UI...HELP-LONG

ScorpioHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-14-04 AT 01:27PM (CST)[/font][br][br]When I 1st came to work at my company I observed that people seemed to be fired "willy nilly" -If a superviosr got mad at you, was having a bad day, etc.etc. next I knew they were out the door. I had a few meetings with each department lead and we discussed the situation. During the course of this, our COO gave them a brilliant idea...Why not try to "rehabilitate" these troublesome individuals? So, now I have a manager who is into rehabilitating. Of course while she is rehabilitating them, their 90 days come and go and firing them becomes more difficult. She documents EVERY conversation, EVERY infraction...EVERY frown, etc etc etc. When she gets to the point where realization hits and you can't teach an old dog new tricks, she fires them. I have had 2 incidents in the last 3 months with Unemployment Insurance. She fired both these employee's for "violation of company policy" and "poor work performance". In each case I have 2-3 pages of documentation, every conversation she had with these ee's regarding the infractions, etc. etc. UI call's, I pull the files and read off dates, info, etc-They say"Yes, but WHAT exactly happened on August 17th that led to the termination that day?" I am on the other end of the phone scratching my head. Well duh, that was the day she realized they could not be rehabilitated???There is no sense to this and I am at a lose to rein her in. Any thoughts?

SamanthaQ

We have a progressive disciplinary action policy that helps alleviate this. We've done training sessions with managers to train them on what progressive disciplinary action is. We use the video series advertised on this website (10 danger zones by M. Lee Smith publishers to train our managers and supervisors.) We also have a form they use for incidents.

The other thing we use is 90 day performance appraisals. If they can't make it to satisfactory performance(or at least developmental) in 90 days then we terminate (regardless of what disciplinary actions are on file).

I imagine it's an administrative nightmare to have employees just make it past their training period, sign them up for benefits and then have to terminate the benefits.

Don D

We have a required progressive discipline process. I developed a form that is a required exercise a manager must go through with me prior to any decision to terminate. The supervisor must fill out the form. The form must have every box filled in. The matrix on the form requires a visual display of events, dates, action, step and outcome. If the boxes do not build a good defense for me (Me, since I will have to ultimately defend), there is no termination, period. The same form can be used as an exhibit in the UI hearing to display that policy was followed by the company and that progressive events led to termination and the last event is just as clear as the first.

The type of termination you describe cannot be defended in a UI hearing and will never lead to a successful UI outcome for your company.

Crout

Your problem is that you are emersed in an environment that teaches and promotes poor management practices. Your solution is to do your homework, find a set of princlples and practices that are well grounded in HR and scratch and claw your way to changing the culture by implementing a training schedule for your managers and supervisors. Easy, right? It might take a year or two or three, but what the heck, that time will go be anyway.

deniseE

I agree with the progressive discipline process...we do it here too..

First infraction: verbal warning (which is documented)

Second: Written warning and we require ee's to sign the form...so they can't later claim that they didn't know.

Third: It can be either a formal reprimand (basically a letter from the EVP detailing the infraction, clear ways to remedy, and the or else punchline) or a 3 day suspension w/o pay.

Fourth: is either a 3 day suspension w/o pay or termination-depending on the offense.

Issues that skip this process include clear violations of company policy such as sexual assult, workplace violence, pornography on the work PC...that sort of thing...

The day to day attitude issues and minor infractions follow the above procedure. It makes things much easier for us to defend...and clear for the ee's...they know what's expected.

dynamite9551

rescind her ability to fire without approval from H/R.