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SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: GUIDLINES TO CONSIDER WHEN TERMINATING AN EMPLOYEE

September 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 3

Silkin Management Group’s first two articles on termination guidelines can be found on this Silkin Management Group blog site and at the following Silkin Management Group site, which you can link to here: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/.

In a previous Silkin Management Group series of articles we discussed things to consider when you are considering employee termination. We presented ideas on what Silkin Management Group consultants recommend to Silkin Management Group clients on this matter. In this new series we are covering guidelines to bear in mind once you have actually decided to terminate the employee under consideration. These are guidelines that Silkin Management Group consultants go over with their Silkin Management Group clients, especially clients new to the Silkin Management Group program.

As previously noted, all of this information can be found in Silkin Management Group’s copyrighted Job Description and Office Policy Manual that all new Silkin Management Group clients receive as part of their Silkin Management Group program. Silkin Management Group’s 400 plus page manual can be easily edited for any office and is something all Silkin Management Group consultants ensure is implemented with Silkin Management Group clients. In today’s litigious world, having proper policies in place, and following them, is vitally important.

Here are several more guidelines to keep in mind when discharging an employee:

• When the Employee Begs: If an employee begs for a second chance, you have got to be tough. Be willing to explain things but don’t give the slightest indication that you are flexible in your decision.
• Arguing the Reasons: Don’t argue with the employee. Indicate that you have the specific documentation supporting the decision. On the other hand, if the employee’s argument convinces you that something has been overlooked, indicate you will check it out as quickly as possible and do so.

We will present more guidelines for termination in upcoming Silkin Management Group blogs.

Eric Korb
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Find out more about Silkin Management Group at http://silkinmanagementgroup.ning.com/.



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SILKIN MANAGEMENTGROUP: STAFF CORRECTION, GUIDELINES TO TERMINATE

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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PART 2

Silkin Management Group’s initial article on termination guidelines can be found at Silkin Management Group’s blog site which you can link to here: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/?p=28
.

In previous articles on this and other Silkin Management Group blog sites we went over how to handle a sequence of offenses committed by a staff member and what Silkin Management Group consultants recommend to Silkin Management Group clients on this matter. In this new series of articles we are going over key guidelines that consultants at Silkin Management Group go over with their clients when looking at terminating an employee. These guidelines can also be found in Silkin Management Group’s copyrighted Job Description and Office Policy Manual that all new Silkin Management Group clients receive.

The first two guidelines mentioned in Silkin Management Group’s August 25th article were: a) being aware if the employee was part of a protected group and b) making sure you had a good, defensible paper trail.

Here are several more termination guidelines or points to keep in mind that we go over with Silkin Management Group clients:

• Remaining Staff Morale: Make sure you look at what impact would failing to terminate have on morale as well as what impact terminating the employee would have on office morale. Silkin Management Group consultants look at this closely.

• Shooting From the Hip: Are you just trying to get rid of someone you don’t like or does the evidence justify dismissal? Silkin Management Group clients are taught to evaluate this.

As mentioned many times before in Silkin Management Group blog articles on this subject, make sure you have job descriptions and office policies in place as your first step of basic business management in the area of human resources. :

We will present more guidelines for termination decisions in upcoming Silkin Management Group blogs.

Gary Crawshaw
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Find out more about Silkin Management Group at http://silkinmanagementgroup.ning.com/.



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SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: SUGGESTIONS ON STAFF CORRECTION

August 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 4

Silkin Management Group’s blog articles on staff correction, parts 1 and 3 can be found on this site: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/ while part 2 can be found on the Silkin Management Group blog site you are presently on.

The initial Silkin Management Group article discussed what to do on a first offense with a staff member, parts 2 and 3 went over what to do on second and third offenses. We emphasize again here, as we did in the earlier Silkin Management Group articles, the incredible importance of having proper office policies and job descriptions in place in order to properly deal with staff. You can easily put yourself in a legal quagmire if you attempt to discipline staff without these in place.

As mentioned in the earlier Silkin Management Group blogs, new Silkin Management Group clients infrequently have proper job descriptions and office policies in place. Therefore Silkin Management Group clients are provided with Silkin Management Group’s 400 plus page manual of office policies and job descriptions for each position in the office as part of their Silkin Management Group program.

What do you do with a staff member that you have corrected three times? You’ve already given them a written warning, discussed that continued violations could result in suspension or dismissal and you find them doing it again. At this point Silkin Management Group recommends to Silkin Management Group clients to check their production record (although you should have done that already as part of correcting earlier violations). Silkin Management Group institutes with all new Silkin Management Group clients simple statistical methods to keep track of key production metrics for each staff member and the office as a whole.

If the person is a high producer (which is unlikely given that they keep messing up), then you might consider the next step to be a suspension without pay for a certain number of days. If the person has a poor production record, dismissal may be in order. There are some key guidelines Silkin Management Group consultants go over with Silkin Management Group clients to take into account when making the decision to terminate, and we will discuss them in our next Silkin Management Group blog.

