Easy Come: Hard to Go

Easy Come - Hard to Go

The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees

Roberta Cava

Published by Cava Consulting

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2004 - 2011 by Roberta Cava

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ISBN 0 9580132 5X

If the Human Resource function in a company is second-rate, the performance of the employees working in that company can turn out to be second-rate as well. Easy Come – Hard to Go – The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees offers detailed, proven strategies for handling many Human Resources issues. Topics include:

Preparing for employment interview

Hiring the right person

Writing Job Descriptions

Conducting Performance Appraisals

Counselling Interviews

Discipline problems

Disciplinary Interview

Easy Come – Hard to Go is an absolute must for anyone who works in or manages a Human Resources Department or is responsible for hiring, disciplining and firing employees. To learn more about supervising staff, be sure to look at Roberta’s book, Survival Skills for Supervisors and Managers.

Roberta Cava is the owner of Cava Consulting in Australia and has presented her seminars worldwide, including her most popular session: Dealing with Difficult People that has been presented to over 53,000 participants. She is the author of 23 books and will be writing more.

BOOKS BY ROBERTA CAVA

Dealing with Difficult People

(21 publishers – in 16 languages)

Dealing with Difficult Situations – at Work and at Home

Dealing with Difficult Spouses and Children

Dealing with Difficult Relatives and In-Laws

Dealing with Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

Dealing with School Bullying

Dealing with Workplace Bullying

What am I going to do with the rest of my life?

Before tying the knot – Questions couples Must ask each other Before they marry!

How Women can advance in business

Survival Skills for Supervisors and Managers

Human Resources at its Best!

Easy Come – Hard to go – The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees

Time and Stress – Today’s silent killers

Take Command of your Future – Make things Happen

Belly Laughs for All! – Volumes 1 to 4

Wisdom of the World!

EASY COME - HARD TO GO

The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter one - Preparing for employment

interviews

Easy come – hard to go

Nepotism

Policies, Procedures & Employee Manuals

Shortage of good employees

Part-time employees

9 steps to take before an employment interview

Employment interview objectives

Start with a good Job Description

Standards of performance

How often should performance appraisals be completed?

What will your company offer the employee for his/her services?

How candidates will apply for vacancies

Preparing for the employment interview

Employment interview questions

Testing candidates

Stages of employment interviews

Panel vs. individual interviews

During the interview

Chapter two – Hiring the right person

Areas for in-depth probing

Green/red flags

Trouble signs to watch for

What should interviewers guard against

Why are applicants rejected

Anti-discrimination acts

What can be asked on application forms and at interviews?

Questions often asked of women on interviews

Evaluating candidates

After the interview

Reference Checks

Important questions to ask

Who should you contact?

The job offer

If the candidate accepts the position

The first day

Advantages of setting standards of performance

Performance appraisals

Chapter three - Counselling interviews

Why managers hate disciplining their staff

Firing probationary employees

Disciplining former peers

Using labels when disciplining employees

Customer complaints

Differences between counselling and disciplinary interviews

Interview objectives

Interview pointers

Where should interviews be held?

Counselling Interviews – when they are warranted

Difficult counselling interviews

Planning a counselling interview

Conducting a counselling interview

Documentation

Follow-up

Questioning employees

Maintaining improved performance

When no improvement is clear

Chapter four - Discipline problems

Absenteeism

Absenteeism policies

Overlong lunch hour

Coffee break abuses

Personality conflicts

Buck-passing employees

Female supervisors

Bottleneck employees

Aggressive attitude

Tantrums

Ethnic problems

Personal telephone calls

Mistake-ridden employees

When to interfere in personal employee problems

Employee daydreaming

Show-offs

Disorganized or messy work area

Supply theft

Interrupters

Alcoholic employee

Sexual harassment

What is sexual harassment

Where does sexual harassment happen?

Who is liable for discrimination and sexual harassment?

How does sexual harassment affect others?

Model sexual harassment policy

Workplace bullying

Who are the targets of bullying?

