Handling Terminations Due to Job Elimination

At some point in your career as a manager, you may be required to terminate the employment of staff member for no reason other than budget issues or uncontrollable circumstances.  This is probably one of the more difficult actions you will ever have to implement as a manager.  So, as a manager, what can you do make sure the termination is handled appropriately?

There are a number of actions you can take as a manager to implement the termination that will benefit you and the affected employee, including:

1.     Prepare in advance what you are going to tell the employee being terminated.  You need to stress that the termination is due to budget reasons or outside circumstances and not the result of problems with the employee’s performance.  Explain the basis for the decision and how or why his/her position was chosen to be eliminated.  For example, the job elimination could be the result of lost business in the region or a shift in organizational priorities.

2.     During the termination meeting, be prepared to review with the employee what their last date of employment will be, their benefits, severance package (if applicable), etc.  It is likely the employee may be too shocked to remember everything, so it is also a good idea to provide the employee with this information in writing.  Once the employee is advised of their termination, you may want to consider letting the employee go home for the day (with pay) as they will likely be too upset to continue working.

3.     Talk to the affected employee about how the news of their job elimination will be communicated to other employees, vendors and clients.  Consider sending an email to coworkers announcing the elimination while simultaneously thanking the employee for their contributions.

4.     If the affected employee’s termination date is a few days or weeks away following the giving of notice, take the employee out to lunch with coworkers as a show of appreciation.  Offer to give the employee a strong letter of recommendation or act as a reference.

5.     Speak to the affected employee about the process of transitioning their work to others in the company.  You will want to know what the employee is working on, who their contacts are, where their files are and how they are organized, and so on.

6.     Follow up with the employee until the last date of their employment to let them know that they are still valued.  Too often, once the employee is given notice of their termination, they are isolated from further involvement in organizational decision making, meetings, and other communications. 

Terminating an employee is never easy, but it is even harder when that termination happens to a hard-working, valued employee simply because of outside circumstances.  As a manager, the best approach you can take in addressing these types of terminations is to be honest, respectful, and supportive.

This article should not be construed as legal advice.

Please contact PayCheck Connection with questions or concerns... Or if there are topics you would like to see covered, email Dani Erickson at danielle@paycheckconnection.com

Finding the Right Trainer

Let’s say you have been asked to find a trainer to conduct customer service training or safety training for your company’s employees.  Where do you go to find a trainer?  Do you know what it will cost?  Do you know what questions to ask?  If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you could be throwing away good money on someone that will take your money without providing a valuable service to your organization.

When looking for a trainer, the important thing is to start with knowing what services you need and why.  You need to identify what metrics or other data you have that specifically identifies a need for training.  Do you have customers complaining about poor response time when calling customer service representatives?  This may be the result of inadequate bandwidth or an insufficient number of phone lines that is unrelated to the behavior of customer service representatives.  Or perhaps your representatives need to be better trained in order to perform multiple tasks at a time, thus increasing productivity.

Once you have verified the problem through a needs assessment, the next step is to have an idea of the target audience and format of the training.  For example, will all employees in the organization be trained or only a select few?  This can make a big difference in how the course is designed and the cost of the training.  In other words, you have to have some idea on what you are looking for before you consult with a trainer.

When looking for a trainer, the easiest approach is to conduct an Internet search for a trainer in your area.  However, you will likely have to sort through a number of individuals and companies that don’t train on the subject matter you need.  A professional organization that certifies or provides continuing education to trainers is another approach, as the organization may group trainers by subject matter and/or geography.  Referrals are another great source.

When speaking with a trainer, it is important to get to know their training approach and how many and what types of courses they have designed and facilitated.  The trainer may want some idea of the scope of the project before quoting you a rate, but a reputable trainer will be able to quote a minimum and maximum fee.  Of course, it is also important for you to know what your budget is for the project.

Selecting a trainer is never easy but by asking the right questions and taking your time to carefully design each course, you will reap the benefits of a better educated workforce.

This article should not be construed as legal advice.

