Discipline Case Study: Theft

Today we're discussing the worst case scenario which means an acute offense so serious that it merits immediate termination of employment.

Theft of company property is in the post title for today, but other examples include assault, falsifying company records, intoxication at work, other illegal activities or any gross misconduct.

A striking example is one I had in which a Field Technician began throwing electronic equipment around a remote site's parking lot and screaming. I suspected illegal drug use so I ordered him to fly back, secured his company van and dismissed him from employment upon his return. He actually applied for unemployment insurance later. He lost.

I interviewed witnesses and prepared documentation during his trip home.

These are cases where the employee's behavior is so extremely unacceptable that the only real option is termination of employment.

Even with extreme behavior, it is core critical to investigate the facts and witnesses before terminating. Does taking immediate action and then investigating sound mutually exclusive or even impossible? Here's a powerful HR solution: suspend the employee pending investigation. This can be without pay and pay can be restored if the employee is absolved.

Happily this worst case situation does not occur often. But when it  does you have to be ready to take bold, decisive action. Best to have an HR expert walk you through this or do it for you,

Lance


Note: In California, the final paycheck, including accrued vacation must be ready and given to the  employee at the time of involuntary termination of employment. You can't hold it for return of company property or any other reason.

Discipline Case Study: Poor Attendance

This is a classic. Good employee starts missing a day every work week. It begins to be a chronic pattern after three weeks in a row.

The Manager's best course of action is to tell the employee that this frequency of absence is not acceptable and must be corrected. Also, asks the employee about the cause of the absences to determine if the Company can be of help.

This conversation is documented as a verbal warning.

If the absences continue the Manager meets with the employee and for a written warning. Always present the next disciplinary step so the employee knows the consequences of continuing unacceptable behavior. In this case the next step would be either a final written warning or (ironically) a brief suspension from work without pay. The final step in a case like this is termination of employment.

Here we have applied the principle of the disciplinary consequences matching the seriousness and nature of the problem.

If we apply this principle to a case in which an employee does not report to work for three straight weeks. Regardless of reason (other than acute illness or sudden disability) the disciplinary action would be either an atomic final warning or termination of employment. Which action would be influenced by factors like length of employment, performance level and contribution level. Very good idea to get professional HR advise here.

Note: If the employee informs you that they have a disability you may be sailing in the waters of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA.) Then you definitely need professional HR support.

Lance

Discipline: What to Do When Employees Behave Badly

Employee Discipline is a commonly used term but far too negative for my tastes. So instead of a discipline procedure, let's view the subject as part of the entire process of managing employee performance.

The heart of managing performance is the daily managing, organizing and leading of employee's work.

The good end of the process is excellent performance through pay raises, promotions and bonuses.

The middle band of the this spectrum is managing satisfactory work and hopefully improving it.

Things begin to unravel when we get into unsatisfactory and poor work performance. Both of these must be corrected.

Then we hit the turbulence of employee behavior that is unacceptable and necessitates corrective action on the part of the Company, which  is hopefully improve behavior instead of being punitive. The final step in this no fun end of the process is termination of employment.

This kind of behavior can be work performance or other bad behaviors that require correction. A few examples are:
-harassment
-fighting
-theft
-falsifying records
-illegal property in the workplace

Again, these are just a few examples. Human behaviors are as varied and numerous as the number of humans there are.

So we are going to discuss the array of Company actions which are used to correct unacceptable employee behavior.

Lance

Employee Relations: Avoid Costly Mistakes

Manage well and comply with the law. Doing so reduces the chances of your company giving away hard earned money drops to near entropy. It's really that simple.

The content on this blog is geared to help small companies achieve that homeostatic state of well being.

The previous posts are useful and pragmatic.

Lance

Employee Relations: Pay a Little Now - or - Pay a Lot Later

You change your automobile oil to prevent paying for a new engine. $35 now versus $5,0000 later.

HR help is available at very affordable hourly rates now which could save $100,000 later.

The numbers are an approximation, but you get the idea.

Making an HR mistake could lead to much higher attorney fees or litigation awards. This has happened and I have proof.

It is all avoidable by using helpdeskHR.

Lance

Employee Relations: 10.3 Million Reasons to Use helpdeskHR

The hits just keep on comin'.

Now Best Buy has settled for 10.3 million dollars to plaintiffs and their lawyers. Settling means the company felt they would lose in court and pay even more or that the cost and ultimate award would be higher.

The charge was discrimination in promotions and higher paying sales jobs for female, black and Latino employees.

It appears Best Buy did just that! Why would any company do that???

All they had to do is make opportunities available equally to all employees and promote on merit. So it comes back to managing people well and with respect. There are prior posts on this very subject on this blog in the subject of company culture. Oh yeah, that would also be following the law (a nod to YFHRG who is Your Father's HR Guy who sometimes acts as a lawgiver.)

OR, they can give away $10,300,000.

Lance

Employee Relations: A Summary

The relationship between employees and the company is the DNA of any business.

Good DNA produces a successful and prosperous business.

Bad DNA produces an unhappy, floundering organization.

