3 Reasons Why Performance Management is Worth it

We love this Workplace Bulletin article about Performance Management…

Why manage an employee you know won’t improve?

Performance management, when used properly and fairly, makes perfect business sense when you have a worker who you know would benefit from some guidance and management. But what about that worker who is treading water … whose under-performance has been ongoing and is unlikely to improve? Is it worth your efforts?

Let’s face it – performance management takes time and absorbs your resources. And it’s not guaranteed to deliver the results you want (even for the ‘good’ employee).

So, what course of action should you take when the under-performing worker’s attitude is affecting staff morale, or is having a negative impact on clients or customers … and you?

Get rid of them! I hear you cry. Why should I keep paying a troublesome worker any longer than I have to?

Rebecca Byun, an employment law expert at Holding Redlich, warns that skipping the performance management process altogether and proceeding to dismiss the under-performing employee is risky. She provides three good reasons for applying a performance management process to your business.

1. Skipping performance management leaves your business exposed to various employee claims

“Recent data shows that the majority of claimants coming before the Fair Work Commission are individuals disputing the termination of their employment,” Byun says. “This comes as no surprise as employees today are more aware of and vigilant with their rights. And mostly, employee claims are easy and inexpensive to commence.”

She says the workers most likely to make an unfair dismissal claim - who say their dismissal was harsh, unjust and unreasonable - are the ones not given an opportunity to respond or a chance to improve their performance and/or conduct.

“In this context, a decision not to undertake performance management can be fatal to defending this type of claim,” she says.

A worker is less likely to pursue an unfair dismissal claim against you if they have been taken through an objective performance management process showing there was a legitimate reason for dismissal and it was nothing personal.

2. Any savings made by dismissing the worker early may be outweighed by the costs of recruitment and defending claims

Byun says even though you may make some initial savings from not having to invest any further time and resources into your worker, you may need to commit additional time and resources in recruiting and training someone new for the job, which may ultimately cancel out those initial savings. Add to this any costs and time for defending any claims in court and you may find that it has cost your business much more in the longer term, she says.

3. Three strikes you’re out! - Myth

“Let’s kill one myth of performance management once and for all,” Byun states. “Unless you have committed the business to this process in a policy or contract, there is no ‘three strikes’ rule or a set minimum period for a performance management process.”

She says the process of managing an employee’s performance needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

“It will depend on factors such as the degree of under-performance, the nature of the required level of skills or performance, the extent to which the underperformance is impacting others including staff and clients and whether the employee has already been made informally aware of their performance issues,” she says.

How important is the process?

In most cases, the answer will be ‘extremely’.  There is an abundance of cases where the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has found that employers should have dealt with performance issues more adequately through performance management before proceeding to dismissal.

Source Workplace Bulletin Wednesday 9th March 2016

6 Top Tips for Advertising for a New Employee

1. Get your message to the right candidates
   
   Keep in mind that the best candidates are usually not the ones answering ads or even looking for work, they are more likely to be working for someone else and may not even be looking for a new position. Think outside the box and remember that you can develop relationships with potential candidates long before you need them. These ideas will also help you in recruiting a large pool of candidates when you have a current position available.
   
2. Involve your current staff
   
   Spread word-of-mouth information about the position availability, or eventual availability, to each employee so they can constantly look for superior candidates in their networks of friends and associates.
   
3. Use Your Web Site for Recruiting
   
   Your Web site portrays your vision, mission, values, goals, and products. It is also effective for recruiting employees who experience a resonance with what you state on your site.
   
   Do create an employment section which describes your available positions and contains information about you and why an interested person might want to contact your company. A recruiting website is your opportunity to shine and a highly effective way to attract candidates today.
   
4. Fine Tune your message
   
   There are some things that you need to include in the ad that are reasonably obvious, like the job title, the salary, the location. But an area that’s more difficult is when you’re specifying key requirements and competencies that are required for the role. The requirements can’t focus on the personal characteristics of an employee — particularly those personal characteristics that might be attributes protected by discrimination law.
   
5. Provide clarity in the interview process
   
   Be clear about what is expected of them, you may even like to bring in staff members who demonstrate the skills you require to draw in their expertise. Be clear about their remuneration and benefits.  Include an emphasis on the importance of emotional intelligence as a skillset in all roles.
   
