Recruitment and Disciplinary Action - Essay Example

Recruitment and Disciplinary Action When recruiting maintenance staff within a educational it is essential that human resources develop a system of determining the correct qualifications that individuals have in order to be hired. This is important because it allows for the hiring of only the most qualified staff while at the same time creating an environment where there are lower turnover rates than they are currently. In order to lower turnover rates, it is important that during the hiring process, potential employees are made to understand what is required of them in conducting their duties as well as being given the opportunity to prove that they have the knowledge necessary to ensure that they do their jobs well and successfully. It is also necessary for human resources to develop an efficient system which can be used to identify all issues in the maintenance department and to come up with solutions for them before these issues get out of hand; creating high turnover rates. As the Vice President of Human Resources at Community State University, it is my task to ensure that all disciplinary actions within the maintenance staff are carried out effectively. This can be done through checking with the maintenance manager to see what disciplinary action he has taken towards individuals who have been found to be working in contravention with the guidelines set for them. Once I have confirmed that the proper form of action has been taken towards an employee, it is essential to ensure that he receives counseling so that he is made to understand why his conduct has led to high turnover rates as well as a lack of efficiency in the department (Tett and Meyer, 1993). The employee would further need to undergo a couching process and after this is done, written disciplinary action has to be enforced in such a manner that the employee understands that it is meant to ensure that he corrects his ways. After a reasonable amount of time, I will have to follow up on the issue and if there are no improvements in the sector, it will be necessary to begin the process which will lead to the employee being removed from the maintenance department as a result of lack of competence. Under these circumstances, it will be necessary to consult with the manager so that he can be advised concerning the problem in order for him to open up lines of communication that will lead to direct consultation between him and the employee or employees. An advantage of this procedure is that it will ensure that employees are able to report directly to the manager about the problems that they might be experiencing which are bringing up the issue creating high turnover rates. It is also necessary to confirm with the manager whether he has taken proper action in counseling the staff under his authority to ensure that the problem has been addressed properly. A disadvantage is that counseling might be perceived by employees as a form of punishment and victimization and might lead to their not being cooperative in ensuring that their performance is improved. Therefore, it is essential that counseling employees should be conducted in a manner which brings the manager and employees to the same level so that the latter can address issues directly without the fear of either being punished or fired for their openness. During counseling sessions, especially in the beginning, employees have to be made to understand that they are free to express themselves because these sessions are meant not to victimize them, but to ensure that there is improvement in their performance. In addition, the manager has to make sure that when counseling employees, there are no other issues which are not immediately obvious that might be contributing to performance problems in the department and that if there are, they need to be addressed swiftly. One advantage of counseling before taking any disciplinary action is that is allows employees to reflect on their behavior and gives them an opportunity to improve their performance. However, if the counseling sessions with employees seem not to have worked, it opens the way for the next step which is couching. This is a procedure where the employees are made aware of the lack of improvement in their performance and that if this situation continues, then steps will be taken to ensure their termination (Haggerty, 2011). Couching is a situation where employees are warned concerning the lack of changes in their behavior and know that if they do not change for the better, they are likely to be terminated from the workplace. It is a formal warning which, despite any form of punishment not being taken, allows employees to reflect on their behavior and gives them an opportunity to develop changes in their behavior that will help in improving performance at the workplace. It is essential because employees are allowed to deal with the issues affecting them so that they do not find management at fault in case their jobs are terminated. In case couching does not work in improving their performance, employees are aware that termination is what is most likely to follow, hence there can be no disputes concerning how they were fired. However, couching has a disadvantage because there are instances where employees’ behavior might be affected by working conditions rather than by their actual lack of discipline. Under these circumstances, some employees who have been couched might choose not to do anything to improve their behavior, especially where they cannot get out of their contract to find work elsewhere. They end up continuing with their low performance because it creates a situation where they force the hand of the institution to begin the process leading to their termination. The failure of couching in improving the behavior and performance of employees leads to the termination process which allows the manager to remove the employees from their positions in the maintenance department. An advantage of termination is that during this process, employees who have undergone couching have to be made aware of the reasons why they are being terminated. These reasons include their low performance, as well as their not taking any serious steps towards changing their behavior. Furthermore, these individuals have to be made aware of the steps that have been taken to ensure that they are helped through the issues affecting them and how they have not responded to these efforts in a positive manner. This process allows employees to realize that human resources has taken all necessary steps to help them and that it is their own fault for