Bill Hickey
Silkin Management Group Consultant

You can follow Silkin Management Group at http://twitter.com/silkin



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SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: SUGGESTIONS ON STAFF CORRECTION

August 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 2

Silkin Management Group’s initial blog article on staff correction, posted on August 19th can be found here: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/?p=18.

As mentioned in yesterday’s Silkin Management Group article, we are continually helping Silkin Management Group clients with a variety of human resource type issues. We have found that clients new to Silkin Management Group have high on their “help wish list” training in dealing with staff, including hiring, training and correcting staff.

Yesterday we discussed that one of the most important things that Silkin Management Group implements with new Silkin Management Group clients is written office policies and job descriptions since clients new to Silkin Management Group rarely have proper job descriptions and office policies in place. Silkin Management Group clients are provided with Silkin Management Group’s 400 plus page manual of office policies and job descriptions for each position in the office as part of their Silkin Management Group program. It is vital to have these policies and job descriptions in place to properly correct staff.

As mentioned in yesterday’s Silkin Management Group blog, on a first offense you should show the staff member the policy and/or job description violated, have them re-read it and go over it with them to make sure they understand it and how their actions violated it.

On a second offense we recommend to Silkin Management Group clients to review the situation with the staff member and have them sign a copy of the policy or procedure that covers what was violated as an attestation that he/she understands and agrees to the policy and/or job description. Silkin Management Group clients are instructed to put a copy of the signed document in the personnel folder of the staff member and give a copy to the staff member to put in their staff binder. One can consider that this constitutes a warning.

We will cover additional offenses in our next Silkin Management Group blog.

Eric Korb
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Find out more about Silkin Management Group at http://www.ikarma.com/id/38354



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HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST THE UNPRODUCTIVE EMPLOYEE

August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 2

As mentioned in yesterday’s Silkin Management Group blog which you can link to here: http://blog.silkinmanagementgroup.com/?p=238, dealing with problem employees is a major area of uncertainty and lack of training with many business owners and many of Silkin Management Group clients before they start working with us. Lack of knowledge in this area is very dangerous and can lead to incorrect actions taken with employees resulting in unnecessary liabilities which eat up time and money and can cause a great deal of stress.

We’ve presented and will continue to present relevant articles that we find concerning the various legal issues on dealing with employees. We have primarily used articles from The Law Offices of Timothy Bowles, P.C., a firm that we and many of our clients have used over the years for Human Resource issues. Today we present a follow up article from this firm on a method of protecting yourself when dismissing a “bad apple”.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin Management Group

For more information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com. You can also contact Silkin Management Group at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.


How to Fire a Troublesome Worker without Getting Burned

Susan is the supervisor for “Tony the Trouble-Maker.” Although Tony used to be the top producer in the division, lately he has been rude to Susan, fights with his coworkers, and refuses to take responsibility when something goes wrong under his watch. Susan is struggling to keep her unit in the black and this guy is weighing down the whole area. She is now ready to terminate Tony’s employment. However, Susan seems to recall Tony once boasted about how he successfully sued his former employer for “tons of dough.” Susan is concerned if she terminates Tony, he will file a lawsuit for wrongful termination, and Susan doesn’t exactly relish the unnecessary cost or distraction. How can Susan reduce the likelihood of post-employment litigation?

Susan should offer Tony an additional severance pay amount in exchange for a signed release and waiver. In theory, this is a simple transaction. Tony will receive additional money beyond his final wages so long as he signs a document in which he agrees not to sue the company for claims including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or breach of contract.

However, there are several pitfalls to this arrangement of which Susan must be aware in order to ensure the applicable state agency (such as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing) or federal agency (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) will honor such a waiver. For example, if Susan’s company has at least twenty employees and Tony is age 40 or over, Susan must notify Tony that (1) he has up to 21 days to consider and sign the waiver after which time the company will withdraw the severance pay offer; and (2) he has another seven days to change his mind and rescind the agreement.

Handled correctly, we have found the great majority of departing workers will agree to such a severance package. Indeed, most don’t bother waiting for any part of the 21 day offer period to expire, instead signing and taking the severance check upon receiving and promptly reviewing the papers.

Our severance pay forms package includes a five-page overview of exact steps to take, two separate types of severance agreements and two corresponding checklists for the departing employee to initial and sign. By ensuring all these forms are properly understood and implemented, a company can take effective steps to prevent frivolous wrongful termination suits where the company judges it best to promote a worker’s smooth transition to other employment.

If you have any questions, please contact me or any of our other employment law attorneys.

Cindy Bamforth
Law Offices of Timothy Bowles, P.C.
One South Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 301
Pasadena, CA 91105
626-583-6600
email: information@bowleslaw.com



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WHAT ANNOYS YOU ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES?

