Employment Problems Rarely Fix Themselves
One of the recurring issues the MTA NSW Employment Relations Team sees is not necessarily that an employer has made the wrong decision.
Sometimes the bigger problem is that no decision was made at all.
A performance issue continues for months.
An employee's attendance becomes increasingly difficult, but nobody formally addresses it.
A manager has concerns about conduct but deals with them through informal conversations that are never documented.
A long-term absence continues without the employer obtaining proper information about the employee's capacity to return.
A workplace dispute arrives and the business decides to deal with it later.
Eventually, something happens that forces the employer to act.
By then, what may originally have been a relatively straightforward employment issue has become considerably more difficult.
Time changes the risk
If an employee is not performing, the employer should identify the concerns, communicate the required standard and give the employee a reasonable opportunity to improve.
If there is alleged misconduct, investigate it while the evidence and recollections are fresh.
If an employee has been absent for an extended period because of illness or injury, do not simply leave the employment relationship indefinitely unresolved. There may come a point where current medical information about the employee's capacity and likely return to work is required.
If there is a payroll concern, investigate it promptly. An error repeated every pay cycle can become a substantial underpayment.
And if the business receives correspondence from the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman, a regulator or a court, do not put it aside. Deadlines matter.
Documentation becomes harder later
There is another practical problem with delay.
People forget.
Managers leave.
Emails disappear into inboxes.
Informal conversations are remembered differently by each person.
The employer who says, "We've been talking to him about this for twelve months," may discover there is very little evidence showing what was actually discussed.
That becomes particularly important if a later decision is challenged.
Act early — not necessarily harshly
Acting early does not mean rushing to disciplinary action or termination.
Often it means exactly the opposite.
It means identifying the issue while there is still an opportunity to correct it.
Have the conversation.
Set the expectation.
Make the file note.
Send the follow-up email.
Get the medical information.
Check the payroll.
Seek advice.
Then make a considered decision.
Good Employment Relations is not simply about managing a crisis when it arrives.
A large part of it is preventing an ordinary workplace problem from becoming one.