not following the advice given and changing their behavior for the better. Therefore, no other choice is left to management other than to let them go because their being retained would mean that the institution will continue to incur losses due to low performance which does not allow it to continue sustaining these employees. Once the termination process has been completed, the behavior issues within the maintenance department will have been taken care of since the remaining employees will learn from the mistakes of the others and attempt to improve their own performance. There are instances where institutions tend not to inform employees of the reasons behind their termination and this leads to their having unwanted lawsuits based on unlawful termination. This creates a dilemma because if it loses the case, it might end up potentially paying large sums of money as compensation to terminated employees. Furthermore, there are instances where it is not possible for the manager to follow this procedure for all employees and some employees end up being terminated without undergoing it. This creates a dilemma because other employees might end up believing that the manager is being discriminatory, favoring some over others (Rosen, 2014). Under such circumstances, it is possible that the manager might end up losing the respect of his staff and this might also bring about an increase in turnover rather than the opposite and more desirable effect. Once the disciplinary matter has been handled, it would also be essential to tackle the high turnover rates within the institution. High turnover is usually caused by the lack of satisfaction by employees in their jobs (Lee, Gerhart, Weller, and Trevor, 2008). However, if there were several employees who were inciting others to become dissatisfied to such an extent that they quit their jobs, then the disciplinary action stated above should effectively tackle the problem. However, in case there are other underlying issues that might bring about job dissatisfaction and lack of motivation among employees, these need to be addressed swiftly. Among the most prominent issues that might need to be addressed are long working hours and poor working conditions which more often than not lead to high turnover as employees choose to voluntarily quit so that they can take advantage of better opportunities elsewhere. An advantage of reducing high turnover rates through undertaking initiatives aimed at improving working conditions as well as boosting the morale of employees to such an extent that they opt to remain within the institution. A high morale among employees within the maintenance department allows for the improvement of their performance because they are able to work harder with few complaints, to ensure that they have performed their duties. High turnover rates can hurt the institution because it is often quite expensive and time consuming to go through the process of recruiting and training new staff within short periods. Furthermore, employees who choose to remain within the institution are left with the burden of carrying out maintenance duties until such a time as more employees are recruited and trained so that they can take up these jobs. While high turnover can be addressed through improving working conditions as well as increasing the pay of employees or compensating them especially in conditions where they have to work for long hours, to solve this problem can be terribly expensive for the institution (Ruby, 2002). This is because conducting all of these activities needs considerable amounts of money in order to be addressed. In most cases, maintaining a highly motivated workforce requires massive investment in facilities in addition to salaries, a circumstance which is often difficult for educational institutions. Furthermore, keeping turnover rates low might require that the institution turns a blind eye to many disciplinary matters that might arise in the maintenance department. This is a condition which might not work well for the institution because there will be a worsening of the performance problem since many of the employees will not be held accountable for their actions. Therefore, it is essential for the institution to create a balance between lowering turnover as well as an environment where the observance of the guidelines and rules set is paramount. In case there are employees who are blatantly violating the rules of the institution, these individuals have to be terminated because their actions are against the conditions to which they agreed when they were recruited. In conclusion, a progressive type of disciplinary action has to be taken to ensure that the behavior of employees within the maintenance department is improved. The discussion above has shown that the issues affecting the performance of employees have to be addressed through direct communication and counseling sessions. Furthermore, if these procedures do not work, employees have to be given another opportunity to improve their behavior through the couching process and when this does not work, they can then be terminated. The discussion has also shown that it is essential to address high turnover through the development of a proper working environment for employees so that they can be encouraged to stay. These include the provision of proper equipment to use in their work, higher pay, and compensation whenever they are required to work for longer hours. Finally, there is need for a balance between disciplinary action taken against employees who violate the rules and the development of an environment which motivates employees to improve their performance. This helps the institution to not only curb the high expenditure incurred during recruitment and training of new staff while at the same time allowing employees to have an easier time in the workplace, hence better performance. References Haggerty, M. (2011, May 6). Business ethics. CQ Researcher, 21, 409-432. Lee, T. H., Gerhart, B., Weller, I., & Trevor, C. O. (2008). Understanding voluntary turnover: Path-specific job satisfaction effects and the importance of unsolicited job offers. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 651-671. Rosen, A. (2014, May 9). School discipline. CQ Researcher, 24, 409-432. Ruby, A.M. (2002). Internal Teacher Turnover in Urban Middle School Reform. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 7(4), 379–406. Tett, R.P & Meyer, J.P. (1993). Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Turnover Intention, and Turnover: Path Analyses Based on Meta-Analytic Findings. Personnel Psychology, 46(2), 259–293. Read More