Licensing and Continuing Education Compliance

Do you know how many of your employees are required to maintain professional licenses or complete a specific number of continuing education courses in order to renew their licenses? 

When you hire individuals for a specific position because of their advanced skills or knowledge, there is a good chance that they are required to participate in continuing education courses and maintain an active license with a state regulatory or administrative agency.  A few professions that fit in this category include but are not limited to, attorneys, certified public accountants, physicians, nurses, real estate brokers and real estate managing brokers. 

Depending on the profession and the state where the individual is licensed, the licensing law and continuing education requirements may vary.  Some states may have annual renewal periods while other states have two-year renewal periods.  Some states require licensees to pass a test as part of the license renewal process while other states require licensees to complete a specific number of course credit hours or practice in their field for a specific time period.

No matter what the requirements are, employers should monitor employee compliance with licensing and continuing educations requirements on an annual basis.  This could take the form of the employer paying for and enrolling the employee in specific courses or ensuring the employee is practicing in their field for the required time period.  It could also involve the employer requiring the employee to provide documentation proving that they have complied with the applicable license renewal provision (e.g., certificates of completions or copies of renewed licenses).  Finally, it could also involve requiring the employee to sign an acknowledgement that she or he has fully complied with the applicable law or regulation regarding license renewal and/or continuing education. 

While this process may seem administratively burdensome, the alternative is to have individuals working at your company who are not properly licensed and who may be subject to disciplinary action by the applicable state or local administrative agency.  Is this the kind of publicity you want for your company? 

This article should not be construed as legal advice.

Same Sex Marriage in the Workplace

Without addressing the social, moral or religious arguments, the topic of same sex marriage has direct and indirect consequences to employers. 

As more states pass legislation recognizing same sex marriage, it is imperative that employers understand the law, as well as implement its provisions in a timely and accurate manner.  In some cases, the legislation may be as broad as prohibiting discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment when it comes to an employee’s civil union status or sexual preference.  In other cases, it could mean offering the same benefits to same sex partners as are offered to individuals who are legally married.

But there are other areas that employers must address when it comes to same sex marriage.  For example, some individuals in your workplace may not approve of, or support, same sex marriage and may vocalize their opinions openly.  These comments may be offensive to individuals who are involved in a same sex marriage as well as to others who support same sex marriage in general.  As a result, the employer may need to address complaints of hostile work environment, harassment, discrimination and unprofessional conduct or other violations of company policy.  If the comments include threats, company policies prohibiting violence in the workplace may also be implicated.

To minimize these issues, the employer should proactively provide diversity training to all employees and emphasize the need to respect others.  Employers should openly discuss any changes to federal or state law regarding same sex marriage and its impact on the workplace as well as the employer’s and each employee’s obligation to comply with the law.  A discussion on the consequences for violating the law and/or company policy should also be addressed.

Finally, it is important for the employer to review its internal policies and procedures and identify areas that may not provide the same rights or protections to individuals in same sex marriage compared to individuals who are legally married.  Once these areas are identified, the employer should identify if they are legally required to or otherwise want to offer the same rights and protections to both groups.

This article should not be construed as legal advice.

How Does Your Company Look on the Internet?

When you read the title of this article, did your mind first think of your company’s website and all the things in it?  If so, there’s so much more you need to be aware of when it comes to your company’s image and reputation.

The contents and image of your company website is entirely in your control.  You decide what goes in the website and how the site looks.  You have the ability to update the information regularly and determine the tone and message you want to give out.

As a company, you also have control over any tweeting or blogs that come out of your website or social network sites.  After all, the individuals posting these comments are either your employees or independent contractors that you hired to help you in your marketing initiatives.

But what about what others are saying about you on the Internet? 

Go on any search engine and type in your company’s name.  Now go through each search result.  Hopefully, the first result that pops up is your company’s home page.  If not, you’ll need to look into search engine optimization tools to improve the visibility of your site. 

What do the other search results reveal about your company?  Are they links to some of your vendors or clients?  Are they links to customer feedback sites?  If so, what do customers say about your company?  Are the comments positive or negative?  Are the comments specific enough to provide you with information to assess the validity of the comment or take action if improvement is needed?

