Whether it's for a company agreement, a NAO (mandatory annual negotiation) period, or any other necessity linked to the economic situation or regulatory changes, companies regularly find themselves in a position to negotiate with their employees.
Social negotiation is a principle that seeks collaboration between the various players, in order to arrive at a solution that best satisfies all parties.
It has a direct impact on the quality of life at work and the social climate within the company.
And yet, all too often, empiricism prevails. Company representatives rely on their intuition (often based on their own experience), but also on standard practices, some inherited from the "trente glorieuses", and others on neo-dogmas drawn from recent economic and social sciences. But what about psychology, the levers that facilitate collective buy-in?
At a time when social negotiation is taking on new faces and new forms, it's crucial that the teams involved are trained to approach collective bargaining methodically.
This is all the more urgent as the cost to the company of a social conflict that gets bogged down is considerable.
So how do you develop the negotiating skills and techniques needed to maintain a calm social climate within the company?
The costs of social conflict in the workplace
A degraded image... but not only
You don't want your company to be associated by its audiences with images of persistent strikes, angry employees, or even violence? And above all, you don't want your social conflicts and blockages to inspire genuine mistrust of your brand, or your reputation?
Perhaps you have in mind the social conflict in the factory of the automotive supplier Continental? Or the image of the Air France HR director, in 2015, escaping from the company's works council meeting with his shirt torn off?
Of course, these images are striking because they show the impasse that suddenly arises when dialogue breaks down. But there are other, less visible consequences that are just as painful for companies:
- Reduced employee productivity and motivation
- Deteriorating labor relations
- Increased employee turnover and the associated loss of skills
- Increased costs for the company
- Poor reputation with customers and investors
- Disruption to commercial activities
- Breach of trust between managerial strata and their teams
- Exacerbation of tensions and irritants, which encourages violent positions
Read the article: Negotiating without getting caught out: understanding the mechanisms that cause even the best intentions to fail
Effects on all company stakeholders
Social conflict affects both the company's internal dynamics and its relations with its ecosystem.
Internally, the effects are both immediate and long-lasting. Employees involved in conflict lose their heads in their work, and tensions generate stress. Employees lose motivation, commitment and productivity. A bad atmosphere or the feeling of not being heard also affects motivation.
From an external point of view, social conflict has repercussions on how the company is perceived by its customers. Consumers are sensitive to the values conveyed by a company. They will tend to turn away from a brand if they feel it does not "respect" its employees. Similarly, investors will be reluctant to commit to a company associated with systematic or long-lastingsocialconflicts.
Finally, social conflict has a negative impact on the employer brand. Candidates are looking for companies where the social climate is calm. Who would want to join an employer strongly associated with conflict? The problem also concerns current employees, who may be tempted to leave the company because of the prevailing tensions.
That's why it's so important for companies to manage industrial disputes effectively, so as to minimize the consequences for employees and the company itself.
How to approach social negotiation and defuse conflicts?
Breaking out of the class warfare reflex
Traditionally, social negotiation was based on a "class struggle" between union representatives and company managers. But this vision is inoperative and outdated today.
Firstly, trade unionism in France no longer has a monopoly on social struggle. Not only is the proportion of wage-earners who are union members relatively low, but the ways in which social demands are made have themselves evolved.
Social movements, such as the Gilets Jaunes or the freedom convoys, have emerged "spontaneously" on the initiative of players evolving outside the historical trade unions. Strikes at the SNCF in December 2022 initially arose from spontaneous employee collectives on social networks. Often, the unions no longer initiate the movement. They choose whether or not to follow it.
We therefore need to rethink the social negotiation model and, quite simply, the "social dialogue" model.
Read the article: Negotiation: the 3P method for defending your margins
Breaking out of empiricism
Where before, company representatives had to face unions, the logic was more binary. Social conflict was played out in a theatrical fashion, with very strong confrontations that followed a quasi-official process involving blackmail, threats and displays of power. There was even a period, in the 2000s, when Boss Napping became commonplace ... and above all unsanctioned (justice being sacrificed on the altar of social peace). Proof of this is the "manager's survival kit", taught in the most serious institutions, where packets of cakes and sodas in the office cupboards, a clean shirt and a green plant (to urinate in when strikers refused any accommodation of the conditions of sequestration) were normalized.
