STAR Industries

Industrial Relations Audit at STAR Industries (sample only)

Part A: What is already in place?

Auditing our organisation first involves looking at what is already in place either in written form or in custom and practice. The first area to investigate involves existing documentation that reflects the IR function such as:

  1. An organisational Vision, Mission Corporate Plan or Philosophy Statement.

YesNoAttach copy

  1. A written Industrial Relations policy specific to the organisation.

YesNoAttach copy

  1. Any written Industrial Relations procedures specific to the organisation (eg grievance procedure, dispute resolution procedure, staff consultation procedures, appeals procedures, etc).

Attach copies

  1. A written Industrial Relations Plan specific to the organisation.

YesNoAttach copy

  1. Any organisational or consultants reports into Industrial Relations completed recently.

YesNoAttach copies

  1. Any formal, written complaints/grievances lodged by staff.

YesNoAttach copies

  1. Statistical/quantifiable analyses such as:

a)Staff turnover rate

b)Unplanned leave rate (absenteeism rate, eg ‘sickies’)

c)Average length of service per employee rate

d)Workers compensation and accident/injury rate

e)OH&S compliance and incident/near miss rate

f)Productivity per employee rate

g)Sales per employee rate.

  1. Any formal/written correspondence from customers, suppliers or stakeholders regarding quality of service and organisational performance.

YesNoAttach copies

Part B: Survey stakeholders

The second area to investigate regarding an audit of Industrial Relations might involve surveying stakeholders as to their current perceptions of life within the organisation. This information is qualitative data that builds a picture and puts flesh on the bones of the other quantitative data collected via statistics and reports. Examples of survey questions follow.

  1. Morale/Climate/Culture/Satisfaction/Staff Survey involves asking questions that describe the current ‘culture/climate, etc’ and then asks for their desired ‘culture’, etc. Questions such as the following might be administered:

LEGEND

1 = Very Unsatisfactory

2 = Unsatisfactory

3 = Average

4 = Good

5 = Very Good

Please circle the appropriate number

Describe the organisation as it is today regarding:

a)Equity in treatment of staff12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

b)Encouraging creativity12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

c)Supportive of staff12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

d)Reward-performance oriented12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

e)Secure employment12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

f)Open and trusting management12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

g)Challenging and interesting jobs12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

h)Communication with staff12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

i)Efficiency and effectiveness12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

j)Management ability12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

k)Vision, mission and goal setting12345

How can STAR Industries improve in this area?

(Naturally the above areas for comments would be larger to accommodate actual comments.)

Part C: What to do with the data collected

Once this data is collected, STAR Industries must describe how it wants to treat its staff in the future. STAR must have a vision and an industrial relations philosophy to act as a guide for future standards of interaction with staff.

Areas to be addressed might include communication, security of tenure, reward and recognition, etc, so that the ‘gap’ or difference between current practice and desired practice can be ascertained.

Once the audit is completed and the results collated, issues and areas to be addressed should have been identified. Once identified, an Industrial Relations Plan might then be developed to correct gaps in current performance to bring performance up to expected standards.

For example STAR Industries may not have a written Industrial Relations Policy, so development of a policy will correct this gap. Another example might involve rates of pay where other employers reward good performance but STAR Industries does not. Establishing improved target ratios in such areas as staff turnover and absenteeism might also be appropriate.

STAR INDUSTRIES IS A FICTITIOUS COMPANY CREATED FOR EDUCATION & TRAINING PURPOSES

July 2003page 1 of 3