HR News >> Browse Articles >> General News
HR News >> Browse Articles >> HR News
How to Deal With Loyal but Incapable Employees
Source: Third Sector
June 29, 2009
HR CLINIC Q Is there an alternative to disciplining and dismissing an incompetent but long serving employee?
A Rushing headlong into the latter stages of your capability procedure may not always be a smart move.
If nothing has been done until now – and I’m afraid this is all too frequently the case – then you need to start at the beginning: set down standards, monitor improvements and move towards dismissal only if all else fails.
Only if you can demonstrate that there is no reasonable prospect of any significant improvement, no matter what you might do, can it conceivably be fair to dismiss an employee without taking steps to rectify the situation.
If it is obvious to everyone that things will not improve, and you want to recognize the employee’s loyalty to the organization, there are other options available to you. Depending on the employee’s age, you might consider enhancing his or her pension to enable early retirement. Or you could try to identify a less demanding role for the employee to carry out until he or she finally leaves your service.
In many smaller charities, the two latter options might not be practical – you might need to get rid of the employee for financial or organizational reasons. In such cases you should consider a negotiated departure: you give the employee some money, and he or she agrees to leave.
To cover your back, you should consider underpinning this departure with a compromise agreement under which the employee gives up the right to complain in law after he or she leaves, and both parties accept a mutual termination of the employment contract.
Such an agreement will probably cost you more in the short term – after all, you’re having to pay the employee to give up his or her legal rights; but it does give you the comfort of knowing that the matter is finally and safely disposed of.
And even if you do go down the capability procedure route, you can always consider a compromise agreement at the end of it as an alternative to defending costly employment tribunal proceedings.
More HR Clinic at thirdsector.co.uk/ resources/management
Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. May 26, 2009
© 2009 Third Sector. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
© YellowBrix 2009
jirasaksuwon
4 months ago
20 comments
It's a very good solution with proper steps.