Advice on employee please

capeverde

I have a bit of a situation. Took a guy on around 15 months ago. With respect to him, he is the most honest, willing person you will ever meet and he never lets you down. When he first started for us, he tended to just help me a lot and do basic fetching and carrying etc. However, as the company has grown, I spend less time on the factory floor. That has meant that he has had to learn basic processes to fit in with production.

The problem is, its now got to a stage, where everything he does is done wrong, despite training and many hours spent showing the most basic tasks, everything he produces needs to be re-made. We've had numerous chats talks etc and its got to the stage where I simply cannot afford to keep carrying him. It not just production mistakes, he misses things off from despatch, despite doing this process hundreds of times.

Ultimately its got to the stage where he's got to go, Ive given him a written warning detailing the issues and giving him a period of time to address these, but we all know that isn't going to happen, as he simply isnt able.

What I dont want to do is leave him in trouble financially where he cant claim benefits. What is the best way to part company that wont effect any claim he may need to make for his family?

As an addendum, he admits his mistakes and says its been making him ill with worry keep seeing things go wrong. I genuinely like him and want to help, but there has to come a time when a line is drawn in the sand as we arent a big company and simply cannot keep going as it is.

JamesK10

Progress through the written warnings 2 and 3 then sack him, any insurance protection about mortgages requires the job to last more than six months, at most nine months, with no advance notice that he knew he was going to get the sack. He will be required to sign on to claim it as well and expected to live on the redundancy in the excess period before they start paying up.

If he's been there 15 months and you're still being the most patient employer I've ever heard of (most would have canned him within the probation period) then he will be fine. Maybe on the 2nd warning just take him aside and just say "look, whatever it is, take time off and sort it out as you're running out of chances". Actually get him to design Idiot boards with the process numbered in big thick Permanent marker, anything he has forgotten reguarly, get him to write that out in red. Make him do a notebook-sized version of the same thing which he can carry around with him.

You sound like communication is clear and two way without you plotting to get rid of him as many HR departments would have done already.

If you've already done everything I suggest, the kindest thing you can do would be to let him work his notice and not take any time off before he goes which in a lot of places, comes up to nearly a month's wages separate to the small redundancy he will qualify for.

Either that or be cruel to be kind right now, these things just get even worse the closer to Christmas it gets and if his excess on his insurance was 90 days it would kick in for Christmas and New Year and give him a safety net.

I can sympathise having been there in a job which wasn't going well but I bucked my ideas up and took all the extra training needed to deliver as required. If he's not, plenty of other people will do the job just fine.

SueC_2

If he is as honest, willing and reliable as you say, it seems a shame to lose him if you don't really need to - those characteristics can be hard to replace. But it sounds like what you are expecting of him now is simply beyond his abilities.

Is there a less complicated / more repetitive role you could give him that requires a different skill base? It's difficult to make suggestions without knowing your business, but people who can't cope with the sort of activities you describe are quite often very good at the sort of mundane roles that would drive a lot of us doolally - production line work, cleaning work, basic assembly work, sticking stamps on envelopes all day, counting screws into packs of 10 - things that require very little thought or consideration, you can just 'set yourself going' in the morning and carry on at a steady pace till someone blows the whistle for you to stop.

KiKi

You have three choices:

a) move him into a role that suits his skill set

b) dismiss him for poor performance (which requires evidence, and it seems you probably have that - once the period of improvement is over you will review the plan, I assume, then make a decision to dismiss?)

c) manipulate a redundancy situation. You won't have to pay any redundancy payments if you only pay statutory anyway, but it looks better on his CV and if you're asked for a reference as to why he left.

Redundancy is wrong technically, and you leave yourself open to problems if he decides to challenge this. Unless, of course, you can genuinely lose the job, or put a slightly different job in place - if you did that then it would be a genuine redundancy situation, albeit driven by personnel rather than business need. But if he's not going to challenge it, it's definitely the nicest thing to do.