6. Use resources to screen a prospective employee
   
   There’s a range of different techniques that are available to check the aptitude and suitability of a candidate, such as psychometric testing, aptitude assessment and the like. There are many external consultants who specialise in these areas.
   
   The more traditional methods, of course, are resumes, face-to-face or telephone interviews, reference checking, criminal record checks, and background checks.
   
   Social media is also a very common method for ascertaining the suitability of a candidate. A word of warning, though: privacy law generally requires that if you create a record of personal information about a candidate, you must seek to obtain that information directly from the candidate before you go elsewhere.
   
   Therefore, it might be a good idea to get that candidate’s consent if you want to explore this area. This will avoid an argument that privacy law has been breached.

How to stop an ex-employee from soliciting your business

We came across this great article in the Workplace Bulletin

Hey, quit stealing my (your old) clients!

If you have reason to believe an employee might resign and ‘poach’ your clients, what can you do legally to stop it from happening?

Contractual clauses that seek to restrict an employee earning a livelihood after they leave your employment are prima facie unenforceable. You have to show the restraint provides reasonable protection for a recognised business interest (yours) in order to enforce a post-employment contractual restraint.

You can impose a non-solicitation restraint upon a former employee to protect customer relationships, provided its period of operation is reasonable. A reasonable period is the time needed to introduce a replacement employee to those clients so they can re-establish a connection with your business and thereby protect your goodwill.

An example of a non-solicitation restraint:

“Upon termination of the employee’s employment for any reason whatsoever, he will not, without the written consent of the employer, solicit any of the employer’s clients that he had dealings with during his employment.”

In Entello Pty Ltd v Firooztash (11 March 2016), a financial planning and investment advisory business obtained a Court order to enforce a six-month non-solicitation restraint against an advisor after he left the firm.

The Court ruled that ‘solicit’ means ‘to ask for business’. An employee can solicit your clients even if they do not telephone, email or arrange to meet them to discuss business.

For example, there is solicitation of a client by a former employee if the former employee in substance conveys the message: “I am ready and willing to deal with you and encourage you to do so.”

If one of your clients asks your ex-employee what has to be done to get him to act for them, and your ex-employee replies that they would need to give him a letter of appointment to his new employer, that would be solicitation.

Source Workplace Bulletin Wednesday 23rd March 2016

Presenteeism costing employers

This is a great article from HR Daily which highlights the hidden costs of unproductive workers...

Presenteeism costing employers 11 weeks per worker

Employees are unproductive for a "staggering" 57.5 days per year, but employers can slash this amount by addressing the underlying causes, global research has found.

Based on a survey of nearly 2,000 employees, and validated against the World Health Organisation's workplace health and productivity questionnaire, the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) study shows the cost of presenteeism is more than 10-times higher than the cost of absenteeism.

GCC data scientist Dr Olivia Sackett says the study clearly shows the "major culprit" of lost productivity is not, as many assume, absenteeism.

"On average, employees in our sample group took about four sick days off each year but when they reported on how many days they lost while on the job, that number shot up to a staggering 57.5 days per year per employee," she says.

GCC chief medical officer Dr David Batman says there are many reasons employees at all levels of an organisation might not be fully productive, including stress and fatigue caused by personal problems.

"Everyone will face tough challenges at some stage in their lives," Batman says.
"Some of us will lose a loved one or suffer the breakdown of a relationship. We may experience a financial disaster or be bullied at work. We may be victims of crime, have a car accident [or] contract a serious illness."

Employers should expect these struggles, and work to "create a supportive culture and build a resilient team" that can effectively deal with them, he says.

A key to this is ensuring managers are attentive to their people.

"I want managers to recognise that if something has changed – whether it's at work or at home – there could be a problem," Batman says.

"They should quietly take that person aside and say, 'Are you okay? Something has changed and I'm concerned about you. Can I do something to help?'"

Specifically, managers should notice if employees start to:
• lack attention and become easily distracted;
• seem uninterested in what they're doing and unconcerned about outcomes;
• let their performance deteriorate;
• come in late and leave early; or
• have more accidents or altercations with colleagues.

The good news is that while studies show there's no quick fix for absenteeism, which needs long-term solutions, "presenteeism responds well to short-term action", enabling employers to quickly achieve dramatic positive change.

The key is to realise presenteeism is only a symptom, and to focus on the cause. The critical element is balance, Batman says.

"Balance is about how you manage your life – at work and at home – and it's just a series of simple steps.

