Employee Relations November 2005 - CIPD

PDS – Employee Relations
EXAMINER'S REPORT
November 2005
definition of mediation, claiming that the role of the mediator was simply to keep the
two sides talking. This is conciliation. The mediator makes recommendations to the
parties as to how their differences might be resolved. Many candidates made these
factual errors.
• Candidates did not address the key issues of the question. This was particularly the
case with Question 3 (discipline), Question 7 (listening skills) and Question 10 (good
practice). In Question 3, many candidates wrote all they knew about discipline
management and did not concentrate, as required by the question, on the dangers of
‘outsourcing’ discipline handling to lawyers. In response to Q uestion 7, many
candidates wrote about handling employee grievances in general rather than
concentrating, as required by the question, on listening skills as an informationgathering
technique on the basis of which management reaches a number of
decisions. For example, is the grievance genuine or is it ill-founded? If it is genuine,
management then establishes objectives as to how the grievance might be resolved.
If candidates’ performance is to improve in terms of them not just scraping a Pass, then
they must do the following:
• Read the question carefully and then answer the question set. They should ask
themselves what the central focus of the question is. They should then write about
that. Candidates appear to be applying little or no thinking-time before picking up
their pens to answer the question.
• It is essential that they consider the what and why of the question. Too many
answers concentrate on the what (ie describing), often to the total neglect of the why
(ie analysis).
• When the question specifically asks the candidate to draw on contemporary research
and/or organisational policy and practice then they must do so. They must specify
which research, by whom, in what publication and at what date.
• In answering the case study question, candidates need to bear in mind that the acid
test is: (a) Have I outlined what proposals I advocate (What will I do?), (b) Have I
explained the reasons for my proposals and are they coherent (Why will I do that?),
(c) Have I explained how I shall implement what I have proposed (What problems
are envisaged? How will they be overcome?) and (d) Have I addressed the resource
implications of the proposals (Are there sufficient resources? If not, from where will
the additional resources be gained?)