Chapter 10: Managing Employee Performance

10.1 Handling Performance

Types of Performance Issues
1. Constantly late or leaves early- flexible schedules help with managing work and life, but
some people take advantage of this and work at home and/or perform nonwork-related
tasks instead
2. Too much time spent doing personal things at work- computer and phone overuse at work
3. Inability to handle proprietary info- keeping client and patient info private
4. Family issues- child care, divorce, etc. ca cause absences and poor work quality
5. Drug and alcohol abuse- less productive and missing work.
6. Nonperforming- not performing at 100%; motivational issues or lack of tools to do their
job
7. Conflicts with management and other employees
8. Theft
9. Ethical breaches- lying, withholding info, abusive behavior, and misreporting time and
hours worked
10. Harassment
11. Employee conduct outside the workplace- violations on personal blogs or FB
What Influences Performance?
 Example of internal factors for poor performance:
o Career goals are not being met with the job.
o There is conflict with other employees or the manager
o The goals or expectations are not in line with the employee’s abilities
o The employee views unfairness in the workplace
o The employee manages time poorly
o The employee is dissatisfied with the job.
 Examples of external factors for poor performance:
o The employee doesn’t have correct equipment or tools to perform the job
o The job design is incorrect
o External motivation factors are absent
o There is a lack of management support
o The employee’s skills and job are mismatched.

Defining Discipline
 Discipline- process that corrects undesirable behavior
o Should help employee meet performance expectations
 Effective discipline process needs rules and policies to be in place and communicated to
all employees, so they know expectations. Guidelines for creations of rules:
o All rules or procedures should be in a written document
 o Rules should be related to safety and productivity of the organization
o Rules should be written clearly, so no ambiguity occurs between different
managers
o Supervisors, managers, and human resources should communicate rules clearly in
orientation, training, and via other methods
o Rules should be revised periodically, as the organization’s needs change.
 Maintain consistency
 Wrongful termination- employer fired or laid off an employee for illegal reasons
o To avoid, a consistent approach to managing employee performance is crucial

The Role of the Performance Appraisal in Discipline

 At least an annual basis
Performance Issue Model
 Five areas
o Mandated issue is serious and must be addressed immediately
 Goes beyond the co. and could be a law
 Needs to be handled quickly
 Written policy on how this would be handled is necessary
 May go through training again or have a written warning
o Single incident
 Solved with a casual conversation letting employee know what they did
wasn’t appropriate
 Look at it as an opportunity for employee
 Coaching and working with employee on issue, so it never happens
again or become a habit
o Behavior Pattern
 Employee doesn’t believe it’s important because it hasn’t been corrected
 May not even realize it is wrong at this point
 Must talk with employee and let them know what is expected
 Persistent pattern- corrected for behavior, but continues to exhibit the
same behavior
 Let them know further action will be taken if it continues
 Could be a different problem and can try to root it out
 Continual behavior can go to progressive discipline process before
initiating an employee separation
Investigation of Performance Issues
 Proper documentation is necessary should the employee be terminated later for the issue
o Includes:
 Date of incident
  Time of incident
 Location (if applicable) of incident
 A description of the performance issue
 Notes on the discussion with the employee on the performance issue
 An improvement plan, if necessary
 Next steps, should the employee commit the same infraction
 Signatures from both the manager and employee
o This helps with future infractions
 Investigative interview- make sure employee is aware of the discipline issue
o Gives employee opportunity to explain their side of the story
o Conducted in private
o Unionized organizations = employee is entitled to union representation
 Interest based bargaining- mutual interests are brought up and discussed,
rather than each party coming to the table with a list of demands

