TARDINESS OF EMPLOYEES - HOW TO DEAL WITH IT?

Coming in on-time in the office is a struggle to some employees. The HR Department and the supervisors have heard the same reasons for being tardy from the employees such as long traffic, defective alarm clock, flat tire, etc. In all these reasons, the HR must be vigilant and must learn how to detect which one is true and which one is not. An occasional offense of being tardy for let’s say just 3 to 5 minutes might not be of real issue but if repeatedly done and worst, if it is increasing from 5 minutes to 30 – 40 minutes, then that’s something that you know is calling for an action.

 Employee absences and tardiness could have a great impact on the company and could put a great burden on his co-workers or team. This issue has been a great challenge in almost all companies. Many have attempted to remedy it via different ways but they always go back to the same scenario.

In the Orientation process, it is important to reiterate the importance of coming in on time or more so, of being present in the office at all times. Since he is a new employee, the culture of being punctual must be remarkable at the first step-in the door, in order for him to carry on the good habit. The supervisors and all in the team must show a good example. Likewise, the management and the HR Department must also be fair and consistent in administering progressive discipline to the employees committing an offense.

Counselling and communication is always a good tool to call the attention of the frequent late employee. Through counselling, he may be able to realize his mistake and he may learn that being tardy is not a good practice if one wants to be productive and excel in ones job. It is in counseling and communication too, that the HR Department will come to know the problem of the employee behind his being late habitually. There is a true reason behind the invented alibis of having so much traffic, failed alarm clock and so on.

In counselling, the supervisor or the HR may use the same approach as below:

• Are you aware of our policy on tardiness? Can we talk about it?
• Do you think you can follow it?
• What do you think are the reasons why you can’t come earlier or at the scheduled start of our office work?
• Can we look at the top three factors that make you late for work? What are these?
• Can you think of ways on how we can overcome this 3 factors because I know you love your job right? And you don’t want to lose it.
• So when can we expect you to come on time?

Then, if by talking to the concerned person, you felt that he is de-motivated which greatly affect his enthusiasm to come to work early every day, mention it to him frankly and enumerate to him your observation and its impact to his work. Then ask, “Is there a way we can help you there?”

Aside from counselling, a series of oral and written warnings are also important to administer as what is written in the policy or Employee handbook. Documenting it , is also as important as giving warnings. Keeping it on his personnel records for future reference is another step. But most of all, remember that it is important to set up a clear policy before imposing the said progressive discipline.

But first, before taking any radical decision, see the situation in your own point of view too, as an HR staff, you might have observed that the employee is having difficulty on his schedule, and you may help him become motivated again by coming up with an alternative solution.

ATTRITION RATE - TO MEASURE AND TO PREVENT

You as an HR staff has discovered that more than 5 employees from different departments/different levels are applying in another company. You accidentally saw them browsing over a job engine, looking for a job or you may have sighted them along the way carrying all the requirements in an interview attire. What does this means to the organization?

It may mean that the employee is not anymore committed to stay longer with the company and if you found out that there are more than 5 employees or even a group of employees who are planning to transfer to another company, well,  it may lead to high attrition rate or high turnover.

There are various reasons on why employees leave the company.  Some of the reasons are Lack of challenge, lack of job satisfaction, salary and benefits are not competitive enough, conflict with the management, conflict with the coworkers and so on.

When an employee applies or submit an application to another company, then, that should be taken as a warning sign. There is a need to understand why the employees are leaving or are aiming to leave the company.Corrective and Preventive measure have to be implemented as soon as the discovery of the reasons why the employees are wanting to resign from the company.

As high turnover rate is the most common problem of the corporate nowadays, initial steps on how to at least reduce it must be taken into consideration. The first thing to do is to hire the right person and develop that hired candidate further. Training and Development are both necessary to ensure loyalty among employees. Second,  be employee oriented. Encourage an open communication and ask for their input. In other words, make them feel that they are a part of the company. Third, create a strategic incentive package. Creating a compensation package which is attractive and more competitive is the best weapon against attrition. An employee who is well-compensated is a happy employee. A happy employee creates a harmonious relationship towards the co-workers and the management hence no conflict will arise. Who wants to leave a company with good training programs, employee oriented and with attractive compensation offer?

WAYS TO MEASURE MONTHLY ATTRITION RATE

Monthly Attrition = (No. Of Employees left in Current Month/Avg Headcount) *100{Average HC = (Employee Strength at the Start of the month+Employee Strength at the end of the month)/2 }

JOB OFFER LETTER - NECESSARY OR NOT?

