Mediations, Terminations, and Layoffs
Human resource departments often take center stage when unpleasant events such as disputes, substandard performance, and downsizing occur. Employees need to be able to trust their human resource professionals to maintain appropriate confidentiality and a balanced perspective. Managers need to be able to trust, HR too, to know the laws and represent. The company’s perspective. The human resource professional should be well trained in mediation techniques and rely upon company policies to seek positive resolution. Some times, human resource managers are integral to the termination process, when employees are not able to resolve issues with management. Termination processes are subject to union labor contracts and laws, which can confound the situation. In spain, for instance, labor laws have traditionally protected older workers with near-guaranteed employment.
For departing employees, the HR department is often the last stop on their way out the door; human resource managers are thus in charge of leaving a favorable impression with the employees and collecting helpful input from the exit interview. This is never more true than when organizations terminate employees in layoffs. Employees who think the layoffs was handled fairly are. more apt to recommend the company to others and to return to work if asked. Employees who survive a layoff and stay employed with the company also evaluate the fairness of the downsizing process, according to another study, particularly in individualistic countries. Organizations that are able to demonstrate fairness are, therefore, more likely to make hoped-for financial gains from downsizing
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In sum, the role of HR is increasing for organizations worldwide, and top management is realizing human resource leadership is needed to create the cultures and positive business outcomes top corporations need to stay competitive
Summary
An organization’s human resource policies and practices create important forces that shape employee behavior and attitudes. In this chapter, we specifically discussed the influence of selection practices, training and development programs, and performance evaluation systems.
Implications for Managers
-An organization’s selection practices can identify competent candidates and accurately match them to the job and the organization. Consider assessment methods that are most likely to evaluate the skills directly needed for jobs you are looking to fill.
-Use training programs for your employees to achieve direct improvement in the skills necessary to successfully complete the job. Employees who are motivated will use those skills for their greater productivity.
-Training programs increase an employee’s self-efficacy-that is, a person’s expectation that he or she can successfully execute the behaviors required to produce an outcome (see Chapter7). Employees with high self-efficacy have strong expectations about their abilities to perform in new situations and are willing to exert the effort to get tasks done.
- Use performance evaluations to assess an individual’s performance accurately and as a basis for allocating rewards. Make sure the performance evaluations and as fair as possible. As demonstrated in Chapter7 in our discussion of equity theory, evaluations perceived as unfair can result in reduced effort, increases in absenteeism, or a search for another job.
-Give your employees the opportunity to participate in their evaluations so they understand the performance criteria and engage with the improvement process.