Productivity / Performance

Court: Don’t expect access to past job records

11/25/2011

When a former employee sues, alleging she was terminated because of sex discrimination, the employer often argues that the real reason was poor performance. Don’t expect the court to let you go on a fishing expedition into the employee’s past. As this recent case shows, courts think past performance is no indication of future results.

Document poor attitude, just in case of lawsuit

11/25/2011

Here’s a tip for handling a difficult and argumentative employee. If she tells her supervisors she doesn’t like her job, wants to avoid some tasks and otherwise doesn’t seem interested in progressing, note her lousy attitude.

Which of the following issues requires the most work on your part?

11/15/2011

Handling benefits and mediating workplace disputes top the list of difficult HR duties.

Sudden discipline after exemplary record? Don’t rule out supervisor prejudice

11/07/2011

Employees with excellent performance records often head straight to HR the first time they face disciplinary action. And you’re right to worry enough to take a careful look at whether the proposed discipline is warranted. It’s possible that a boss’s prejudice may have motivated the discipline.

Never let fired employee unfairly blame bias; be prepared to prove performance deficiencies

11/07/2011

Employees who have lost their jobs have very little to lose and everything to gain by suing their former employers. Your best defense when firing: Always carefully document a performance-related reason for the termination. That will trump all but the most egregious cases of supervisory expressions of bigotry.

Solving for the unknown: No duty to accommodate disability that employee never revealed

10/31/2011

Some disabled employees never tell employers about their conditions—even if their disability could affect performance. And of course you know you shouldn’t treat employees as disabled unless they claim a disability. But what if you fire someone for poor performance?

The art of giving negative feedback: A 7-step approach

10/28/2011

Giving feedback is an important management task but certainly not an easy one—especially when the feedback isn’t all sunshine. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be learned.

Outsource staffing to save labor costs, maintain productivity

10/19/2011

Even in an economy that’s running full-tilt, HR and management face pressure to spend less on labor. If you’re hearing a cost-control refrain from the C-Suite, it might be time to dust off alternative staffing models that helped you survive the Great Recession.

Personality clash or hostile work environment? It depends on hypothetical ‘reasonable person’

10/17/2011

Overly sensitive employees can interpret anything negative as hostile. But often what is subjectively hostile is just unpleasant from an objective standpoint, the result of an apparent personality conflict. It all depends on how a hypothetical “reasonable person” who finds himself in the same situation would view the matter.

Sometimes it’s OK to fire before parental leave