SEPARATION AND TERMINATION POLICIES
State on how to Manage Separation and Termination Assignment……………..
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC PAGE
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………..3
TERMINATION/SEPARATION POLICIES………………………………………………3
IMPLEMENTATION……………………………………………………………………………6
REDUNDANCY PLAN……………………………………………………………………..…..6
TASK 2…………………………………………………………………………………………….…8
PURPOSE AND BENEFIT OF AN EXIT INTERVIEW…………………………..…..9
ANALYSIS OF DATA……………………………………………………………………………9
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….…….11
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………..…….13
INTRODUCTION
Many companies being established today are growing quickly due to the advancement of technology and good management practices. They hire more staff to meet all their operations requirements but a time comes when due to external factors like low sales volumes and high competition they are required to downsize their workforce to meet optimal operational standards. The company will need a comprehensive policy on how to carry out the exercise without compromising the welfare of the employees or violating any existing legislation .This is because such an issue can make the affected staff seek legal redress and this can damage the reputation and business name of the company.
Qwikmail Company will need a concrete document that will act as a guide to its fifty employees and the management will continuously refer to it in making decisions that pertain to separation or termination.
TERMINATION/SEPARATION
This is usually of two kinds;
Voluntary termination
This is where the decision to stop working for the company is made by the employee. The first way is through resignation where an employee is required to give notice to the employer about his/her intention. Salaried employees should give a written notice of four weeks while the ones paid on hourly basis should give a written notice of two weeks (Fitz, 1995). However a member of staff who quits work on medical grounds is not supposed to give notice since this is non-intentional. The medical reports should also be copied to the Manager of the company. Such an employee will be entitled to full benefits. Giving notice is important because the employee will have left work on good standing and such employees are normally available for re-hire.
The other way of voluntary termination isthrough job abandonment where an employee quits work at the company without giving notice (Dave, 2001). An employee who stops working this way puts the company at risk of losing his output and he should pay the company an amount of money equivalent to his wages for either two weeks or four weeks based on the notice he was supposed to give.
Involuntary Termination
This is where the company resolves to terminate the employment contract of a worker or workers. This is usually due to misconduct, layoffs, position elimination, redundancies, discharge for underperformance and non-renewal of contracts. An employee is guilty of misconduct if he commits or is accused of any of the following offences;
Insubordination. This is where an employee refuses to perform a given task assigned to him by his /her supervisor without any reason.
An employee who gave false documents when being recruited by the company and later it is known that he was recruited on the basis of fake documents.
Negligence. This is where an employee makes the company incur losses due to poor performance of tasks, not seeking directions, not paying attention to detail or being arrogant.
Use of drugs when at work or working under the influence of drugs. This can endanger the life of the user and the colleagues in the workplace. The company is allowed to perform health and fitness tests through their medical professionals.
Working under the influence of alcohol and reporting to work when drunk. This will lower the output of the worker and the company may not reach its targets. It also endangers the colleagues in the workplace.
Breaking the country laws which lead to incarceration in a court of law leading to missing five working days consecutively.
Fighting, threat of physical violence or physical violence within the company premises whether during or after working hours.
Being involved in any acts that may defame or malign the company’simage to the general public.
Deserting work without permission from your supervisor.
Any other act which the management will construe to be an act of misconduct.
Lay off of any employee will require the management to give a four weeks written notice and also grant the employee a terminal leave upon whose expiry the layoff will be effected.Layoffs are normally caused by lack of work that the employee can competitively do or lack of enough capacity and resources in the company to continue engaging the person(Reddington,2003). The company should always liaise with the labor office to ensure full compliance with the prevailing laws that change from time to time.
Position Elimination may be due to the company losing funds from regular donors that force it to carry out organizational structural changes that eliminates the position. The company will give the employee a written notice of four weeks.
The employees who are leaving the company will be required to fill an employee separation sheet (Bratton, 2006) which will contain the following details; last day worked, reason for separation and any terminal leave days to be paid. The supervisor will be required to sign plus other managers of the company. The discharged employee can use these documents when he is seeking employment elsewhere.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICIES
After the preparation of these policies and procedures they will be tabled in a management meeting for further scrutiny and approval. The managers will give their input on areas they feel have not been adequately covered. It will then be upon the management to adopt the regulations and mandate the Human Resources Department to give employees copies of the document so that they can study it and not be victims. The department will also give a copy of these regulations to the respective labor union that covers the employees of this company. A copy of the regulations will also be given to the respective government department that deals with employee relations.
REDUNDANCY PLAN
Since the company has resolved to lay off twenty of its employees, it must come up with an elaborate plan on how to carry out the exercise;
The management must first identify the pool or department targeted for redundancy (Frost, 2010). This is the area which has mainly been involved in mail delivery which following loss of business majority of them has been left with no duties to perform.The human resource department will initiate a consultative process where the workers who were mainly involved in mail delivery will be informed that they are at risk of being laid off. The workers will then be continuously updatedthrough meetings on the developments and in these meetings they can be accompanied by their union representatives. The minutes of these meetings should be kept very well as they will form the basis of defense should any aggrieved employee sue the company.
