{"id":2825,"date":"2024-02-21T09:50:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2024-02-21T09:50:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:50:20","slug":"lets-deal-with-poor-performers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/2024\/02\/21\/lets-deal-with-poor-performers\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s deal with poor performers."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Misconduct or unacceptable behaviour occurs when a rule is broken, or some other unacceptable behaviour happens. Misconduct could lead to immediate disciplinary action, possibly leading to dismissal. The \u201cbreaking of a rule\u201d requirement means that the employer must prove that there was a rule against this conduct, that the employee was aware of the rule and that the employee in fact did not comply with this rule or policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The procedures for addressing poor performance are completely different to the normal disciplinary procedures. The \u201cperformance requirement\u201d of employees relates to the \u201cquality\u201d of his\/her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The starting point is now that the employer must ensure that all employees are fully aware of the \u201cCompany Standards\u201d for the job, and that the employee is fully trained to perform his duties. The employer therefore has a duty to provide the employee with a job description or \u201cduty sheet\u201d and should provide the required training to enable an employee to comply with this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


If it now becomes evident that the employee does not comply the quality requirements of the position, the poor performance process can commence with a \u201ccounselling session\u201d. This is an informal meeting where the employer tells the employee about his non-achievement of the required standards. Exact detail of how the standards are not met should be provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The employee should be given the opportunity to explain why he\/she thinks the standard is not met. It is vitally important that all the proceedings are recorded in detail, maybe even by means of a voice recording. These records will be required if the employee is later dismissed and the matter is taken up with the CCMA. You will have to prove that correct and fair procedures were followed, and you need records of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The employer must be specific about what improvement is required, what standard must be met, in what area and by when. The counselling process is termed as “evaluation, instruction, training or guidance.” Record this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Should the employee now persist in his\/her unsatisfactory performance, a poor performance hearing should be called. During this hearing the employer is obliged to consider whether the employee failed to meet a performance standard, if he\/she could reasonably be expected to have been aware of the required standard, whether a fair opportunity was given to the employee to meet the required standard, and most importantly, should assess whether or not dismissal is an appropriate sanction under the specific circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


This hearing should also comply with the procedural requirements as contained in the Code of Good Practice: Dismissal, in order to ensure that a fair process can be proven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


It is important that Management understands that if you fail to follow the correct process, you may have a red face when you arrive at the CCMA and your actions are assessed by a Commissioner\u2026not to mention the dent it may cause in your cashflow!
If you are uncertain, ask your labour law practitioner to provide you with clear guidelines.
E-mail us on info@law-at-work.co.za for any additional information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Misconduct or unacceptable behaviour occurs when a rule is broken, or some other unacceptable behaviour happens. Misconduct could lead to immediate disciplinary action, possibly leading to dismissal. The \u201cbreaking of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}