"It's how you exercise, eat, drink, whether or not you smoke, how well-rested you are and whether you find time for yourself, family and colleagues."
Batman says these principles can be simplified and delivered in a workplace setting with surprising ease and effectiveness.

GCC's 12-month health and performance program, for example, helps employees improve their relationship with exercise, nutrition, sleep and psychological wellbeing to instil renewed personal responsibility, self-belief and resilience.

Sackett says participants from the 2015 program reported substantial improvements in sleep, stress levels and overall happiness, and on average gained the equivalent of 10 days in lost time.
"Employees were spending more of the time they were at work actually working – and they were enjoying it more," she says.

Batman adds that by investing in their people, and shifting the needle on the key metrics of sleep, stress and happiness, employers can make measurable improvements in productivity, and reduce the phenomenon of lost time.

Source HR Daily Tuesday, 15 March
https://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&nav=1&selkey=3893&utm_source=daily+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily+Email+Article+Link

Poor Leaders are Costing Employers

One of the most important qualities a leader can possess is the ability to inspire trust in the workplace, however, it is something that appears to be on the decline within organisations. When trust declines in a workplace relationship, so too does productivity. Everything will take much longer and costs will increase, all to make up for that lack of trust.

Stephen M.R Covey, author of The Speed of Trust; the one thing that changes everything, calls the extra effort that goes into checking and validating employees work by leaders the “low trust tax”.
In the same way that when there is a lack of trust productivity goes down and costs go up, when there is a high level of trust, productivity increases and costs go down.

Covey believes that the need for trust in the workplace is obvious and it is a “financial, not just social requirement”. “"You can put a value on it," he said. "The ability to create trust is the number one competency of leadership needed today, more than any other”.
Trusting your employees, as a leader, makes you better at everything else that you need to achieve at work.

The thirteen behaviours that high trust leaders possess, according to Covey, are;

1. Talking straight – They say what is on their mind, and don't hide their agenda. Most employees don't believe their bosses are communicating honestly.
2. Demonstrating respect – Actions show leaders care. They should be sincere. People will notice if an action is motivated by a lesser reason.
3. Creating transparency – Leaders should tell the truth in a way that can be substantiated. Transparency is based on principles of honesty, openness, integrity and authenticity.
4. Righting wrongs – To right a wrong is much more than apologising. It involves making restitution. With customers it might include that free gift along with the sincere apology.
5. Showing loyalty – Leaders need to give credit to the individuals responsible for success. A leader should never take credit for the hard work of others.
6. Delivering results – The fastest way to build trust is to deliver results. 
7. Getting better – When others see leaders continually learning and adapting to change, they become inspired to do the same. Covey suggested two ways to get better. First, seek feedback from those around you. Second, learn from your mistakes;
8. Confronting reality – If leaders are honest about the difficult issues and address them head-on, people will trust them. 
9. Clarifying expectations – It is important to focus on a shared vision of success up front. When expectations are not clearly defined at the beginning, trust and productivity both decline. A lot of time is wasted due to leaders not clearly defining expectations.
10. Practising accountability – Leaders must hold themselves accountable, and take responsibility for poor results. It is a normal response to blame others for failure, but when leaders fail, they need to take responsibility for themselves.
11. Listening first – Actively listening builds trust. Leaders need to learn not to go through the 'mechanics' of listening and give the impression they are listening when really they are not.
12. Keeping commitments –This is one of the most important components of inspiring trust in the workplace. When leaders keep a commitment they build trust. Leaders must be careful when making commitments, and make only those they can keep. 
13. Extending trust - Leaders should extend trust to those who have earned it and are still earning it, but show caution to those who have given reason to believe that they are not capable of being trusted.

Essential HR Disciplines for Salesforce Effectiveness

Often, when HR professionals are asked why they aren't more involved, common responses include, a common response is that “Sales kind of does its own thing." Sales leadership does carry the main responsibility for sales effectiveness, however, Human Resources need to increase their involvement in salesforce effectiveness. Why? Basically, companies that do not involve HR in salesforce effectiveness stall their growth.

Here are three of the core Human Resources disciplines that help to drive salesforce effectiveness;

Talent

HR partners will often be requested to help Sales Management with recruiting specific job roles. Sometimes, the Sales team accuses the HR team of not understanding the skill set required for those jobs. The Sales & Human Resources teams need to work together and be able to strategise together. One key strategy would be to focus on talent, this includes; managing poor performance and providing better training for the sales team.