KiKi

KiKi

JamesK10 wrote: »

off before he goes which in a lot of places, comes up to nearly a month's wages separate to the small redundancy he will qualify for.

He won't qualify for any stat redundancy pay.

Uncertain

JamesK10 wrote: »

Progress through the written warnings 2 and 3 then sack him, any insurance protection about mortgages requires the job to last more than six months, at most nine months, with no advance notice that he knew he was going to get the sack. He will be required to sign on to claim it as well and expected to live on the redundancy in the excess period before they start paying up.

If he's been there 15 months and you're still being the most patient employer I've ever heard of (most would have canned him within the probation period) then he will be fine. Maybe on the 2nd warning just take him aside and just say "look, whatever it is, take time off and sort it out as you're running out of chances". Actually get him to design Idiot boards with the process numbered in big thick Permanent marker, anything he has forgotten reguarly, get him to write that out in red. Make him do a notebook-sized version of the same thing which he can carry around with him.

You sound like communication is clear and two way without you plotting to get rid of him as many HR departments would have done already.

If you've already done everything I suggest, the kindest thing you can do would be to let him work his notice and not take any time off before he goes which in a lot of places, comes up to nearly a month's wages separate to the small redundancy he will qualify for.

Well there is a load of nonsense in this post!

First of all, it is not a redundancy situation. It is a post, not a person that becomes redundant. So, unless the job no longer needs doing you can't make him redundant. Doing so would open the gates to an unfair dismissal claim.

So, it comes to capability which is a perfectly proper reason for dismissal providing the proper steps are followed. However the OP has already made up their mind that warnings are not going to work so if this gets out the process is flawed and the dismissal becomes unfair.

If you are going to go through the warning process it needs to be done properly and with an open mind giving the employee a reasonable chance to improve.

The final option is to pay them off, which need not cost a fortune. The only fully safe way to do this is via a compromise agreement which will incur some legal costs.

Uncertain

KiKi wrote: »

c) manipulate a redundancy situation.

Tut Tut KiKi!

KiKi wrote: »

Redundancy is wrong technically, and you leave yourself open to problems if he decides to challenge this.

KiKi

Indeed!

SueC_2

Uncertain wrote: »

Tut Tut KiKi!

But with the best of intentions... sometimes it's 'nice' to do what has the best outcome for the employee. No?

KiKi

Yes, I know, I know!

I'd not usually recommend it. But the OP's not doing it to get rid of someone they just don't like, or because it's convenient to get rid of a problem.

They have taken the right action, properly (from what we can see!), with a written warning, and a plan to improve performance. And nothing will change - the employee WILL be dismissed for poor performance. Which would be the right thing to do.

A way to make it nicer for the employee, which is what the OP wants, is to make it that they're not leaving for performance reasons, which helps with CVs, references and, as I understand it, benefit claims.

The OP could still do a redundancy properly - review the workload on the shop floor, and make a decision to change the roles around, and lose this job. Prob more hassle than it's worth, but if the OP really wants to do something nicer, then that's what they could do. I personally wouldn't (too many issues!) but if I knew the employee wouldn't challenge, and was confident I could back it up if they did, and really wanted to do something nice then it would be an option.

But as I say, open to problems, and if the employee was savvy and then challenged a redundancy on the back of a performance route, the OP won't be in a good place. Just throwing the options out there!

KiKi

ohreally

Do you have the capacity to create a role for the chap to be manoeuvred into?

If he's incapbale of improving there is little point in creating stress for both parties by disciplining. Remember, your business has changed and imposed expectations upon him which were not there at the begining - he did a good job for you once before, perhaps that can return with a bit of careful thought, it's not his fault the job has developed into what it has become.

Uncertain

SueC wrote: »

But with the best of intentions... sometimes it's 'nice' to do what has the best outcome for the employee. No?

That surely would be a compromise agreement with a glowing reference and a few months pay.