Performance Management - Disciplinary Action Using the Progressive Disciplinary Policy - Assignment Example

Performance Management Introduction Performance management within an organization is basically defined as a process in which, the organization’s HRD along with the top level management is identified to get involved towards sharing information within each other in terms of work experience, organizational goals, and operational feedbacks. They also focus towards evaluating and analyzing the various developmental opportunities, which might arise during their course of operations. Keeping track of the operational outcomes also forms a part of an effective performance management system (University of South Florida, n.d.). Irrespective of these strategic measures implemented with the intention to enhance organizational performances, managers often face problems in managing unproductive employees and are forced to take decisions for their termination. Termination is the severe most and a harsh decision taken by the management to fire employees on the basis of their poor performances, ethical misconducts or any kind of wrong doing against the company’s interests. Suggestively, termination not only inhibits the employability of the employee being fired but also affects the reputation of the company at large binding the employer with multiple rules and obligations (Hall, 2011). The objective of this report is therefore concentrated on effectively evaluating the provided case of terminating the employment of Mr. Breathes, who holds the designation of a quality manager in the company named, “We Make Cars”, on the grounds of being incapable of fulfilling his job roles and sufficing the expected standards. The entire report will be created based on effective evaluation and analysis of Mr. Breathes overall service records as obtained by reviewing his performance record and from the feedback provided by Mr. Fordsucks, the Vice-President of the company and the immediate supervisor of Mr. Breathes. These records are provided in terms of his progressive discipline policies, his supervisory records, his overall employee performance history, his work history, recruitment history and total compensation history among others. Discussion In this discussion part, the main focus will be towards addressing all the mentioned issues through proper analysis of the case. 1) Reviewing the Case Information and Accumulating Facts In Support of the Given Cause Certain specific points should be taken into consideration, when accumulating and reinforcing facts to facilitate the termination of Mr. Breathes. The first point to be considered should be the performance appraisal report of Mr. Dennis Breathes. As per the reports submitted by Mr. Fordsucks, the Vice President of the company and the immediate superior personnel to Mr. Breathes, a significant drop in the performance of Mr. Breathes was observed over the last five years ranging between 2009 and 2013. The reports exhibited that Mr. Breathes has been over-performing in 2009, but his performance dipped to below expected level for repeated 2 months in 2013. This factor can be taken into consideration in terms of gathering data for firing Mr. Breathes from the organization, although it must be noted to form a weak infraction to justify his termination. Nevertheless, as this particular cause has been also mentioned in the Progressive Disciplinary Policy of the company stating that failure of an employee in terms of reaching his set performance targets will lead to job termination, it can be used to fire Mr. Breathes. Adding to that, Mr. Breathes has also been accused for avoiding regular presence necessities in the company’s manufacturing floor, which can be held as responsible for the deteriorating production quality of this car manufacturing company. This projects an ignorance of one of his job roles to effectively manage the execution of the project with a focus on maintaining or improving the as-sold profit level for the project. Hence, his poor performance certainly makes him liable under minor infractions. The inappropriate compliance of Mr. Breathes has also resulted in marginal losses observed in the company’s annual budget and thus, he can be also held liable for the misuse of office supplies or equipments. Moreover, the rising complaints against Mr. Breathes in terms of his lack of interpersonal skills and commitment to the organization have also been projecting negative impacts on the managerial skills of Mr. Fordsucks. This might further affect the company’s interests in terms of development and performance on a continuous basis in the recent fiscal year. Adding to that, Mr. Breathes has also failed to attend the scheduled brainstorming training session, which was recommended to him based on his deteriorating level of performance making him accountable for major infractions. Mr. Breathes has also been incapable for influencing fellow employees with regards to completing his regular job roles and thus, has been recommended to attend interpersonal skill improvement training session failure, scheduling of which, might further put his career at risk levels within this company. On taking into consideration of all these evidences against Mr. Breathes, the company management will definitely be holding a defensible ground when taking the decision of firing him, if he fails to defend himself within an allotted period of time. 2). Summarize the Process of Handling A Disciplinary Action Using the Progressive Disciplinary Policy Since the disciplinary action planning should be taken completely based on the progressive disciplinary policy, the following three techniques might prove effective. The first technique of handling a disciplinary action is the process of giving prior intimations to employees and explaining the specific job roles, which are being expected from him/her (Forbes.com LLC, 2012). In multiple cases, the company management observes the employees or even certain managerial individuals to be getting diverted from their expected job roles and responsibilities. Getting off the track from job roles, result in the underperformance levels of employees to a major extent. This might also result in financial losses for the company. As a corrective step, the company’s HRD can call up to the employee and try to understand the areas where the employee is lacking in performance and