Tag: Performance Standards

Case Study: Alcoholic Employee Must Meet Employer’s Performance Standards

A recent federal court decision notes that disabled employees or employees with substance abuse problems must comply with an employer’s policies and meet reasonable performance standards. Stephen Drizos, a long-term employee and financial advisor for PNC Investments, suffered from alcoholism. Some years after he began his employment, his alcoholism started to impact his attendance at […]

mental health

3 Mental Health Mindsets: A Short but Useful Guide

Although mental health issues are often unseen, hidden, and stigmatized, they are on par in importance with physical health challenges. An employee with a mental health issue can be just as significantly sidelined from being productive as one with an injured limb. The following insights aren’t designed to make the reader a therapist or fix […]

Quebec arbitrator reverses termination of probationary employee—not sufficiently unsatisfactory!

by Marc Ouellet Do employers in Canada have absolute discretion when it comes to probationary employees’ performance evaluations and whether or not to maintain employment after the probationary period? In Union des employées et employées de service, section locale 800 v. Limocar Estrie Inc. (available only in French), where the business in question was unionized, […]

Dealing with ‘smart slackers’? Coaching can be solution

It’s March, a time when employers find themselves dealing with office pools, college rivalries, and a tendency for sports fans to shift their attention from work to the college basketball national championship tournament. The distraction of the “big dance” can cause even the best employees to slack off as they follow games during the workday […]

Selecting Your Outsourcing Vendor

Letke, who is founder and CEO of Integrity HR, Inc., in Louisville, Kentucky, offered her tips at BLR’s Strategic HR Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. How Do You Identify Providers/Partners/Vendors? There are a number of helpful sources for finding outsourcing options, says Letke, including: Referrals, networking, colleagues Newspapers and magazines (HRO Today) Internet Mailings Professional […]

The power of a PIP – performance improvement plan

By Marie-Julie Lanctôt Under their management rights, employers may establish fair, accurate, and achievable performance standards. A recent decision from the Labour Relations Board of Quebec, Piché et Impérial Tobacco Compagnie ltée, 2012 QCCRT 0600 (decision available in French only), serves to illustrate how Canadian employers may properly dismiss employees for poor work performance despite […]

EEOC Guidance on Disciplining an Employee with a Disability

Have you ever tried to discipline an employee for workplace misconduct only to hear for the first time that his disability caused the misconduct? Did you then wonder how you should proceed? If that has ever happened to you, then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) recent guidance, “The Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]: Applying […]