HR Solutions Weblog

This past week has been an interesting one in the number of client issues all centering around the client allowing the employees to “run the show”.  Employees coming and going as they please with no regard to Business Needs, Policies and Procedures, disregard for Safety Policies, or inappropriate behavior in the workplace.  As I have talked about many times before on this blog, we come back to the question; “What Does Your Employee Handbook Say”?  It is critical for businesses to not only have a solid handbook in place but equally important to ensure that your business is enforcing those Human Resource policies consistently and regularly.  Often we find that our clients just need our guidance on either rolling out their Employee Handbooks or teaching them how to deal with disciplinary issues; other clients have HRSolutions, LLC come in and carry out all the disciplinary problems directly with the employees.  The real question for this week is:

Are you comfortable that you are recognizing and addressing employee disciplinary problems or do you need some assistance?  Did you know that unaddressed disciplinary issues can impact your business revenue by 20% or more?

Scenario:  An employee has been with you for 2 years.  In the past their work has just been so-so, but you felt it was better to have a body in the role than to start recruiting.  Lately, however, the employee’s work habits have steadily gotten worse and you want to just fire them.  You call us for assistance in this termination, here are the questions we will ask:

• What does the employee’s most recent performance review state about quality?
• What documentation do you have of subsequent conversations about performance?
• Are there employees whose performance is the same or worse than this employee?

If you do not have documentation on the above bullet points it is critical that you start to gather this data.   Documentation is the name of the game, and that is written documentation.  Even if you talk to an employee verbally you should have documentation of that conversation.  Systematically documenting poor performance, along with a solid policy on your disciplinary structure provides a solid and legal foundation for terminating a long-standing employee.

At least several times a week, we are asked questions about employees' breaks.  Every state is different, but in Maryland, there is no law that states you must give employees a break!  Yes, I said, “there is no law requiring breaks in Maryland.”  An employer who chooses to provide a break, however, does not have to pay wages for lunch periods or other breaks in excess of 20 minutes where the employee is free to leave the worksite (or workstation if leaving the workplace is physically impractical), in fact takes their lunch or break (whether freely choosing to leave or remain at the worksite), and the employee does not actually perform work.

If employees are told their pay will be reduced each day by one-half hour for lunch, and they are not free to take this lunch period without an expectation or reasonable understanding that they must work or be on hand to work, they must be paid for the time. A "reasonable understanding" that they must work or be on hand to work is a condition in which it is generally known, or the employee reasonably believes, that failure to perform work (or be available "on hand" to perform work) during their break will result in some negative effect on employment.

Consistency is the number one priority in managing your Human Resource issues!   We do strongly believe in solid employee handbooks for a reason….they are the number one foundation behind ensuring you are consistent in your HR Practices.

Here is a great example of why consistency is so important:  Consider a small business owner (less than 50 employees required for FMLA).  Employee #1, a 31-year-old white male that has been with the company for 9 months, Owner grants 12 weeks of FMLA so employee can buy a house and be home with his new baby.  Employee #2, a 63 year old female, has been with the company for 9 years puts in a two-week-in-advance request for a particular day off and is turned down by the owner because “we are too busy.”  When Employee #2 complained to the owner, we were called. 

Those of you who are our clients know what our first question was:  “What does your handbook say?”  In this case, since we wrote the handbook, I knew for a fact that this company’s policy stated:  PTO would be granted with two weeks advanced notice.  I also knew there was no policy for FMLA, as government regulations require 50 or more employees and I knew we had written a policy stating this company did not allow unpaid leaves of absence.  This employer has not set a precedent for any future unpaid personal leaves, despite what the company handbook states.  In other words, inconsistency in this case has potentially left the employer vulnerable to any employee claims that they may have been treated unfairly.

The lesson?  Being consistent with written HR policies (or at the very least, from situation to situation) will help protect your company, and help your employees know what is expected of them at all times.