10: CHAPTER EMPLOYEE SEPARATION AND RETENTION
Managing Involuntary Turnover
Involuntary turnover: Turnover initiated by the organization (often
among people who would prefer to stay)
Companies need to invoke a discipline program for employees that
fail to meet performance requirements or will violate company
policies while on the job
Employment-at-Will Doctrine: The doctrine that, in absence of a
specific contract, either an employer or employee could sever the
employment relationship at any time
Employees that are fired sometimes sue their employers
Wrongful discharge suit attempts to establish:
o Violated implied contract
o Violated public policy
o Civil rights infringement
High monetary costs and personal safety risks to keeping poor
performers within the organization
o Principles of Justice
Employees more likely to respond positively to negative feedback
when they perceive the appraisal process as being fair on these
dimensions:
Fairness Perceptions
Outcome Fairness: the judgment that people make with
respect to the outcomes received relative to the outcomes
received by other people with whom they identify
o Fired employee feels it is unfair that others are not
losing their jobs
Procedural Justice: A concept of justice focusing on the
methods used to determine the outcomes received
o 6 Determinants
Consistency
Bias Suppression
Information Accuracy
Correctability
Representativeness
Ethicality
Interactional Justice: A concept of justice referring to the
interpersonal nature of how the outcomes were
implemented
o Explanation
o Social sensitivity
o Consideration
o Empathy
o Progressive Discipline and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Termination should come about at the end of a systematic
discipline program
Effective discipline programs have 2 central components:
Documentation specific publication of work rules, job
descriptions that should be in place prior to administering
discipline
Progressive punitive measures
Example:
o 1st offense: Unofficial verbal warning
o 2nd offense: Official written warning
o 3rd offense: Second official warning, with threat of
temporary suspension
o 4th offense: Temporary suspension and last chance
notification
o 5th offense: Termination (with right to go to
arbitration)
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): Method of resolving
disputes that does not rely on the legal system
Techniques that show promise in resolving disputes in a
timely, constructive, cost-effective manner
Stages:
o Open door policy subordinate and supervisor
attempt to arrive at settlement together
o Peer review panel of representatives from the
organization at same level of those in the dispute
hear case and attempt to help parties arrive at a
settlement
o Mediation Neutral third party via nonbinding
process tries to help disputants
o Arbitration Professional arbitrator from outside
the organization hears case and resolves it
unilaterally
o Employee Assistance and Wellness Programs (EAP)
EAP: Employer programs that attempt to ameliorate problems
encountered by workers who are drug dependent, alcoholic, or
psychologically troubled
Take proactive and preemptive focus on trying to prevent
health-related problems with employees
Individual employers must make own decisions regarding
how to balance privacy concerns with cost concerns and
how much pressure to place on employees whose lifestyles
put them at risk
o Outplacement Counseling
Definition: Counseling to help displaced employees manage the
transition from one job to another
Number of companies that offer outplacement support has
increased dramatically over recent years
Jeopardy Questions
Vocab
BARS (Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales): This performance appraisal
method has the advantage that it provides the evaluator with a clear description associated of
behaviors with each particular performance rating
Reliability: Employment tests that yield consistent results over time and
regardless of who is scoring them have this desirable quality
Utility: Term for the degree to which an employment test results in the selection
of better employees than if the test had not been used, producing economic value
for the employer
Employment at will: Term for the legal presumption that employees without
contracts of employment can be terminated at any time and for any reason not
specifically prohibited by law
Graphic Rating Scale: Widely-used type of performance appraisal that entails
numerical ratings of employees in terms of the degree to which they exhibit
specified traits or attributes on the job
If an employer tests candidates for a forklift operator job by having them operate
a fork lift under simulated conditions, CONTENT VALIDATION would be the
most appropriate way to validate that test.
Three things that should be done to maximize the value of feedback on
performance
o Not delayed quick feedback
o Specific
o Non-blaming constructive, forward-looking
Practically Speaking
Three things that should be considered in the design phase of a training program
o What training
o How to implement the training
o Goals for training
Three things that should be done when conducting employment interviews
o Structure same basic set of questions
o Job-related
o Create comfortable environment
o Take notes (either before or after interview)
Three things that should generally be done when administering discipline
o Usually termination not first response start with lesser form of
discipline, give warning, continue to get more aggressive with discipline
o Punishment should fit crime
o Some sort of due process; investigate situation to figure out what really
happened
Three things that should be done to maximize training transfer
o How do we make sure what employees learn in training transfers to the
workplace?
o Make training very applied, concrete
o Train in environment similar to workplace
Three things that should be done when conducting a criterion validation study
o Produce evidence of job relatedness
o Do a job analysis to find out KSAOs
o Give test to a sample of people (applicants in a validation study or current
employees)
o Try to determine if correspondence between rating on test and
performance
Thats SO Wrong!
If an employment test is valid, it has all of the qualities that an employer could
want and should be used
o Person could falsify and make themselves seem different than they really
are.
Selecting employees is a snap! You just get information on all of the candidates
and hire the best one.
o What kind of person are we looking for? Need to put all of the
information you get together. Figure out how to score people. Strengths
can offset weaknesses. What test has the most weight in evaluating a
candidate? What is really the most important to you? Combining all the
information is a difficult step in hiring.
Performance management is just a fancy term for doing annual performance
appraisals
o Standard of employment
o How to shape employment
o NOT just appraisal
When it comes to dealing with performance problems, you either give someone
more training or you terminate their employment
o Termination is sometime the answer, but could be other options. Provide
incentives for motivation. Also there are different forms of discipline.
The interview is clearly the best selection device available to employers!
o Should use different forms of testing applicants. Emotional tests,
cognitive tests, simulations. Interviews could be unstructured and biased.
Could stray from job-related issues.
Now that employers value diversity, the glass ceiling problem is a thing of the
past