Motivation

The next core element of Human Resources that is vital to maintaining a high-performing sales team is motivation. Sales employees often have a different perspective from the rest of the employee population and are usually more motivated by product quality, marketing influence and achievable goals than their non-sales colleagues, and less motivated by performance management and equity rewards.

Compensation ranks high on their list of concerns, but are these organizations more productive because they pay more, or are they paying more because they're more productive? Paying at or above the market doesn't mean performance will follow. Pay and performance are vital components of salesforce engagement and motivation.

Productivity

There is a strong relationship between sales force effectiveness and time allocation. Companies who spend more time on sales, and less on other duties, such as administration, often have greater sales productivity.

Within any sales organization there is opportunity for productivity to increase and can directly translate to the company's growth. Sales organizations need HR disciplines to align talent with strategy, assess opportunities for increased motivation, and identify barriers of productivity. HR has a very relevant, hands-on role in contributing to sales force effectiveness.

3 Common Employment Law Questions Answered

Sometimes employment law can be difficult to comprehend. Here are three common work place situations and their legal ramifications.
 
1: DISMISSAL DUE TO ILLNESS

There are three potential areas of legal exposure:

•    unfair dismissal;
•    unlawful termination; and
•    discrimination

From time to time an employee will have to leave your employment due to long term health issues. They may decide to resign or you may have to eventually consider dismissing them. It is beneficial to consider as many ways possible to help them back to work – dismissal should be a last resort and could be deemed unfair if not managed properly.

If continued employment is no longer achievable because there are no reasonable adjustments that can be made, it may be fair for you to dismiss them.

The Fair Work Act 2009 states that an employer must not dismiss an employee because the employee is temporarily absent from work due to illness or injury.

The Fair Work Regulation 2009 provides that it is not a “temporary absence” if the employees absence from work extends for more than 3 months , or the total absences of the employee , within a 12 month period , have been more than 3 months. The employer still requires a valid reason to dismiss the employee, even if the employee has been absent on unpaid leave for three months or over.

We suggest you ask the employee to provide medical information on his capacity for work and what support he might need to return to work.

2: EVIDENCE OF ILLNESS

You can insist on employees providing evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that they are entitled to sick leave, for example, a medical certificate or statutory declaration. That being said there is no specific timeframe as the timeframe required is “as soon as practicable”.

For this reason you should devise a written policy that stipulates that your employees provide such information within a specific timeframe. Your policy should also specify that your employees inform their manager directly of their absence (when possible), or phone their manager within a certain timeframe to explain why they cannot make it to work and when they expect to return.

3: NOTICE OF REDUNDANCY

When dismissing an employee it is necessary to give them notice. The notice commences when the employer tells the employee that they want to end the employment. If you notify them of their redundancy just before leave, the time spent on annual leave will count towards their notice period.

Managing poor performance and behaviour

In order to maintain a harmonious, efficient and consistent work environment, the manner in which you deal with bad behavior is particularly important.

Bad, disruptive or negative behavior in the workplace is essentially a rebellious form of underperformance, and may be triggered from a number of factors including:

•                    An employee’s confusion or ignorance regarding their goals, expectations, standards to be upheld and resulting consequences

•                    Personality or cultural clashes

•                    Incompetency in the tasks or skills required of the employee

•                    Insecurity or uncertainty in their performance resulting from lack of praise or feedback

•                    Indolence, poor work ethic or environment

•                    Issues in an employee’s personal world

•                    Feeling victimized by workplace bullying

Developing a strategy on how to deal with such behavior, prior to having to deal with such situations is crucial. In the case that the issue results in termination and is taken to Fair Work, it is imperative to have a clear trail of documentation. These documents should include clear procedures on how to manage underperformance and a job description that highlights the expectations, roles and targets of each employee. 

Employees need to be aware of their job descriptions and of the employers’ management of work performance. Should management of underperformance become necessary, or should an employee violate employment conditions, documentation of interviews should be kept, as should any email communication. To help avoid small issues resurfacing, documentation of the management of each individual incident is helpful. 

Note however, not all issues of underperformance may need a formal address; the answer may be as simple as implementing of a culture of regular feedback to improve employees’ performance.