An offer letter is being given after a candidate has passed all the pre-employment screening processes. The job will be offered and it’s up to the candidate if he would accept it or not. Salary details, position title and agreed date of joining is reflected in the said offer letter.

Let it be clear per se that an offer letter is different from an appointment or contract of employment. As already mentioned, an offer letter is given to the candidate after the interview and selection and then, should the candidate accepts the offer, he would be provided with a contract/agreement or an appointment with all the entitlements and company basic rules therein.

Issuing an offer letter is very important as it gives confidence on the job confirmation. It may stop the candidate from applying to another company once he already accepted the job offer. However, there are instances when candidates retract what has already been accepted.

The answer to the question on whether it is necessary to issue an offer letter to the selected candidate or not, is YES, it is. Although not that really obvious, with the issuance of the offer letter, trust is its payoff. With such written confirmation, the candidate will not be ready to submit his resignation to his present employer, in case, he is currently employed.

Nobody has the confidence to accept an offer in a verbal way, hence, the need for a written job offer. However, it should be prepared with utmost care as the same data on salary, Position Title and other information will reflect in Employment Contract or Appointment.

SAMPLE JOB OFFER LETTER

Dear Mr. / Ms. .............,


It is with great pleasure to offer you the position of _____________, for which you have been selected after a thorough recruitment and selection process.

This job, as explained to you, is in the Salary Level ______ of our company. The compensation and other benefits that you would be entitled to are stated in the attachment of this letter. We request you to go through the same and return the enclosed duplicate copy of this offer letter in acceptance of the same.

Accordingly, we will arrange to issue to you a detailed letter of appointment on the date of your joining us, which we agreed between us will be any day on or before ________. ( Date of joining )

We look forward to having you in our team.

Congratulations and Welcome to  ______________! ( Name of Company )

DE MINIMIS BENEFITS - A BENEFIT WITH NO WITHHOLDING TAX

The economic crisis in the Past years have encouraged poor employees to be concerned about their salaries, more So, about the withholding tax being deducted from them which makes their net pay smaller than what they actually need.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has been very keen on helping the employers in resolving this issue. Benefits like “de minimis” which is tax exempt has been considered.

“ De minimis’ benefits are given to the employees by employers  in the nature of facilities or privileges . It is relatively of small value and are offered in order to promote health, goodwill, contentment, or efficiency of its employees.

‘ De Minimis ‘ benefits are excluded from the gross income when computing the income tax. It is also excluded in the computation of the P30, 0000 ceiling of ‘other benefits’. In In other words it is not taxable being relatively of small value.

The regulations have been introduced in the year 2000 by the Revenue Regulations No. 8 – 2000, underwent several amendments in year 2011 and the latest was in Revenue Regulations No. 8 – 2012 dated May 11, 2012.

‘ De Minimis’ benefits are a deductible salary expense to the employers while to the employees it is an additional salary which has no withholding tax.

Here is the list of the so-called ‘ De Minimis' which are given on top of the employees’ salary.

1. Monetized unused vacation leave credits of employees not exceeding ten days during the year and the monetized value of leave credits paid to government officials and employees

2. Medical cash allowance to dependents of employees not exceeding P750 per employee per semester or P125 Per month.

3. Rice subsidy of P 1,500or one sack of 50-kg. Rice per month amounting to not more than P 1, 500.

4. Uniforms and clothing allowance not exceeding P 4,000 per annum.

5. Actual yearly medical benefits not exceeding P10,000 per annum.

6. Laundry allowance not exceeding P300 per month.

7. Achievement awards like length of service or safety achievement, which must be in the form of a tangible personal property other than cash or gift certificate, with an annual monetary value not exceeding P10,000 received by the employee under an established written plan which does not discriminate in favor of highly paid employees.

8. Gifts given during Christmas and major anniversary celebrations not exceeding P5,000 per employee per annum.

9. Flowers, fruits, books or similar items given to employees under special circumstances e.g. on account of illness, marriage, birth of  a baby, etc.

10. Daily meal allowance for overtime work not exceeding 25 percent of the basic minimum wage.

Apart from the Above mentioned, employers may add ‘de minimis’ benefits to its employees but needed to study and prove that the said additional benefits other than the listed above , are reasonable and need to define what that additional benefit is all about and for what reason it should be given. In this case, the employer may consider giving de minimis benefits which are not taxable in lieu of the salary increase but employees would be happier if both would be granted.

EFFECTIVE INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES

EFFECTIVE INTERVIEW PROCESS

Recruitment often starts from ad posting, resume gathering, resume screening, then followed by the interview and testing.

