About Your Signature Assignment
Avery Foster is an employee who is complaining to have received a termination due to race and breach of implied contract. He filed a lawsuit claim in that he had been terminated from his previous employment place where he had been assured of employment without any form of contract. The defendant claimed that the organization did not have implied contract for employment and that he was employed at will. Although he claims to have been terminated without any cause, he signed the employment agreement that included information about when an employee could experience employee termination. A progressive Discipline Policy is essential for most organizations as it identifies and addresses any employee issues arising in the organization.
Discipline Issues
The disciplines issues to be attended to in this case include attendance and conduct. Foster has been arriving job late which was proved by the time card presented. The time shown on the card was not the actual time he arrived at the workplace which made it issues among the ones that led to his termination. Avery was not meeting attendance criteria as he attended the workplace later than expected and went ahead to forge the time card. It was clear that the time card was to be treated as a company bill and not a personal bill; hence, falsification was taken as another discipline issue to be addressed.
The conduct was also another issue that required addressing. The way Foster behaved while in that company proved poor conduct as he refused verbal counseling that was related to falsification of the time card. Foster also did not change his recording in the time card even after the counseling after which it was considered falsification. He also drove the company truck to a sandwich store which was misconduct according to the requirements of the organization. Foster ensured a paid break by falsifying time and giving excuses for the time he recorded wrongly. That can be termed as a conduct issue and also require to be addressed by the company.
Provisions of the Policy
The provisions of the policy should allow the company to modify it or apply it in the manner that will suit the circumstances of the company. Companies or rather organizations employing the policy should have permission to use it in the manner that will suit the organization. Some categories of offenses cannot permit the company to follow all the levels of the policy since some of the misconducts are so serious that they cannot warrant a second chance. In such cases, an employer can terminate an employee without giving a warning, and in this case, some steps are excluded. Similarly, some undesirable behaviors, however, do not result in immediate termination and this case, an employer should follow all levels required by the policy before terminating an employee. Therefore, the provisions of the policy should permit employers to modify it or use it in a way that it suits the prevailing circumstance.
Independent Supervisor Actions
A supervisor may act independently when setting and communicating employees expectations. They are also responsible for holding employees accountable for the misconduct. They also conduct a fair and objective assessment of any situation presented. Supervisors are responsible for modeling desired conduct that should be used for assessing employee conduct. They are also expected to document conversations between them and employees that can be used against the employee in case of misconduct. The supervisor should seek upper management approval when determining the appropriate level of disciplinary action. What is more, supervisors should discuss any decision to escalate disciplinary action to another level with a Human Resource.
Involvement of Human Resource
Supervisors should involve a human resource when deciding whether to escalate the disciplinary action to another level. In this case, the supervisor should not work individually as they are prohibited by the policy to decide on the action to take on their own. Human resources are also responsible for coaching managers on how to write letters and making effective communication with employees; therefore, they should be involved in this step. They also ensure increased employees comply with the University policies hence they are included in the counseling level of disciplinary actions.
Roles of Human Resource
Human Resource is required in the disciplinary action where they decide the most suitable action that should be taken for the level of misconduct. The human resource also conducts more complex investigations that require intervention. The HR also reviews the documents during a disciplinary action to affirm the best level of action that an employee should face. They also advise employees on all the available measures of actions related to the misconduct so that they can promote change for the employees. Termination is done by HR which means they must intervene during the termination of any employee.
When a witness should be present
A witness is expected whenever a supervisor is documenting any form of warning as he may be required to prove when the misconduct was performed. Also, they should be present during the termination of an employee where they should justify the termination. Whenever an employee fails to change their misconduct, a witness is included as the person who will support the warnings given to the employee before a more severe action is taken. Finally, a witness should be present when the employee fails to sign employment policy so that any breach of contract can be confirmed by the witness as the individual who attested the occurrence.
Progressive Levels
The different sequences and progressive levels of discipline that an employee can receive include verbal caution, verbal warning, written warning, suspension, decision-making leave, and termination. The first step is to engage the employee in a verbal caution where the problematic behavior is mentioned. Verbal caution is done to alert an employee that a problem has been identified which must be addressed. From there, a verbal warning is given which is more serious than a verbal caution. It also identifies a problem existence especially after the employee is already aware of the problem after being cautioned. The warnings are documented as part of the employee’s personnel file and can last up to three months before a more serious step is taken.
Written warnings follow after a verbal warning, and it happens for any conduct that warrants a written warning or when a person conducts a wrong action during the period of verbal warning. The written warnings are also filed in the employee’s personnel file for future reference. The other level is suspension which is a bit serious than a written warning. Employees are suspended when the misconduct qualifies a suspension or when they engage in wrong conduct when they are in the period of written warning. The suspension information is filed and should remain in the employee file for three months.
If an employee does not change the problematic behavior during the suspension period, a decision-making leave is offered to the employee. The leave is offered to help employees decide if they should continue working for the organization or they should look for another organization where they are best suited. In case the employee chose to come back to the organization, they are expected to work harder to meet all the organizations demand or else, they receive a termination.
Termination is the last level that involves employee layoff from the company if the conduct warrants termination. Another reason is where an employee fails to change a bad behavior that had resulted in less serve discipline. This is the more severe consequence, and it decides several organizational stakeholders to decide termination of an employee. Also, the conduct must be unbearable to deserve a termination.
Merit Increase
Individuals who have proved to be good performers and who have exceeded their individual performance goals in the organization deserve a merit increase. Besides, those who have previously been involved in misconduct and manage to change completely should also be awarded merit increase. Individuals who have worked in a similar organization for more than five years without any form of misconduct qualify for a merit increase. The merit increase comes in the form of appreciation for the years they have worked in the organization to meet the goals. To promote organizational discipline, employees who adhere to all employment requirements for more than five years should be awarded merit increase. Their dedication towards meeting organizational goals deserves merit that is why employers should consider such individuals for merit increment.