The impact of employee participation on the development of your organisation
The importance of employee participation
Growth and development of companies is fundamentally achieved through the knowledge and commitment of employees. Good consultation and dialogue with the employees in your organisation are therefore essential. This ensures that the direction and policy of your organisation are supported jointly, by you as an employer and by your employees.
Involving your employees in decision-making and change processes is called employee participation. In organisations with ≥50 employees, this takes place by establishing a works council. Employee participation is still often seen as a must by many employers, while it is often being forgotten that it actually helps your company grow and develop. Employee participation is both necessary and important, in good times and certainly also in bad times.
Pay attention to employee participation
My call to every employer is to give sincere attention to employee participation within the organisation and to really acknowledge its importance. In this way, you will encourage more, and more diverse employees to participate in employee participation, creating a better representation. And this, in turn, benefits the quality of employee participation, increasing its added value. Investing in the relationship with your employee representation is worthwhile; it helps you as an organisation to make necessary positive changes, e.g. a major investment, and negative changes, e.g. a reorganisation.
Make sure you are well informed about employee participation
If, as a manager or HR, you are involved in employee participation within your organisation, it is obviously also important to be well informed in this area and to keep this knowledge up to date. For example, you need to know which regulations apply for establishing a works council, when you have to consult the works council and about which topics, what the rights of a works council are, when you have to submit a request for advice or approval, what your responsibilities are as an employer, etc.
Solid knowledge of employee participation, enables you to take the right steps. This helps ensure constructive consultations with your works council and employees, decision-making and change processes run more smoothly and unnecessary discussions and (legal) conflicts can be avoided.
Questions about employee participation or looking for an employee participation training course?
Do you have questions about employee participation or are you looking for an employee participation training course, that covers not only legislation but also the practical application, with concrete examples, important do's and don'ts, etc.? If so, please contact me without obligation. Employee participation is one of my areas of expertise and I like to help with complex challenges and enthusiastically develop and provide tailor-made training in this field.