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Managing an employee out of the business

Posted by sharky77 on Sat, 29/10/2011 - 20:06

 I am a stand-alone HR Manager in medium sized company. I took over this year after the previous HR Manager left. A few months after I started I was informed by senior management that a member of staff who has been with us for 6 years, was to be performance managed out of the business. I advised an informal performance review should be commenced which was. There was no improvement and as such I have then advised to move to a formal process. The management decided to give another 4 weeks to give him a further period of review. If he does not improve, it looks like he will be invited to a disciplinary and then dismissed.

We are due to hold a meeting with him to set the objectives for the next four weeks, but he wants his manager to be present. The reason the manager is not being asked at this meeting is that the manager has just taken over managing  this individual and instead its the unit head that will hold this objectives setting meeting. The current problem is I am having with this is that the member of staff wants his manager present, the unit head is refusing his request. I have explained to the member of staff that its not a disciplinary meeting so his line manager does not need to be present although I know the manager can be present and I have explained to senior management about having his line present, but they will not allow this to happen!

I should explain the unit head decided to manage this whole issue, as he has been indirectly managing the member of staff historically, so feels he should lead this performance management process.

I feel I am being batted between the employee and the senior management and I do things will get worse. I should also add they do see the whole process as being risky but they are prepared to take the risk and will not go for a compromise agreement straight away.

I apologise if this long winded but I would really welcome some advice as I am on my own on this one. Its good experience but its getting too messy for my liking. Should this happen again in the future I can avoid this by putting proper HR measures into place, but time is not on my side on this one.

Thanks in advance!

 

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Editor's Note - May 10

Had a busy week with two days at the Responsible Business Summit in London. What struck me was the appetite for sustainability in the corporate world. I spoke to senior figures from multinationals who knew wholeheartedly that businesses in the future would not succeed if the society around them failed.

Much of this appetite was understandably focused on collaboration - the future of sustainability. Words that were previously indicative of success - power, might, scale, size - are no longer enough in the open source, peer-reviewed future where opponents will not simply grumble and moan and then leave you in peace. Companies must work with governments, NGOs, charities and social enterprises as a matter of course. And even competitors, where necessary.

Facilitating this collaboration is the big challenge of the next five years. Highly-strung and ego-centric companies, feverish with the need to protect their brand, will struggle the most, but it's either adapt or die.

The business/charity relationship is one of the most interesting focal points. Business power can drive positive social change in so many ways but charities are the key holders to communities. As businesses are expected more and more to play a stake in the future, charity partnerships should be top of the corporate priority list. Businesses that don't work closely with a charity will find themselves with reputational problems.

There's a lot more to CSR, of course, but collaboration is the bedding on which CSR will rest. Businesses can no longer find the answers to all their problems in their own resources and assets.

And for many that's a scary thought.

Any thoughts, thoughts or questions, drop me a line on editor@hrzone.co.uk.

Best wishes

Jamie

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