Know your rights and your employees
As an employer, hiring, firing and managing people can be a considerable challenge. Unless you’re employing robots (watch this space) we humans and the emotional beings we are, there will always be feelings, opinions and perspectives to manage.
As an employer, you must adhere to employment law. It’s there for your protection as well as the employees. However, it becomes even more crucial to work ‘by the book’ if you have a bad employee.
Knowing your rights is critical if you’re hoping for a positive outcome. However, it’s even more crucial to know the rights of your employee too. Understanding what they are entitled to will enable you to develop policy and procedure which will allow you to run your business according to the law but in a way that it’s mutually beneficial for both parties.
The concept of creating a mutually beneficial environment for both yourself and your employees is ideal, but, the outcome may not always align with your vision. One bad employee can pollute the environment, and things can begin to unravel quite quickly if the situation isn’t managed well.
Setting Expectations from the Start
How do you address employee performance? Waiting once a year for performance review isn’t enough – there needs to be ongoing feedback, discussions, and if things aren’t going well, they need to be dealt with asap.
But we’re getting ahead ourselves here, firstly let’s go back to the beginning of the employee lifecycle:
Creating documents such as contracts, an employee handbook and guidelines for conduct are a great way to set employee expectations. From the outset, you’re telling them what you expect them to do, how you expect them to behave and what is and isn’t acceptable in the workplace and during working hours.
You can also detail events such as company events, travel arrangements, expenses, code of conduct in meetings. This can go a long way to mitigating any risk when it comes to events and activities outside the typical 9-5 of working at the office — saying that it is also a good idea to detail additional operating hours. For example, if your industry regularly requires your employees to travel, work late, attend out of hours functions etc. then these can be detailed too.
Addressing the Situation Promptly
If you start to have an issue with an employee, then very often the answer lies within these documents, so make sure they are up to date, relevant and fit for purpose.
Rarely will a situation ‘remedy itself’ so you’re going to need to act and the sooner, the better.
There are three main steps to supporting an employee on this path:
- Coaching / Mentorship
- Accountability / Actions
- Disciplinary / Termination
Putting this set of procedures in place allows both employer and employee to work together and remedy the issue. Perhaps misunderstandings have arisen, or the employee feels unfairly treated. Maybe some training and coaching are needed for both of you to get back on track.
Outlining a plan of action to deal with the situation together will enable both parties to offer feedback and take action to remedy the issue. Defining clear, actionable steps may include setting measurable metrics such as targets, timelines, deadlines or KPI’s.
Measuring the situation both in terms of metrics and behaviour creates a set of standards which you can then action if not met. It’s this point you can clearly outline the disciplinary and termination of employment procedures.
Mitigating Risk
Following these steps will enable you to address the situation promptly and correctly while adhering to employment law guidelines. It mitigates your risk from problems escalating and turning into tribunal, unfair dismissal or treatment claims.
However, it’s not always clear cut, black and white. Navigating these steps require training, education and effective execution. If you’d like some help to ensure you’re up to speed with your rights and those of your employees give us a call. We can help from the start to provide you with peace of mind and ensure you’re following the law.
Call us directly on 01279 874 676 or email info@sfb-consulting.com