Options for Handling Performance Issues

 Progressive discipline process- series of steps taking corrective action on nonperformance
issues
o Useful if not serious and doesn’t demand immediate dismissal
o Should be documented and applied to all employees committing same offense
 Steps:
o First offense: Unofficial verbal warning. Counseling and restatement of expectations
o Second offense: Official written warning, documented in employee file
o Third offense: Second official warning. Improvement plan (discussed later) may be
developed. Documented in employee file
o Fourth offense: Possible suspension or other punishment, documented in employee file
o Fifth offense: Termination and/or alternative dispute resolution.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)- two parties coming to a resolution
 Unbiased party looks at facts in bas and tries to help the parties come to an agreement
 Mediation- third party facilitates the resolution process
o Non-binding for either party
 Arbitration- person reviews case and makes a resolution or decision on the situation
 Lower cost and flexibility
 Step review system- issue is reviewed by consecutively higher levels of management,
should there be a disagreement by the employee in a discipline procedure
 Peer resolution system- committee of management and employees is formed to review
employee complaints or discipline issues
o Peer group reviewing the documentation and deciding
 Ombudsman system- type of ADR. Person is selected to be the designated individual for
employees to go to should have a complaint or issue with the discipline procedure
o Utilizes problem solving approach to resolve issue
Employee Separation
 Can happen in any of these scenarios
o Resigns and leaves organization
o Employee is terminated for one or more performance issues
o Absconding- employee decides to leave without resigning and following the
normal process
Employee Separation and Layoffs
 Resignation- employee chooses to leave the org.
o Normally will provide manager with a formal resignation email
o HR schedules an exit interview
 Can be an informal confidential discussion why employee is leaving
 Can see if there’s an issue that can be fixed
o Works with manager to determine a plan for workload
 May prefer to leave immediately and redistribute workload
o Two weeks’ notice is normal standard time for resignation
 Termination
o Documentation is necessary
 Occurs in progressive discipline process
o Performance appraisals, improvement plans, and other performance warnings
should be available before meeting with employee
 Reliability and validity of performance appraisals should be checked
before dismissing an employee based upon them
o Severance package- can include pay, benefits, and other compensation for which
can employee is entitled when they leave
 Purpose is to assist employee while they look for other employment
 Absconded employee
o Contact person
o Three days and unreachable
 Stop pay and seek legal help to recover any co. items person has
Rightsizing and Layoffs
 Rightsizing- reducing the total size of employees to ultimately save on costs
o Aspects to be considered
 Temporary?
 Other ways to cut expenses?
 Offering temporary sabbaticals, voluntary retirement, or changing from
full-time to part-time position
 Some employees may be willing to take a temporary pay cut to reduce
costs
  Articulating reasons for layoffs and establishing a formalize approach to layoffs is the
first consideration
o Criteria that determines which jobs will be cut makes it more fair
 Making it ahead of time and can also help avoid biases
o Meet with management and decide who does or doesn’t meet criteria
 Discuss severance packages
 When employee signs for package, should also sign a form that
releases the org. from all future claims made by the employee
o Communication plans as to how the layoffs will be announced
 Initial email
 Speak with each employee separately and then announce which positions
were eliminated
 Important is keeping your employees’ dignity
 They didn’t do anything wrong to their job- it was just a result of
circumstances
10.2 Employee Rights- ability to receive fair treatment from employers
Job Protection Rights
 Employee-at-will principle (EAW)- right of an employer to fire an employee or an
employee to leave an organization at any time, without any specific cause.
o Gives the employee and employer freedom to terminate the relationship at any
time
o Exceptions:
 Public Policy Exception- cannot fire if it would violate the individual
state’s doctrine or statute
 Ex: employee being fired for refusing to violate state or federal law
 Implied Contract Exception- discharged employee can prove that the
employer indicated that the employee has job security
 Good Faith and Fear Dealing Exception- discharged employee contends
that he was not treated fairly
o Wrongful Discharge- discharge as a result of discrimination, an implied contract
between the employee and employer, violation of public policy, or lack of good
faith if there is a lack of good faith and fair dealing in the firing.
 Must be prepared to defend the termination of an employee
 Whistleblowing- employee’s telling the public about ethical or legal violations at their
organization
 Avoid implying an employee has a contract with the organization
 Constructive Discharge- employee resigned because the work conditions were so
intolerable that they had no choice, but to leave.
o Ex: sexual harassment and needs to leave
 Can go to court and receive back pay and other compensation
  Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)- requires organizations
with more than 100 employees to give employees and their communities at least 60 days’
notice of closure or layoff affecting 50 or more full-time employees.
o Not apply for unforeseeable business circumstances
o Not apply for workers who have been with organization less than 6 months
 Retaliatory Discharge- punishment of an employee for engaging in protected activity like
discrimination charge.
Privacy Rights
 Monitoring employee’s online activities
o Can be very expensive
 Monitoring employee postings on external websites
o FB, Twitter, etc.
o Should only be done if the employee has consented
 Sometimes employees don’t need to share something negative about their company on
social media to lose their job.
 US Patriot Act
o Provide private employee info when requested
o Have clear co. policy and a signed waiver from employees stating they understand
their activities may be monitored and info shared with the US Gov’t under the
Patriot Act
 Investigation of possible terrorist activity
 Depending on where you live, you may have right to see personnel files and correct any
info w/on the files.
o Medical and Disability info is separate from employee’s work file (Americans
with Disabilities Act)
o HIPAA mandates that health info should be private
 Drug testing
o Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988- some federal contractors and all federal
grantees must agree they will provide a drug-free workplace
 ADA does not view testing for illegal drug use as a medical examination
(making them legal)
 People using drugs are not protected under ADA
 Can take medications directly related to their disability under ADA
rights
o If heavy machinery is operated, frequent drug testing may be a requirement
 Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act- employees are required to
test for drugs in transportation related businesses.
Labor Unions
 Union- organization of employees formed to bargain with an employer
 o Labor contracts often guide the process for layoffs and discipline
o Cannot interfere with the formation of union and discriminating based on union
membership
o Gives an individual a group of people to bargain with against employer
 Negotiation of salary, benefits, working hours, etc.
 Many employers feel it is not in the best interest of the org. to unionize, so they will
engage in strategies to prevent unionization.
o Can express their views about unions, but cannot threaten employees with the loss
of job or any benefits if they unionize
 Collective Bargaining Process- negotiating an agreement between management and
employees.
o compromises
 Interest-Based Bargaining- mutual interests are brought up and discussed, rather than
each party coming to the table with a list of demands
o Win-win situation for both
 When agreement is decided, union members vote whether to accept the new contract
o If accepted, next is to look at how to administer agreement:
 1st- HR must know the contract well
 May need help to develop new sets of policies and procedures
 Grievance process- formal way by which employees can submit a
complaint regarding something that is not administered correctly in
the contract.
o Involves discussions with direct supervisors first and then
the union representative next, then filing of a formal written
grievance complaint.
o Required to provide a written response to grievance and
depending on the collective bargaining agreement:
 A formalized process is stated on how the appeals
process would work, should it be solved by
management