The Importance of Maintaining Accurate and Objective Employment Records
Employment record keeping is one of the most significant functions of human resource managers. Here, it is critical to point to the fact that records should be accurate and objective. To understand their importance, it is advisable to review the consequences of inaccurate recording as well as the lack of adequate employment record process. For instance, such gaps may lead to employee lawsuits. It can be explained by the fact that, without records, it is impossible to prove that an employer acted in a legally appropriate and acceptable manner.
The case is specifically critical when it comes to compromising employees’ sensitive and personal information and failing to protect it. Moreover, the lack of record keeping is associated with the inability to assess productivity levels of currently employed people as well as estimate their performance (Taylor & Emir, 2015). All in all, failing to keep employment records is disadvantageous for companies because it means that senior management is unaware of employees they work with, which may potentially result in ineffective decisions regarding workplace organization.
Examples of Formal and Informal Documentation
Formal documentation in employee files is that commonly required by law or standards of organization’s operation. Speaking of employment record keeping, the majority of details are formal. In particular, the examples of formal documentation are personal information, such as name, address, and work experience as well as health and payroll records. These details may be used in case of reviewing employee lawsuits and may directly affect legal outcomes. In general, formal documentation is helpful for guaranteeing adequate wage level, promotion, necessary sick leaves, and pay raises. Without formal information, it is impossible to regulate this area of employee relations.
Speaking of informal documentation, it stands for details that are not requested by legal provisions and both internal and external standards of operation. Informal documentation usually includes productivity and performance statistics, varying employee activities, and progress reports. This information may as well be helpful for protecting employees. For instance when it comes to wage- and promotion- related disputes, these details may become the ground for making a decision, especially in case of unjust treatment of employees.
The Most Significant Factor Ensuring an Effective Legal Termination
Based on what has been mentioned about employment record, it is believed that keeping documentation is the most critical factor contributing to effective legal termination. Here, it is as well essential to guarantee that employee records contain up-to-date and appropriate information regarding an individual, their working experience, and performance in the workplace. It is the only way to use this information properly in case of necessity and protect an employee, especially when it comes to termination in downsizing situation.
Speaking of the latter, employees may protect themselves by using formal and informal documentation in personnel files to prove that they should be valued by an organization. Still, in this case, it is critical to make sure that this information is reviewed from the perspective of comparing performance and productivity levels of different employees within one or different departments. In such a way, if an individual manages to prove that their performance is better and they are more effective workers compared to their colleagues, employment records may be perceived as the most significant factor ensuring legal termination and protection in case of downsizing.
Major Challenges Faced by Health Care Leaders
Philosophy known as the ethics of critique, justice, and caring is a multidimensional and complex approach to understanding ethics in the workplace. Based on three different dimensions, it is an ambiguous phenomenon that is connected to different challenges, especially for health care leaders. The reason for pointing to it is the fact that this philosophy addresses three distinct dimensions – institutional life (critique), community concerns (justice), and interpersonal relations (caring) (Mullen, 2012).
Among a variety of related issues, there are two most critical challenges to mention: social media and personal worldview. The motivation for selecting these two is the belief that they characterize the modern workplace.
The first challenge is connected to the trend toward sharing information regarding both personal and professional developments in one or several social networks. In case of the health care sector, in some instances, privacy of patients may be violated. Therefore, to balance this issue, it is essential for a leader to create an environment in the workplace in which employees will draw a distinct line between personal and professional life and realize the potential consequences of their activities in the virtual dimension. As for the second challenge, it is critical due to living in a multicultural society that connects people with different worldviews, especially religion. In this case, it is imperative to assure that patient needs are a priority for both employees and organizational policies regardless of the differences in worldview.
Outline of an Effective Succession Planning Process
Addressing retirement of management members is a complicated task. Therefore, to be ready for the unexpected consequences of such a development, it is essential to have a well-developed succession plan that may be used in case of replacing those retiring. In general terms, there are several points to keep in mind when developing a succession plan:
- Identify short- and long-term organizational objectives to understand what resources are needed to achieve them;
- Develop a list of the most effective employees, who are able to replace those retiring;
- Define the gaps in skills and knowledge that should be filled before replacing those retiring;
- Identify effective training and development initiatives and invest in making them less time-consuming.
To implement the abovementioned succession plan, it is critical to guarantee that several important details are taken into consideration. For instance, the selection of suitable candidates should be based on competence, experience, leadership qualities, communication skills, and the overall performance of a particular employee. Another issue to address is mentorship and training. The best way to cope with it is to make a retiring person responsible for mentorship and a human resource manager for advancement and training.
In the first case, all needed experience can be shared, while, in the second case, necessary learning materials and work-related details can be delivered to a candidate. Finally, it is essential to focus on the most critical factor – time for preparing to occupy a new position. It is assumed that it differs based on the skills of candidates. However, a generally acceptable timeframe could be three months of training and mentorship that is usually enough for obtaining the needed experience.
Unionization
Unionization is a positive phenomenon in employee relations. From an employee perspective, it is beneficial due to improving work situation of the majority of employees. It means that unions commonly help protect employees’ rights because they oblige employers to create particular environments in the workplace (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2016). More than that, in case of being treated unfairly, employees are free to seek unions’ assistance and protection. Therefore, unionization is a source of additional benefits for employees.
From the perspective of management, unionization is as well positive regardless of the fact that some employers oppose it due to the necessity to strictly adhere to employment laws. In particular, unions are helpful for managing employees easily and more effectively because of an opportunity to target them, which is beneficial in case of changing organizational policies or fostering decision-making process based on the opinions of employees (Akingbola, 2015).
In addition, cooperation with unions is significant for developing adequate policies that protect both employers and employees. In this way, regardless of being ambiguous, the process of unionization is more positive than negative.
The Best Way to Be an Effective Strategic Partner in Achieving Organization’s Goals
Except for being beneficial for protecting employees, employment records may as well be helpful for achieving strategic objectives of an organization. In this way, keeping accurate and objective records of employees is the best way for a human resource manager to contribute to reaching company’s future goals. In this case, it is imperative to focus on including informal documentation, such as productivity and performance levels, in personnel files.
It can be explained by the fact that this information may be used for determining whether there is a need for investing into launching additional recruitment or training initiatives. The rationale for making this statement is the belief that reviewing personnel files is one of the ways to identify skills and knowledge gaps in currently employed teams as well as conclude whether workplace practices are effective based on productivity and performance statistics (Fallon & McConnell, 2014). Therefore, it is the role of a human resource manager to keep these records objective and up-to-date.
References
Akingbola, K. (2015). Managing human resources for nonprofits. New York, NY: Routledge.
Fallon, L. F., & McConnell, C. R. (2014). Human resource management in health care: Principles and practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., & Valentine, S. R. (2016). Human resource management: Essential practices (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Mullen, C. A. (2012). From student to professor: Translating a graduate degree into a career in academia. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlehill Education.
Taylor, S., & Emir, A. (2015). Employment law: An introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.