Sebastian Perrier

Employees behavior is discretional and cannot be ruled by a contract. In order to influence behavior, attention to employees own interests should be considered. As in any relationship, trust is the basis for good human resources practices. One basic role of the human resources department is to provide the company with the availability and ability of resources in order to accomplish its goals. Anotherone is to manage workforce in-flow, through-flow and out-flow. The procedures and strategies developed in managing this flow should be aligned with the company’s mission, vision, values, strategies and goals. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’, different approaches to human resources management can work for different companies. The important thing to take into consideration is to be consistent. Coherence and consistency are key in sending the right ’signals’ to employees that will determine the overall company’s cognitive framework.

Each organization has its own culture and cognitive frameworks which have been developed through its history. People expectations and perceptions are developed from what the company’s signals are. The correct design of coherent policies and the efficiency and consistency of their application are key in driving people’s behavior within an organization. Human behavior cannot be bought, cannot be driven by power, authority or money; human resources cannot be managed just by ‘numbers’.

Managers should acknowledge that the employee relationship is a conflict between employees and company’s goals. Their role of managers is to ‘manage discontent’; it’s to continuously work on establishing a balance between effort and reward. In this interaction, employees should have a voice. Achieving harmony in employment relationships is not natural or automatic, on the contrary. This relationship needs proactive action to get cooperation from both parties.

What will determine that someone will do a good job? What does ‘doing a good job’ means? Can managers develop an employment contract to answer to these questions? No!

The employment contract is different from every other contract because it is not possible to establish a direct relationship between what each party is to give. It is not like selling a product for an X amount of money. How much will the employee will give to the organization is subjective, it depends on personal discretions. The employment contract is a social relationship; each aspect of this relationship will never be able to be stipulated in a written contract.

Therefore, managing human resources is rather a balancing act than just writing contract. Reward, authority and control from the employer should be balanced with allowing the employee autonomy for creativity and personal interests. Managing human resources involves recognizing that there are potential zone of conflict of interests, and the process of managing people is a continuous act of barging and negotiations.

In this ‘balancing act’, employees interests have to be balanced with the organization’s goals. This relationship must be proactively managed and the basis to gain employees commitment; the key is to build trust. There will never be a direct relationship between the employment contract and employees behavior, this is why trust is needed to build in order to successfully meet both the organization’s and the employees interests. Employee management is about good communication and building trust.