Selection
Many organisations are reviewing their human resources at this critical time of the economic downturn. The private sector has mostly gone through this crisis but many managers in the public sector are having to face this in a way that they may not have faced before?
Two nouns litter the text books in this topic in nearly every sentence: fairness and objectivity. The criteria that are used therefore, should not depend solely on the person making the selection and should be capable of being checked against objective criteria such as attendance record (sickness/absence register), job efficiency records (performance appraisals/production output charts) and experience logged on training or competence records.
Matrix
Usually a matrix is setup and if the employer has sufficient managers who know the individuals in the selection pool, then at least two managers (both having been trained in the scoring process) independently assess all the employees in that pool and then their scores are “refereed” by a third person (not involved with the department) who can assist the two assessors (by facilitisation) to arrive at an agreed common score between them where their individual scores differ wildly? The referee needs to satisfy himself/herself that they are genuine in their comment and that fairness and objectivity have been applied.
Obviously there are many redundancies of just one job which is not shared or pooled with any other and so when affected by redundancy this single isolated position is the one to be made redundant and no selection is necessary. In medium/ large organisations the chances of one job acting in such isolation is remote but it can occur.
Avoid discrimination
When the consultation process commences (subject of another article) the agreed common assessments of the assessors are listed in hierarchy and those with the lowest score can be chosen as the set number of redundantees at the base of the list. Employers need to take care in assessing attendance and sickness absence to ensure that any employee classed as “disabled” is not discriminated against. Equally any pregnant employees or those on maternity leave should have special consideration to avoid sex discrimination.
Pass over assessment documents
Those on this preliminary list should then be the employees to be consulted and each should receive their copy of their own assessment “score” well before the meeting to be able to prepare and table their case at the session. In more progressive organisations they will also receive the scores of the next nearest “safe” score (not necessarily identified) so that the employee knows how much argument he needs to bring to the table.
Link to other articles
For more assistance on this sensitive area please see further articles. Please note that more employers fall at Employment Tribunal on the question of consultation (both collective and individual) than they do on selection process and so although the above topic is important it must fit in with a tangled and complex web of several other responsibilities to ensure that the dismissal is fair.
The authors and publishers can accept no legal responsibility for any errors, omissions or opinions expressed by authors. It is the reader’s responsibility to take appropriate professional advice before acting on any issues raised in this article.
© 2011 Strategic HR Support Ltd
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