How to deal with workplace bullying

Model bullying, harassment and violence policy

Chapter five - Disciplinary interviews

Preparing yourself psychologically

The disciplinary procedure

Disciplinary interviews

Conducting disciplinary interviews

Documentation

Types of disciplinary action

Termination/dismissal/firing

How to investigate an incident

Exit interviews

Model exit interviews

Purpose of exit interviews

Conclusion

Appendix A

Bibliography

DEDICATION

Dedicated to all the participants who attended my Managing the Human Resources Function, Employee Discipline, Hiring Know-How, Easy Come - Hard to Go, and Survival Skills for Supervisors seminars and gave invaluable ideas about what should and should not be included in this book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My heartfelt thanks goes to all the people who assisted me in converting this book for my Australian readers. Also to the original group of dedicated Human Resource specialists in Canada who encouraged me to write the original manuscript for Canadian supervisors and managers who were having difficulty hiring, disciplining and firing employees.

INTRODUCTION

When I first started offering my Survival Skills for Supervisors and Managers seminars, I found that the most difficult situations they seemed to face were hiring, disciplining and firing employees. I later put together several Human Resource-related seminars that would fill that gap. Most supervisors needed to learn how to write position descriptions (which are simply awful in Australia. Most companies only have a simple paragraph describing what the employee is to do). Only after an accurate up-to-date position description is written can they recruit someone to fill the position.

During the recruitment process many have a difficult time choosing the best candidate for the job. Many ask illegal questions while conducting the interview and leave themselves open to being sued if the employee is not hired for the job.

Then after the employee is hired, supervisors face the problem of disciplining their staff for poor productivity and/or behaviour problems. Most don’t know how to deal with these issues. Some look the other way and say nothing. Others discipline in a way that results in retaliation from the employee being disciplined. And some employees don’t improve their productivity or behaviour so the supervisor must put written warnings on their files. Most do not document these warnings properly. If they are forced to fire the employee, and the documentation isn’t thorough enough, the fired employee could be successful in charging the company with wrongful dismissal.

After putting the seminars together I realised that there was a need for this book. Please read on and learn how to hire, discipline and fire employees without getting your company in court battles.

The contents of this book are not to be construed as being professional advice. Readers must always check their Federal and State laws to ensure that they are acting according to their laws. Any decision made by the reader as a result of reading this book, is the sole responsibility of the reader.

CHAPTER ONE

PREPARING FOR EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS

Supervisors have many responsibilities, including delegating and correcting work, conducting performance appraisals and disciplining staff that report to the position. Unfortunately many are given the title ‘supervisor’ but not given the authority to carry out their duties. I believe that the title ‘Lead Hand’ should be abolished, because many just have two responsibilities – that of delegating and checking work. Unless those who are responsible for supervising others have all four major responsibilities, their company is setting them up to fail.

Supervisors should also discipline their staff (up to termination when experts might be asked to step in) and do performance appraisals on all staff reporting to them. A desired additional responsibility would be hiring their own staff (after the company human resources department or recruitment firm has chosen a short-list of suitable candidates for them to consider). This way the supervisor is ensured that the candidate they choose is in sync with the existing staff.

Policies, Procedures and Employee Manuals

Progressive companies not only have detailed Policy and Procedure Manuals, but also provide Employee Manuals that explain the company rules and regulations to their staff. New employees receive a copy of this manual on the first day of their employment and are encouraged to understand and ask questions about the contents. Many companies have the employee sign a document stating that they have read and understood the information. Then, if they break a company rule or regulation, they can’t say, I didn’t know about that rule/regulation!

If your company does not have an Employee Manual, you might suggest to your employer that you take on the task of preparing such a manual for your company employees. You would start with the company Policy and Procedure Manuals and only include the information necessary for employees to understand company rules. This would also encourage your company to update the company policies and procedures as well (this should be done at least annually). Rules and regulations of a company must be adhered to by all employees - including supervisors.

Easy come - often hard to go:

If recruiters, and managers don't take enough time when hiring employees, they'll find they've set themselves up for a period of misery. Unfortunately it seems the more lazy and crafty the employee - the harder they seem to get rid of. So doing things right at the onset before they're hired is crucial.

Does this take a lot of training - no it doesn't, but it will certainly help to know how to get the information you require to choose the best candidate for the position. Some may find that they felt they were being interviewed by the candidate rather than