Potential Termination
A local not for profit organisation was faced with a difficult decision. A change in strategy and refocus on benefactor engagement meant that a 5+year staff member was not performing in the manner required by the Executive. The difficult decision was taken to terminate the employee. The organisation, who was a retained HR Solution+ customer, contacted the HR Dept to seek assistance in the correct procedure for termination.
The HR Dept advisor was surprised to hear that things were not working out. Rather than simply providing the steps to termination required under Fair Work legislation she questioned and challenged why the staff member, whom she knew to have been a positive contributor, was no longer meeting expectations. The response was that while he was technically capable he was not delivering the level of customer service the new model demanded. Our advisor steered them away from termination, recommending a training approach that built upon the technical capability while developing the people skills needed.
The outcome was that, following appropriate training, the long term employee was again contributing to the success of the benefactor engagement team. By providing a personalised and tailored approach, the HR Dept helped the organisation retain the employee without the associated risk, cost and disruption finding a new engagement manager would have entailed.
Redundancy
The downturn, in the Australian Mining Industry, meant that a small family run business needed to make changes to remain viable. This inevitably meant that several staff would need to be made redundant. The process was particularly challenging given that many of the close-knit team, made up of family and staff, had a long-term employment history in the business.
The HR Dept advised on the correct way to proceed and was also directly involved in redundancy consultation meetings with the staff. The process lead to a fair selection approach and offered support to employees to assist securing alternative work. The company achieved the necessary cost savings and a potentially arduous process was handled smoothly, fairly and with dignity.