The company should discuss the proposals in detail with the employees and let them know of the redeployment plans in place and the options available to each employee. The company should not talk of any or keep a list of the employees to be laid off. The employees should be informed that it is the job or the role the employee was engaged to do that has become redundant. The company will then go ahead to identify the specific staff to be laid off. They can use the staff appraisal methods that are based on the particular performance of individual employees. Those who have been performing poorly are the ones identified for layoff. After identifying the individuals, they should be given a four week written notice as per the rules of the company.
The company can then start processing their benefits and can also assist them get placements in other companies where their services may be needed.
TASK 2
The decision by the management to terminate Rachel’s employment must be done in full compliance with the law;
The management should give Rachel a written notice of termination of her services as per the employment contract.
They should then notify the overall Manager of the company of their intention and the reasons behind it.
The management should ensure the termination will not be harsh, unjust or unreasonable and complies with the labor laws that govern settlement of disputes and grievances.
They should also make sure they have exhausted avenues on employee counseling and warnings of disciplinary action. This is as agreed in existing collective bargaining agreements between labor unions and employer.
The company can avoid such occurrences by giving very clear and easy to understand job descriptions(Becker,2006). An employee when being engaged by the company should be given a clear orientation on the specific details of the requirements. The job description will list all the responsibilities of the employee in order of priority. It will also detail the reporting structure and will clearly inform the employee where to seek directions and guidance in case of any problem. This will eliminate cases like the one of Rachel who collides with the boss severally.
PURPOSE AND BENEFITS OF AN EXIT INTERVIEW
The interview helps the management hear the grievances of those leaving the company. This makes sure that the disgruntled employees have a chance to be heard and those who may have had vengeful intentions usually make peace with the managers. The interviews also provide an opportunity for the managers to be criticized in their implementation of the company’spolicies. This helps the managers to understand more the work of managing people(Caroline,2007) and this also provides quality feedback which is of importance in the company’s forward planning. They also offer a chance to the management to retain a valuable employee who they could otherwise have lost. This is because instead of relying on a letter to dismiss an employee, this face to face meeting makes the management know the clear and specific reason a person is leaving the company.They also provide the management with important data on the training needs and areas in the organization. These interviews also embolden the company’s image to the public. Not many companies will entertain criticism but through this process an employee leaving feels he has been offered an opportunity to fully express himself and give his personal view of the process.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
The organization should use the Strategic Human Resource Model (Grobler, 2000) to analyse the data and come up with clear objectives. This is because of the ineffectiveness of the adopted policies which can cripple the operations of the organization. The model has six stages:
Environmental Analysis
The organization should know the factors in the surrounding that influence the nature of its business. Why can’t they pay their employees competitive wages commensurate with other companies? Why are many employees not enjoying their job?
The answers will make them know whether it is their production procedures that are outdated(Morley,2005) and maybe they need to acquire new machinery and alter their procedures.
Organization Mission and Goal Analysis
They should redefine their mission and goals and evaluate whether they are in line with their operations. They are not retaining any capacity when majority of the employees serve for only two years and leave. An organization without experience cannot compete optimally in the market.
Analysis of Organization strengths and culture
The management will need to focus on areas where the organization is fully endowed and maximize on that. The organization will need to motivate their staff by offering better wages and also training to ensure quality.
Analysis of the organizations strategies
The company may be required to overhaul its current strategies on human resource management and production to stem the high rates of redundancy after a short period of service. This is due to the low morale in the workplace and a lot of exits. Their production procedures may also need review to stem many redundancies. Also the working conditions will need to be improved to ensure the safety of the workers in their workplaces.
Choice and Implementation of Human Resource Strategies
The methods used to choose these strategies will require deep review by the management. They should be in line with the company’sgoals and objectives (Hattfield, 1998). There should also be a clear follow up on the implementation by the various sections in the organization.
Review and Evaluation of Human Resource Strategies
There should be periodical review of the progress of implementation of the new strategies put in place by the organization. This will involve the various departmental heads reporting on the progresses achieved, obstacles noted and giving input on the way forward.
CONCLUSION
The importance of an organization having good human resource policies and procedures is very important. They determine to a great extent how the company will achieve its goals and objectives both in the short run and in the long run. This calls for companies to strengthen their human resource departments through adequate budgetary allocations, so that they can fully be in a position to formulate clear functions and descriptions of the various offices and levels in the organization. They will also set the targets and goals for each department and be able to measure whether they have been achieved or not. This will help companies remain competitive and not be faced with industrial strikes, staff go slows and acts of sabotage in the workplace. Failure to do this the company will be risking a great deal because the other management functions can collapse. The company will be operating without a department that can gauge their relevance in the industry and advice on the best way forward.
References
Becker,E (2006), Human Resources: The Business Partner, Wicks Publishers Ltd, P.51
Bratton, J (2006), Human Resource Management Theory and Practice, West Group Printers Ltd, P.22
Caroline, H (2007), Introduction to Human Resource Management, Cambridge Press, P.22
Dave, H (2001), The Human Resource Value Proposition, Ridim Press Ltd, P.74
Fitz, J (1995), Measuring Human Resource Management, Grog Educational Publishers, P.16
Frost, P (2010), Management and Organizational Behavior, Edin Publishing House, P.41
Grobler, P (2000), Managing Human Resource Policies, Freidburg Press Ltd, P.9
Hattfield,D (1998) ,People Management Practices , Abert Books, P.34
Morley, M (2005),Employment Termination Procedures, Shavew Printers, P.6
Reddington, M (2003), Transforming Human Resources, Redton Books, P.82
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