Today, social negotiation has taken on new forms. The new leaders claim independence from the "system", and reject the old modes of representation as illegitimate. They are no longer the union leaders of yesteryear.
Positions on the various issues are more fluid. And, therefore, more complicated for company negotiators to grasp. It's no longer the company line against the union line. There can now be a multitude of micro-points of view, which must be taken into account to strike a balance.
Social negotiation has therefore become a matter for specialists. It is no longer just in the hands of HR, but falls to teams dedicated to social relations and dialogue. To succeed in their mission, these social dialogue managers must understand that social negotiation, however tough it may be today, is nonetheless possible, and that it concerns the way in which all stakeholders live together within the company over the long term.
It's true that overcoming the logic of confrontation is no simple matter. Given the stakes involved, the participants tendency to retreat into processes of guilt-tripping, escapism of counterparty deals (often bought at unreasonable prices). Sometimes, people try to avoid pre-negotiation because they are ashamed of having so little to give or, on the contrary, they are afraid of being seen as manipulative if they offer too much.
To get out of these situations, you need to adopt a methodical approach and learn a set of techniques to :
- Positioning the line of force in a conversation
- Define a precise agenda for a roadbook of negotiation rounds
Promoting cooperative negotiation
The logic of confrontation between employer and unions is outdated. We need to create the conditions for a new social dialogue by involving employees on a massive scale in discussions.
First and foremost, there needs to be a joint and reciprocal willingness to establish a new social dialogue. One of the entities must not become complacent with the previous system of automatic blocking, of posturing up to the limit and pretending to make a few small concessions, while seeking to preserve its perimeter of acquired, or systemic, advantages.
So we need a reciprocal renunciation. Why a renunciation? Because the current model of powerlessness must be countered by a new sharing of governance. This is the hardest thing to accept. The chaotic proliferation of laws and regulations is today the main obstacle to agility and improved work organization. Everyone arches his or her back on his or her rights, but has lost sight of the noble meaning of work: acting as part of a collective that is efficient for all and respectful of each individual. We need to restore local, circumstantial adaptability. Not everything can be done by law, and it's the "free" and responsible agreements that make it possible to support the imperatives of growth.
And why reciprocal? Because it will be painful; it will be accompanied by a different sharing of modes of communication, representativeness, participation; of the work format, remote or in geographically delocalized teams grouped together in regional coworking spaces. For some, this will feel like a loss of power, or even of their omnipotence. For others, it will affect their ego, or their ability to dominate, while for still others, it will mean giving up systematic rebellion, and criticism devoid of objective, applicable proposals.
Everyone is right and everyone is wrong. We have to admit that achieving results will be a long and gradual process. Nothing can be achieved in a few months. Change in a company requires a great deal of upstream preparation of the strategy, and a lot of fine-tuning, before we can hope to find a way forward that appeals and in which everyone will want to invest.
It will be important to encourage the participation of all employees in negotiations, so that they feel listened to and taken into account. To achieve this, we need to find participation tools adapted to each local ecosystem, each work silo. In modern armed forces doctrine, command is delegated as close as possible to the field and the action. The other side of the coin is that, for every problem, a possible solution (or solutions) must be proposed. Effective dialogue thrives on respect for "other" positions. Understanding the needs and concerns of each party will help reduce misunderstandings and give us a clear idea of the possible points of balance that need to be invented. The guiding principle must be to reach a consensus on the transformation of our model, in other words, the GDCP (highest common denominator) of our modernization drive.
Given the costs associated with social conflict, social negotiation is clearly a key business skill.
Would you like to learn how to peacefully resolve potentially conflictual situations in your company, and how to move social dialogue towards a more cooperative approach? Contact us and discuss your issues with our expert consultants in social negotiation.
Visit www.negociation-for-one.com to find out more.
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Editors: Christophe Caupenne and Frédéric Bonneton
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