target accomplishment (Forbes.com LLC, 2012). Through this process, the company’s HRD might try to motivate the employee back to the track in order to prevent further consequences in terms of both the employee’s career along with the company’s interests. The second technique implies towards keeping an effective track record of the employee’s performance levels after being intimated and counselled about his / her lacking areas. This includes regular monitoring of the target completion levels, which are being allotted to the employees or which, forms a part of their regular job roles. The second technique also emphasizes keeping track record of the frequency of errors committed by the employees even after being intimated. Based on that conduction of effective training sessions and development, meeting can be performed with the intention of retraining the employees with the implementation of the disciplinary process (Forbes.com LLC, 2012). The third technique emphasizes taking de-motivating steps, such as written warnings, fine charging or weekly / monthly employee suspension without pay in case repeated mistakes are committed and/or failure of the employee in achieving allotted targets or performing job roles as expected. The final step concentrates on providing final legal defensible written reports of the overall committed mistakes and company loss reports and then, permanently terminating the employee. These are the common procedures followed in almost every business organization. The entire process is carried out in accordance to the current trend of using both motivating and demotivating techniques for improvising employee performances (Forbes.com LLC, 2012). 3). Calculating the Direct Cost of Two Different Without Cause Termination Options for an Organization From a general point of view, termination without cause appears to be a sort of loss to the company, as it imposes serious risks to the employer’s reputation giving unclear explanations to its decision taken. It also projects increased economic liability of the company towards a particular employee. Thus, multiple companies tend to avoid such practises. This is mainly because in case of termination with causes, the company will have to pay the pending compensatory amount to the executive payable to him/her until the termination date. On the contrary, in case of termination without cause, the company will have to provide several months of compensatory benefits to the employee or executive who is being terminated. Moreover, it often results in emerging frustration and instability within the terminated employee, which in turn might raise serious consequences against the company in terms of law suite filing (Queens Printer for Ontario, 2009). Concerning the decision for termination without cause, two different types of options emerge as noteworthy. The first type is termination of employee base on company’s board of director’s decision. This type of written policies can be explained and signed by the employee in terms of the company policy agreement. Multiple companies hold this right of terminating any employee or executive through the voting of board members and with 90 days prior written intimation (Queens Printer for Ontario, 2009). The second type is termination of the employee in terms of serious infractions, which is implemented when the employee is under accusation for theft of company property or has been reportedly performing certain sort of criminal activities within the organizational premises that might cause serious effects to the organisation (Loyola University Chicago, 2014). In such cases, multiple companies directly terminate such employees without any sort of prior notice. As a recommendation in relation to the above case, the managerial board will have to go through the serious infraction concept for terminating Mr. Breathes. From a critical understanding, it can further be stated that serious infraction concept for employee termination will be beneficial to the company in this case. It is particularly owing to the fact that the type of responsibility ignorance committed by Mr. Breathes cannot be projected in quantitative terms. As Mr. Fordsucks states “I have no idea how he fills his time, but it is not spent doing the job that he is paid to do” and thus, the provision of prior written intimation will be difficult in this context. In addition, taking into consideration the negative impact of Mr. Breathes’ ignorance towards the managerial skills of Mr. Fordsucks as well as his job responsibilities, the management can directly terminate Mr. Breathes without any prior notice (Loyola University Chicago, 2014). 4). Create A Memo That Communicates To Legal Counsel as To the Progressive Disciplinary Process and Recommendation for Termination To: "Fred Fordsucks" From: you@ourcompany.com Date: Wed, 26 March 2014 15:45:01 -0400 Topic: Recommendation before termination of Mr. Breathes Dear Sir, Through this memo, I am sending you certain recommendations and procedures, which you might take into consideration before deciding to fire off Mr. Breathes from this organization. I would like to mention in this regard that the management lacks to plot his ignorance errors without firm evidence and feels firing him without cause or prior notice to be weak under ethical reasons. Moreover, the management also feels that firing Mr. Breathes shall be of marginal loss to the company. However, based on the recommendations, which I have sent, you can take appropriate actions against him in order to force him towards improvising his work performance. At the foremost, you can give him a prior intimation about the level of managerial in-satisfaction due to this declining performance rates. Accordingly, conducting a meeting, you can describe him about the level of commitment, which the management expects from him. You can also project the amount of financial and performance losses, which the company is currently enduring due to the incapability of Mr. Breathes to make him conscious regarding his job roles and responsibilities. Moreover, you can also take the support from the rest of the company’s managing group personnel and strategically motivate him towards scheduling of the interpersonal and brainstorming training programs, which you have recommended to him for upgrading his work performance. Despite of these recommendations, even if Mr. Breathes fails to follow