July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 3

Handling problem employees is a huge area of help that Silkin Management Group clients and prospective clients are interested in. In Silkin Management Group’s blog site of July 20th & July 21st we introduced Part 1 and 2 of a 5 part series on things staff do to drive their bosses crazy and what to do about them.

In Part 1 we went over the “clock puncher”, the low responsibility staff member. In part 2 we discussed the staff member who spends job time doing personal things and disturbing other employees.
Here is a third type of staff member that can cause irritation to their boss:

“I know you already told me a few times, but can you tell me again, how do I do this?”

These employees just can’t seem to learn anything and are always asking you to solve their problems. They rarely, if ever, offer solutions. They just don’t take the intuitive to seek answers or work out solutions to problems by themselves. Even if you have an easy-to-understand and comprehensive job policy manual put together, they’ve just never read it, but instead bother you and the other staff members with questions that are clearly answered in their job materials.

Solution: For starters, make very sure you have a comprehensive Office Policy and Job Description Manual. Then check the employee out on their job description by asking them to perform some of the duties covered. Do this on a gradient basis, taking the easiest first. If they have trouble with the easy stuff, you know you are going to have trouble generally. More basic, do some literacy testing PRIOR to hiring.

Silkin Management Group provides job description and office policy manuals to its clients as well as various tests for screening applicants. If you’d like more information about this contact us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.

Lyn Ribisi
Senior Analyst’s Assistant
For Silkin Management Group



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WHAT IF AN EMPLOYEE WORE A KNIFE TO WORK?

June 9, 2010 By 4 Comments
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One of the most frequent areas of concern for new Silkin Management Group clients is dealing with employees. Who to hire, how to train them, what should written office policies and job descriptions look like, who do you fire and how, how do you deal with discrimination and harassment, etc. are the common areas of concern.

As Silkin Management Group deals with business management, we have to be familiar with the various legalities surrounding these various issues. At the same time, we aren’t attorneys. Therefore we keep ourselves informed and educated through research as well as interaction with attorneys we know and trust.

We have presented articles on past Silkin Management Group blogs from an attorney, Timothy Bowles, whom we have worked with for many years and whose expertise is in employment law. Below you will find a very interesting article by him that will answer the question posed in the title above. If you are a business person who has employees to deal with, you should find this interesting.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin Management Group

For information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at: www.silkinmanagementgroup.com. You may also contact Silkin Management Group at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.

Religion in the Workplace, Have Faith in the Law

Bill, a hospital supervisor, learned that one of his subordinates, Harvinder, has been wearing a miniature sword strapped to and hidden underneath her clothing. Harvinder is a baptized Sikh who wears the 4-inch dull and sheathed sword (called a kirpan) as a symbol of her religious commitment to defend truth and moral values. Bill instructed Harvinder not to wear the kirpan at work because it violated hospital policy against bringing weapons in the workplace. Harvinder explained to Bill that her faith requires her to wear a kirpan in order to comply with the Sikh Code of Conduct, and gave him literature explaining the kirpan is not a weapon. Harvinder also allowed Bill to examine the kirpan so he could see it was no sharper than a butter knife.

It may be surprising to learn that if Bill were then to inform Harvinder she would be terminated if she continued to wear the kirpan at work, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would consider the hospital liable for religious discrimination in the workplace. In the face of a potential conflict between a religious practice such as Harvinder’s and an employer’s policy, in this case the company’s obligation to maintain a safe and secure workplace, that employer must almost always take the initiative to see if a reasonable accommodation for that religious practice can be reached. Only where an employer can show that any accommodation for religious practice would impose an undue economic hardship is that company excused from permitting that practice to continue. Employment laws establish that resolution of religion in the workplace issues is a case-by-case proposition. An undue hardship is found where the proposed accommodation imposed more than a de minimus (trifling or minimal) cost to the employer. Examples where courts have found accommodations imposed undue hardship include “additional costs in the form of lost efficiency or higher wages.” Balint v. Carson City, Nevada (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [9th Cir] 1998) 180 Federal Reporter, Third Series (F.3rd) 1047, 1051, note 4.

Thus, faced with Harvinder’s request to continue wearing her kirpan in the workplace, Bill would have to explore whether the company could accommodate the request without a disruption in operations that would amount to more than a minimal or trivial distraction. If Harvinder’s request was to carry a loaded gun based on her religion’s principles, Bill would obviously have a much easier decision since such a weapon creates a hostile work environment to say the least, nearly certain to significantly divert fellow hospital workers from full attention to their duties. However, a ceremonial object no sharper than a butter knife – and kept out of sight of other workers in any event — can probably be accommodated since it would be difficult at best to distinguish between that object and the eating utensils brought by other workers and utilized daily on the premises.

If you have any questions, please contact me or any of our other employment law attorneys.

Timothy Bowles
Law Offices of Timothy Bowles, P.C.
One South Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 301
Pasadena, CA 91105

Phone: 626-583-6600
Fax: 626-583-6605
Email: information@bowleslaw.com



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