In yesterday’s Advisor, we discussed the role of consistency in fighting off discrimination lawsuits. Today, when you might want to appear inconsistent, and an introduction to the very timely ADAAA Boot Camp.
In some situations, you’re not going to want to be consistent. You are going to want to make an exception. For example, your policies probably state that certain offenses—stealing or fighting—may result in termination. But let’s say you have a long-time employee who committed a relatively minor infraction of one of these rules.
You might want to make an exception in that case. When you realize that the action you are about to take is not consistent with your rules or past actions, prepare detailed documentation explaining your rationale. Otherwise, you open yourself to lawsuits (see yesterday’s Advisor.) For example, your documentation might state:
You have committed an offense that normally would result in your termination.
However, because of your
Long record of service to the company
and your
Exemplary work history
We can allow you to stay on. Had any of these factors not been present, we would not have been able to maintain your employment.
Now if you terminate a 3-month employee for the same offense, he or she won’t be able to make much of a claim.
New rules make ADA compliance harder than ever. Fix that with BLR’s unique day-long Boot Camp webinar all about ADA and the new ADAAA. Click here to find out more about this timely webinar.
How to Insure Consistency
How can you be sure that your treatment of employees is consistent? There are three keys:
- Clear policies. Help out everyone involved by insuring that clear policies and guidelines cover important behavioral, discipline, and termination issues.
- Central Oversight. Make sure that there is some sort of clearinghouse, probably HR, to make a review before significant discipline or termination is imposed. Individual managers aren’t in a position to know how other managers’ employees have been treated. HR is. In addition, someone in HR should review all terminations to check not only consistency, but appropriateness of the punishment, documentation, planning, exit interviews,
- Training. Make sure your managers and supervisors understand the importance of consistent treatment of employees. Train them to come to you when significant discipline issues arise. Better yet, mandate that they visit HR before terminating any employee for any reason.
Consistent Under the ADA? It Just Got Harder
It was tough enough to be consistent with employees with disabilities under the old ADA, and now they’ve changed the law so that many more employees can be covered. Are you and your managers and supervisors ready? Are you ready?
Fortunately, there’s timely help—Boot Camp. ADAAA Bootcamp is BLR’s new, daylong webinar that will get to the real nitty gritty of ADA—the existing rules and the new ones.
A whirlwind of changes has hit the ADA—are you ready to comply? BLR’s unique day-long boot camp Webinar trains all the managers you can fit around a phone. Find out more.
The date is June 7, 2011, from 11 am to 4:45 pm (Eastern Time—adjust for your time zone). As with all BLR webinars, one fee trains all the staff you can fit around a conference phone. You can get your (and their) specific phoned-in or emailed questions answered in Q&A sessions that follow each segment of the presentation, and your satisfaction is assured or you get a full refund.
Stay for the whole training and earn up to 5 hours of HRCI credit, right from your own office. Each of the four segments will include about 60 minutes of presentation time, followed by 15 minutes of live Q&A. Bring your whole team along, and get everyone trained at the same time for one low price.
What if you can’t attend on that date? Pre-order the conference CD. For more information on the conference and the experts presenting it, to register, or to pre-order the CD, click here. We’ll be happy to make the arrangements.
Please join us June 7.Get more information.
Great tip! It’s important to keep in mind that there are exceptions to every rule and sometimes it is appropriate to make an exception. Just make sure you’ve got documentation to show business justification for the exception.