up the expected levels then you might even suspend him without pay on a weekly or monthly basis. To be noted, the choice of termination should be the ultimate decision only if the suspension step appears ineffective in terms of improvising his performance level. Accordingly, as a final solution, you can provide him with a written warning that the management will be holding the right to fire him without cause based on the negative performance appraisal markings. Regards, HR Staff ------------------------------ 5). Creation of A Legally Defensible Termination Letter for Mr. Breathes Strictly Confidential Date: Wed, 26 March 2014 15:45:01 -0400 Name: Dennis Breathes Designation: Manager, Quality Projects. Dear Dennis Breathes, This is to inform you about the termination of your employment, which will be effective from 1st April 2014. Your termination has been decided on the grounds of ignorance and discommitment projected by you in terms of your organizational duties and expected performance levels. The management has also sustained budgetary loss due to your incapability towards improvising your performance levels despite of repeated intimations provided to you from the management and top authorities. The management will provide you with all your pending dues along with other compensatory package, the details of which have been mentioned in the Termination Agreement. The payment packages will be as per the industrial standards. The packages, which will be provided, are open for your review and acceptance until 31st March 2014. If you have any query, regarding the information provided in this letter, please contact the HRD department. Yours sincerely, NAME: HR Staff Attachments (if any) I, ______________________, hereby accept the terms set out in the Termination Agreement, in full and final satisfaction of any claims that I may have. _______________________________________ _______________ Signature Date 6). Requirements and setting for the employee’s termination meeting. Conduction of termination meetings is vital to protect the company’s interests and the employees’ right to information. Multiple companies mandate the conduction of these sorts of meetings in order to clarify the doubts possessed by the employees who are being terminated (HR 360, n.d.). Majority of the organizational managers try avoiding these sorts of programs since maximum chances exists that a conflict might ignite between the ex-employee and the company’s management post-termination. However, these meetings are compulsory as the terminated employee may even file a lawsuit against the company without proper understanding of the reasons to his/her termination, causing disciplinary costs to the company and inhibiting its reputation at a larger scale (Snyder, 2005; HR 360, n.d.). In this provided case also, an effective termination meeting should be conducted before firing off Dennis Breathes in order to explain him the reasons resulting in his termination including the amount of budgetary losses endured by this company on his behalf (Feider, 2009). Through this meeting, the company will also have to explain the areas of ignorance projected by Mr. Breathes so that he does not rise up any sort of law-suit against this company. Moreover, the setup for the employee termination meeting should be held with adequate confidentiality within the organizational premises, so that the company materials and employee records can be easily accessed if felt necessary. The timing factors should also be kept in mind when conducting the meetings. Emphasis is also required to be given to those portions of the day when the employee’s pressure seems to be minimal to avoid chances of conflicts possible when the employee is under stress or pressure. Moreover, the communication should be carried out in a face-to-face manner along with a respectful attitude towards the employee along with handing over the termination letter, to avoid certain negative responses from the employee side (Brown, 2013; Feider, 2009). Conclusion Through the effective evaluation of the provided case, it can be stated that Mr. Dennis Breathes, currently designated as Manager, Quality Projects has been found ignoring his responsibilities and incapable to perform as per the expected performance levels indicating towards his intentional fallacies. Apparently, his performance lacunas have been affecting the overall performance of the company as noted by his immediate supervisor, Mr. Fordsucks. The ignorance list has been further elaborated in the above description. Based on these ignorance data collected by the management against Mr. Breathes, the company currently holds the right to terminate his tenure from the organisation. However, the company and the top-level management might still tend towards utilizing the HRD recommendations with the expectation of certain improvement in his work performance emphasising his prior performance standard observed during 2009. Firing an experienced employee has always been considered as a loss to the companies and thus, this organization should look for the alternatives before firing off Mr. Breathes. References Brown, J. (2013). 9 steps for conducting an employee termination meeting. Retrieved from http://www.peopletactics.com/9-steps-for-conducting-an-employee-termination-meeting/ Forbes.com LLC, (2012). 3 steps that make correcting your employees easier. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2012/04/04/3-steps-that-make-correcting-your-employees-easier/ Feider, D. A. (2009). The seven “w’s” of the employee termination meeting. Washington Healthcare News, 4(6), 1-2. Hall, A. T. (2011). Managing and Responding to Poor Employee Performance. Employee and Labor Relations, pp. 1-31. HR 360, (n.d.). Termination meetings. Retrieved from http://www.hr360.com/Termination/Termination-Meetings.aspx Loyola University Chicago, (2014). Progressive Discipline. Retrieved from http://www.luc.edu/hr/policy_progdiscipline.shtm Queens Printer for Ontario, (2009). Termination of employment. Retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/guide/termination.php Snyder, J.A. (2005). Planning for and conducting termination meetings. First Wednesday — A Monthly Discussion of Employment Law Issues and Other Hot Topics for Management, (34), 1-3. University of South Florida, (n.d.). Performance Management. Overview of Performance Management, pp. 1-2. Read More