Converting backend json response to Ember store expected format - ember.js

Question

I am pretty new to ember and trying to do some POC's to fit our existing applications.
Using ember 1.13.12 and ember data 1.13.15
I have two models,
company.js
import DS from 'ember-data';
export default DS.Model.extend({
name: DS.attr('string'),
employee: DS.hasMany('employee',{async:true}),
});
employee.js
import DS from 'ember-data';
export default DS.Model.extend({
name: DS.attr('string'),
alias: DS.attr('string')
});
The serializers extend the JSONSerializer and sets the primarykey for both models and the option embedded always for employee model.
Backend json response for /employee/7, - this results in error - Ember.A(...) map not a function
{
"name": "abc"
"employee": {
"employeeId": 7,
"name": "employee7",
"alias": "e7"
}
}
Backend json response for /employees - this gets pushed to the ember store without issues
{
"name": "abc"
"employee": [
{
"employeeId": 1,
"name": "employee1",
"alias": "e1"
},
{
"employeeId": 7,
"name": "employee7",
"alias": "e7"
}
]
}
With the above response I faced two issues,
Not having an 'id' for the 'company' model to push to the store (Workaround ended up changing the backend response to have an 'id')
When I try getting a single employee say employee/7/ the json response from backend does not return as an array (Workaround added one of the normalize hook and added a line payload.employee = [payload.employee] and it worked)
Is there a way I can get past the above issues without changing the backend response and workarounds.