Easy Come: Hard to Go
By Roberta Cava
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About this ebook
This is an excellent book to follow my Survival Skills for Supervisors and managers.
Easy Come - Hard to Go - the Art of Hiring, Firing and Disciplining Employees is for anyone who needs to hire, discipline and/or fire employees without getting your company into court battles for wrongful dismissal. Learn how to write position descriptions, conduct performance apraisals ask the right questions when hiring candidates and conducting disciplinary interviews that do not invite retaliation. Learn how to place written warnings and conduct exit interviews.
Roberta Cava
Roberta Cava is the author of 30 books. Two of them are international best-sellers. Her Dealing with Difficult People book was published in 1990 (23 publishers in 17 languages). She was born in Canada but now lives on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.
Read more from Roberta Cava
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Easy Come - Roberta Cava
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
Discover other titles by Roberta Cava at Smashwords.com.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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