Termination

3 Key excerpts on "Termination"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  Introduction to Human Resource Management

  A Guide to HR in Practice

  • Charles Leatherbarrow, Janet Fletcher(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • CIPD - Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  17

  Ending the employment relationship

  LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  After studying this chapter, you should:

  • be able to describe the different ways in which the employment relationship might end;
  • understand the meaning of fair and unfair dismissal;
  • be aware of the legislative implications of redundancy;
  • understand that redundancy has an impact upon both those made redundant and those who survive the process.

  Introduction

  This chapter is an introduction to employment law in respect to Termination of the employment contract. It is not a replacement for taking sound legal advice.

  Ultimately, the employment contract ends. There are varieties of circumstances that cause this to happen. The most common reasons fall into two categories: 1) the employer may terminate the contract of employment; 2) the employee may terminate the contract of employment.

  Termination of the contract of employment

  Termination by the employee

  There are wide ranges of reasons why an employee may decide to terminate the relationship with their employer. Largely, these are either personal or career-related. Several typical examples of each are listed below:

  • Personal reasons:
    • to take care of a sick relative;
    • to care for children or grandchildren or an elderly parent;
    • to move to another area or country;
    • to escape from a hostile culture or unfriendly co-worker;
    • to take a career break;
    • to retrain or improve educational qualification;
    • to retire;
    • ill-health.
  • Career-related reasons:
    • resigning to take up a post with another employer;
    • to undertake a full-time course;
    • a desire for a career change.

  From an organisation’s perspective, it is important to find out reasons for the Termination, especially if there is high labour turnover. Part of HR’s role would be to investigate reasons for leaving. One common option is to use exit interviews.

  KEY CONCEPT: EXIT INTERVIEWS

  Data from exit interviews is useful to both those who manage the employment relationship and to HR planners. The objective of the exit interview is to try to find out the reasons for leaving. This may be difficult, as leavers may not always be truthful about their real reasons for quitting. For instance, they may not admit to having had difficulties with their manager and believe they may, at some later date, require a reference; they may simply wish to keep their options open to return to the organisation.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Employer's Handbook 2017-2018

  • Barry Cushway(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  14

  Terminating Employment

  T here are various ways that the employment relationship can come to an end, the most common being that the employee resigns, retires or is dismissed. It is critical to distinguish between a voluntary resignation and a dismissal, because it is only if there has been a dismissal that an employee can pursue a claim for unfair or wrongful dismissal, or redundancy.

  Meaning of dismissal

  A dismissal occurs when:

  • the contract is ended by the employer with or without notice;
  • a fixed-term contract expires without being renewed;
  • the employee ends the contract with or without notice and is entitled to do so because of the employer’s unreasonable conduct (known as ‘constructive dismissal’).

  Dismissal with notice

  When you dismiss someone that person is entitled either to the period of notice set out in the contract of employment, or to the statutory minimum period of notice set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996, whichever is the more favourable. The statutory periods of notice are:

  • less than one month’s employment – no statutory entitlement;
  • one month to two years’ employment – one week;
  • two years’ to 12 years’ employment – one week for each complete year of employment;
  • 12 years’ employment or more – 12 weeks.

  For senior staff the contractual periods of notice are very often much longer than the statutory rights to notice, six months being common for directors.

  An exception to these notice provisions is any employees engaged for a specific task that is not expected to last more than three months, unless they have continuous employment that takes them over that limit.

  When you give notice it should be in writing and should clearly state the last day of employment.

  Notice by the employee

  An employee is legally required to give you one week’s notice after one month’s service, but this does not increase with length of service, unless provided for in the contract. Subject to this statutory minimum, notice is otherwise that which is set out in the contract of employment.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Bringing Micro to the Macro

  Adapting Clinical Interventions for Supervision and Management

  • Ruth Supranovich, Richard Newmyer(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  While rare in the outpatient setting, forced Termination or involuntary discharge can be far more common in residential treatment settings. Client behavior that does not conform to the institutional rules can quickly result in the client being “kicked out” or asked to leave. Many facilities will have a list of “house rules” and policies that define consequences for violations of these rules. Depending on the severity of the rule violation, a client or resident may have a number of chances to change behavior or a series of warnings culminating in eventual dismissal. Rarely is this exit celebrated and this is the scenario most akin to an employee being fired.

  The Macro Arena

  In organizations, Termination occurs when an employee resigns, retires, is laid off, or is fired. As with clinical practice, the ending can be initiated by the employee or the employer and the frequency and causes of Termination are important to understand. Employee Termination is costly for an organization for many reasons including loss of productivity, recruitment costs, and damage to morale (O’Connell & Kung, 2007; Tracey & Hinkin, 2008). When skilled employees leave, organizations lose talent and competitive advantage (Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001). In human services, there is the added cost for the client in terms of interrupted continuity of care and negative impacts on client outcomes. For example, Tremblay, Haines, and Joly (2016) found that staff turnover in youth residential-care settings was associated with increased length of services and subsequent readmissions for clients. For these reasons, human service organizations want to minimize employee turnover and seek to discover what key factors can influence employee retention.

  Many of the factors identified in the literature as impacting employee turnover are related to the topics discussed in previous chapters. A centennial review of this research suggested that employers use validated hiring criteria and processes to screen out employees at high risk of leaving, as well as pay attention to onboarding and orientation, as most turnovers occur when new employees struggle to adjust to the demands of a new job (Hom, Lee, Shaw, & Hausknecht, 2017). Major predictors of employee turnover in social work are due to organizational rather than employee characteristics, suggesting that there is much supervisors, managers, and leaders can do to prevent employee turnover (Mor Barak, Nissly, & Levin, 2001). Prior chapters have described how supervisory and management practices can drive employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention (e.g., Buckingham & Coffman, 2016), and this is supported in the literature on employee turnover in social services. For example, organizations that valued rewards for employees and provided supportive and competent supervisors were found to significantly impact employee turnover rates in child welfare agencies (Shim, 2014; Smith, 2005), and higher levels of social support and job autonomy were found to mitigate turnover in social services (Kim & Stoner, 2008).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book