There are a few important steps in managing bad behaviour. These are:

1.   Identify the issue

2.   Assess the issue

3.   Discuss the issue with the employee in a private conversation

4.   Devise a solution as a team

5.   Monitor performance

A few other keys to remember when dealing with underperformance or any work related issue is to steer clear of using business jargon in conversation, and opt for a more relatable choice of words to avoid alienation or misunderstanding.  An employee should come away from the conversation with a clear understanding of the expectations of them in the workplace, the improvement required, and any follow up steps that will be taken

To find out more, or for assistance with managing poor performance or behaviour, contact Annette at End2End Business Solutions on (02) 8977 4002.

Changes to Bullying Measures in the Fair Work Act - 1 Jan 2014

Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, employers are obliged to take all reasonably practicable steps to manage health and safety risks in their workplaces.  Bullying is one such health and safety risk, and failure to manage and prevent bullying could constitute a breach of the Act and could have serious repercussions, not just for those bullying or being bullied, but for your organisation as a whole.

As from 1 January 2014, the Federal Government will introduce new federal anti-bullying laws which are designed to stop workplace bullying promptly.  However, the laws do not give bullying victims an entitlement to monetary compensation or reinstatement of their position.  From 1 January 2014, a worker who is being ‘bullied at work’ or believes they have been bullied at work will be able to apply directly to the Commission for an order to stop the bullying.

These new laws will cover contractors, subcontractors, outworkers, apprentices, trainees and students gaining work experience as well as volunteers.

Under the new provisions, a worker can bypass his or her employer and lodge a claim directly with the Commission. The Commission is required to deal with an application within 14 days after the application is made - the time limits will mean an employer will have very little time to investigate, assess, and respond to a claim. Under the new laws, employees can formally require the Fair Work Commission to order employers to take action against bullying colleagues and managers. The FWC will have the power to issue an order to the alleged bully or bullies, to put a stop to the disputed behaviour. 

With the introduction of these new laws, it is essential that an organisation has an effective workplace bullying policy which includes:

1. a definition of workplace bullying, including a statement that workplace bullying is unlawful;

2. a complaints process; and

3. information about the consequences for a worker who has engaged in workplace bullying.

Bullying is defined as follows:

A worker is bullied at work if an individual or a group of individuals repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards the worker or a group of workers of which the worker is a member and that behaviour creates a risk to health and safety. 

It is irrelevant whether the individual or individuals who are bullying intend to bully the victim.

It is important to note that bullying involves repeated unreasonable behaviour. An isolated incident is insufficient. 

Importantly, the definition has retained the exemption for reasonable management action which is carried out in a reasonable manner.  (A performance assessment/review that you disagree with will not constitute bullying!) 

Bullying can include more obvious and overt behaviours, such as: 

•                    intimidation

•                    verbal abuse

•                    assault

•                    physical aggression/violent behaviour

•                    spreading rumours about someone

•                    constant name calling

•                    practical jokes

•                    harassment/sexual harassment,

•                    trolling on social media.

But bullying can also include behaviours such as:

•                    constant unjustified criticism or complaints

•                    constant threats to sack or demote

•                    excluding someone from workplace activities

•                    inconsistent and arbitrary enforcement of rules

•                    setting unreasonable timelines

•                    deliberately changing work arrangements in order to inconvenience someone

•                    setting tasks that are unreasonable

•                    excessive scrutiny of work performance

•                    withholding information or tools required to perform work, and

•                    taking credit for another employee's work and failing to acknowledge that employee.

Examples of the sorts of orders the Commission may make include:

•             regular monitoring of behaviours by an employer;

•             compliance with the employer’s workplace bullying policy;

•             provision of information by the employer;

•             additional training to employees; and

•             amendment of the employer’s workplace bullying policy.

What will this mean for Employers?

It would be expected that employers' processes for handling complaints about bullying will be in the spotlight. Therefore, over the next few months until 1/1/2014, it will be important that employers use the time remaining to review and improve their policies and framework regarding bullying. 

Businesses should ensure that performance management and investigation processes are fair and reasonable.

They should have appropriate policies that detail the action taken when an employee makes a grievance or complaint about bullying behaviour, and appropriate mechanisms in place for addressing concerns of workplace bullying.  All employees should have a copy of the policy, or at least know where and how to access the policy.

In the event of an application to the FWC, any workplace investigations conducted will be open to scrutiny. You must be able to show that you have acted with fairness. Organisations may also need to prove that they have given employees training or guidance in relation to their policy, so all employees are aware of what they need to do if they think they are being bullied.