In this section of the conversation, we invite you to post your challenges with staffing. It can be hiring, firing, staff education techniques or questions about problem employees.
In this section of the conversation, we invite you to post your challenges with staffing. It can be hiring, firing, staff education techniques or questions about problem employees.
September 1, 2007 at 4:12 am |
need suggestions in letting go a long time assistant. He has been at our place
too long and just is going thru the motions. Poor sales productivity – both
parties need a change. He needs another challenge.
Any suggestions on style of termination and timing.
Mr. Lozares
September 2, 2007 at 7:55 pm |
Brad,
I know the feeling, Having been there before, I found that I helped to create the problem because I was not performing job evaluations for everyone on a regular basis. However, as you have said that you are already at the point of needing to let the person go, one of the issues I would examine would be the local law regarding termination. Here in Florida, we have “right to work” laws, which mean at the employer’s discretion an employee can be terminated.
Of course, they can file for unemployment compensation. And again here in Florida, the employee usually wins. Two last points: Look for a book entitled, “I Quit. I forgot to tell you” by Terri Kabachnick. Secondly, when you do the termination, make it quick and without a lot of discussion. The explanation needs to simply be that you have decided to make a change in your business and that this employee does not fit into the plans of where the business is going.
August 1, 2009 at 3:15 pm |
To the point about not performing job evaluations- guilty! Do you know where I could find forms/documents that can be used to help in this process?
August 1, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
Brad,
In our business the solution was found in another component – job descriptions. For each of the jobs we had those that did the job to make a list of what they did. The list was to be written in the order of importance. As an example, the list could be – wait on customers, ring up sales, answer the telephone, stock the shelves, keep the store looking good, etc.
If you have five people doing the same job you will want each of them to make their own list. Then you work with them to create one list and have it in the sequence that you as the owner want.
When it is time for a job evaluation – I suggest every six months – you hand the person their job description and ask them to rate their own performance. We used a scale of 1 to 10. The owner also completes the same process. Then the owner and employee exchange their reviews, and sit down to come to an agreement as to what the final review score should be.
There is also a predetermined scoring system. As an example, if the employee has a score of 6 or lower they are terminated. A score of 7 puts the employee on probation, an 8 gives the employee a small raise, etc.
The job description is also used as a part of the hiring process as it is attached to the job application. This way the employee applicant gets an idea of what is expected of them before they ever get the job.
Hope this helps. Thanks for asking and if you have other questions send them my way.