recruiters; sometimes, people skirt that question only to be far off base further in the process and waste both parties’ time. In the news, JoDee and Susan discuss an article by Josh Bersin listing the top five topics on the minds of HR professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• Episode sponsor JazzHR
• 2020 JoyPowered® Listener Survey
• “What Are Employee Relations and Why Are They Important”
• SHRM
• Episode 8, “SHRM Credit: How to Start a Job Search and Negotiate Salary”
• “COVID-19: The Pulse of HR – What Is HR Doing Now?”

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