I've seen it both ways in my career and I opt for the good DNA every time. Ever heard of TurboTax?

Lance

Employee Relations: Employee->Manager Disputes

Now that we know how expensive employee relations disputes can be, we won't forget but we are getting back to day-to-day.

If an employee reports an issue with a Manager you should follow all the steps outlined before:

• Listen and document
• talk and investigate with the Manager 
• interview witnesses
• document and reach a conclusion
• review with upper Management
• implement and inform of the decision

There are, however, two unique and important factors with these disputes.

RETALIATION: Mandatory that you inform the Manager that no, zero, nada, zip retaliation against the complaining employee is permitted or tolerated.

WORKING RELATIONSHIP: After the resolution is reached life and work go on. It will then e important to try to restore a civil and productive working relationship between the employee and Manager, especially if the employee reports to the Manager in question. This is never easy but always important.

Lance

Employee Relations: $95,000,000 of Incompetency

In disputes by employees about Managers, it is very important for the company to fill the role of employee advocate in addition to impartial investigator. Clearly the Manager has more authority than the line employee and if they don't feel someone is considering their interests they will find someone like a plaintiff's attorney, government agency or a labor union. No need to put yourself through that.

In the Aaron Rents case, a Supervisor and the Company Hotline apparently ignored her reports of illegal harassment. So she found an attorney who plead her case in front of a jury, who gave her $95,000,000.

In a better scenario, the Supervisor informs HR immediately upon receiving the complaint and HR contacts her immediately to launch an investigation. And the Hotline personnel immediately inform HR Management of the call so they can contact the employee.

Did I say "immediately?"  When I have received claims of harassment, I make notes, set up my documentation and make initial contact with the employee, a process that takes about 60 seconds. You can call helpdeskHR. Doing this is the best possible launch of a resolving investigation.

Gee, could have saved Aaron $95,000,000.

I know the award could be capped at $40,000,000. But that's still a lot of frappuccinos.

Lance

Employee Relations: The $95,000,000 Dispute

A record lawsuit settlement was awarded by a jury Friday, June 11, 2011 to a former rental store employee for extreme illegal sexual harassment and assault.

Aaron Rental Co. is a national chain and this award takes virtually all of their last year's profits and gives it to the plaintiff.

Her store manager committed gross sexual harassment which eventually escalated to assault. She claims she reported his actions to a Supervisor and called a Company Hotline. The Supervisor did nothing and no one contacted her from the Hotline.

This company did everything wrong.

The Supervisor should have been trained to report her input immediately. The Hotline should have contacted her within a very few hours. Immediacy of response is critical. Speedy investigation and resolution are the only acceptable course of action.

What disastrous effect would such a settlement of only $9,000,000 have on your company? That's a lot of zeroes that take a lot of time to earn.

The full story can be found at http://www.hrlawyersblog.com/.

If you get any hint of sexual harassment at all - please GET HELP. I enthusiastically recommend HelpDeskHR.

Lance

Employee Relations: Employee->Employee Disputes

Disputes between employees can range from too much cologne being worn to illegal sexual harassment.

We will cover illegal sexual harassment in great detail as a separate subject but for now let me advise that if you get such a complaint that you immediately get HR help - such as helpdeskHR.

But for the purposes of today's post we are looking at intra-employee complaints in general.

Here's what to do:

1. Listen to the complaint in detail and document it.
2. Contact the other employee and explain the complaint and listen/document the response.
3. Talk to any witnesses for their input.
4. Evaluate and analyze all the information you have gathered.
5. Review the information with Senior Management, or if that is you, review with an HR expert like helpdeskHR.
6. Make a decision of resolution.
7. Inform both employees of the decision.
8. Keep a management file of all the documentation (your notes, docs supplied by the employees, research material) in the case. This is invaluable in the future. Remember that this file can be subpoenaed in case of litigation so it must be pristine and pertinent

Note: In similar instances in the future, this decision will be the precedent for subsequent decisions.

Lance

Employee Relations: Employee->Company Disputes

Take all employee complaints seriously. They are real to the employee.

These disputes are normally with a Company policy or procedure. You should listen, consider the content, and the decide to:

• explain the reason for the policy to the employee
• change or modify the policy

If you keep the policy and explain it to the employee, remember the importance of "it's not what you say but how you say it." Never use the dismissive and insensitive "that's the way it is."

If you change the policy, inform all employees of the change and effective date.

Be very careful to make the best business decision and consider the effect on the future.

*helpdeskHR can advise you very quickly on the best decision and how to communicate it.

Lance

Employee Relations: Disputes

It's a fact of life that disputes will occur in any human organization. Sports teams, bands, and companies, to name a few.

In a company you will have disputes between employees, employees and managers, and employees and the company.

We will examine each over the next three posts because each type of dispute is different and requires a different process for resolution.

That's the real key thing about disputes (conflicts, issues,) they have to be resolved. Left unresolved, they rot into highly destructive infections that cause major problems.

This series of HDHR blog posts will equip you to be able to resolve disputes, or know when to get help if you really need it (sometimes you do.)

Lance