Is it important to your organization to have a high number of followers on Facebook or to be connected to a certain number of individuals on LinkedIn?  If so, what is your company doing to achieve these goals?

The Internet is a vast universe filled with opportunities and drawbacks.  Once information is posted, the information becomes available to anyone with access so it’s important that your company regularly monitor the Internet and engage in ongoing public relations and marketing activities to improve your image and visibility.

This article should not be construed as legal advice.

Summer Hires... What You Need to Know

Ice cold lemonade.  Tank tops.  Bathing suits.  Melted ice cream.  Are you thinking what I'm thinking??  It's about that time when the sun starts shining brighter and you need to begin thinking about hiring for the summer.  As business picks up for your organization, you may be considering adding a few extra bodies to your payroll.  Hiring teens is a great way to increase your productivity during your busy season, while providing new experiences to a future member of our workforce.

Just make sure you know the rules!  Many states require age verification at a minimum for hiring those under age 18.  Check here for your specific state's requirements: http://www.dol.gov/whd/state/certification.htm.

Here are a few of the basic rules that are pretty consistent across the board:

• Employers may not hire minors younger than 14 years of age.
• Teens age 14 and 15 may legally work between June 1 and Labor Day between the hours of 7 am and 9 pm.
• During the school year, teens age 14 and 15 may only work between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm.... And may work no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week... And no more than 8 hours on a non-school day and 40 hours during non-school weeks

With these tight restrictions, there are both benefits and challenges for you, as an employer, to hire teens during the summer months.  Teenage workers without a work history may require close supervision and more instruction and repetition to learn a task.  But you can help them develop good working habits by encouraging them to ask questions and always request assistance when they need help.  Patience is the key!  And, of course, always stress the importance of safety on the job.  

Good luck with the employee hunt and have a wonderfully warm summer!

Innovative Approaches to Working Together

A tall woman in a soft pink blazer opened the front door to the office and proceeded down the hallway toward her desk.  As she passed by a co-worker’s office space, she asked if the files she had requested were completed and on her desk.  The co-worker rolled his eyes and answered that he was still working on it.  The woman stopped and turned toward the gentleman that gave her such a crass answer.  She replied with an icy tone and continued toward her office…

Do you find that your work group or department is not working together as well as they should be?  Do you see personality differences among your employees that are negatively impacting the work environment?  Is there an inability by your employees to manage conflict effectively?

If you answered “yes” or even “sometimes” to any of these statements, your team may benefit from professional intervention.  There are consultants and organizations that can assist your team in learning to appreciate the differences in each individual and work together to resolve differences.

One such approach is to conduct a 360-degree profile of each person.  This process involves each employee completing a self-questionnaire about their work preferences, beliefs and approaches to working on various work-related issues.  The questionnaire is then completed by the employee’s direct supervisor, and a pre-determined anonymous number of peers and direct reports, thereby giving the employee a 360-degree picture of how they are perceived by others in the organization. 

A second approach involves having everyone in the team answer the same set of questions involving how they approach different work situations.  The results are then summarized on a quadrant and assigned a color.  For example, a person identified as the color “yellow” may exhibit personalities that are passive or easy-going, while a person identified as the color “red” may exhibit personalities that are more dominant or controlling.  By understanding the personalities of a coworker, one can hopefully better understand why individuals act the way they do.

A third approach involves the completion of a questionnaire based on how an individual would react in different situations, such as dealing with an aggressive employee or a difficult employee.  The results then identify if the individual is prone to conflict avoidance, conflict resolution, and so on.  By better understanding how one deals with conflict, an individual can take appropriate action to resolve conflict in a more effective manner.

While each of these approaches involves different questions and results, they are all focused on helping individuals be more productive and effective in the workplace.  However, taking the assessment and understanding the results is but the first step.  For these assessments to be worthwhile, the individual must also take action to build on their strengths and overcome their development areas.

This article should not be construed as legal advice.