Most of the time testing alone does not give the whole view of the applicant’s qualification hence the need to interview. However, oftentimes interviews were not done seriously but done only for the sake of formality. That should not be. Interviews are an essential part of the selection process.

WHAT TO CONSIDER BEFORE THE INTERVIEW

Some well-established HR Department has their own Recruitment planning prior to posting the job ads. Such planning is equally important before doing an interview. In recruitment planning, following are considered: job specification of the vacant position; how much manpower is needed to fill up the position; a ranking of the most important qualities, characteristics, skills and education that a successful candidate should possess.

HOW SHOULD WE INTERVIEW?

A talented interviewer tends to get or draw more information from the candidate through a sharp and intellectual probing. Listening skills is not to be taken for granted, too. Once an interviewer listens carefully from what the candidate is saying, he/she may be able to prepare the next question in mind.

A great interviewer should be able to extract extremely predictive and accurate data from the candidates. ( In case , you have forgotten what to draw from them – go back to your recruitment planning – what is it that you want for the candidate to have  in order to perform the job effectively? )

INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES

Below are the skillful techniques in interviewing:

·         Behavior – centered –It is about what he did , said and thought after a certain work relate incident; about what he felt or simply about the candidate , himself or herself.

·         Experience – centered – concentrates on what actually happened. How did he/she performed his job in the last employment.

PHASES OF AN INTERVIEW

1.       First Phase – Putting the candidate at ease or building up a rapport with the candidate. This is an important phase in order to move the interview into a free-flowing mode.

2.       Second Phase – involves a brief introduction about the company and the position.

3.       Third Phase – is the chance to know more about the candidate; the time to ask a make or break questions coupled with follow-up probing to dig more about the candidates. In this phase, which is more focus, the interviewer could get the chance to know the suitability of the candidate for the position.

4.       The Final Phase – this phase closes the interview. It’s now time to let the candidate ask their questions. The chance for them to verbalize their internal inquiries .

These are just a few of the techniques in interviewing. It works and it’s worth practicing. 

REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Business environments nowadays are getting more and more competitive. With the rise of similar companies with similar services and products, competing with them in terms of human resource is difficult. I remember, my experience in one of the multi-national Architectural Firm in Makati. With so many firms in the same industry in the city, employees just come and go. The question now is how can we keep these talented and hard to find talented manpower?

Rewards and Recognition are only a few of the answers. However, it should be implemented sincerely and effectively in order to achieve its best effect. Managers and team leaders should support one another in implementing this program. A culture or environment of trust has to be set-up prior to its orientation and full implementation so that in the end the following can be attained:

·         Employee Satisfaction

·         Employee Engagement or Loyalty especially of outstanding staff

·         Continuous learning

·         Positive work environment

·         Professional growth and development

PRINCIPLES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

In order to be more effective , the following should be applied in administering this reward system:

·         Management should be true or genuine in giving the rewards to employees. It is not just to give but simply, more on recognizing their efforts in trying their best to contribute to the company’s success.

·         It should be a ceremonial one not just an ordinary gift giving. Make the day a memorable one to the staff who are witnessing the said event in order to motivate them, too to do the same as the awarded employee.

·         Lastly, it shouldn’t be exaggerated. Frequent evaluation of the program’s effectiveness must always be executed in order to study and know its flaws then, at the same to make some improvements, if needed so.

PURPOSE OF REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

·         To keep top employees in a competitive job market

·         To increase employee performance

     SAMPLES OF REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

·         No tardiness/no Late/ No Absent – Perfect Attendance Award

·         Achiever award for successfully implementing a new work or challenging special duty within the specified period of time.

·         Dangal ng company award – for a commendable virtue such as honesty and integrity.

·         Loyalty Award – as a recognition for over 5 years of service in the company.

All these awards are most effective when coupled with cash equivalent. So it’s up to the HR Department on how they can make a valuable mechanism for the system to become operational and of use and importance to the human resources.

COMPRESSED WORKWEEK OR FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK IN THE PHILIPPINES

Since 1990, this issuances on a four-day work week has been known in the Philippines as a “compressed workweek”. Until in 2011, when the recession period is still all over, having this scheme on work schedules had been one of the options by most employers.

In September 2011, since this compressed work week is not mandatory, one of the House Representatives, Winston Castelo of Quezon City has pushed the adoption of the 10-hour, four day or 10/4 workweek in both public and private sectors. Primarily, purpose of this is to give an opportunity for workers to have and enjoy a long weekend with their families.

During compressed work week, workers would still work for 40 hours per week, but only from Monday to Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be a day-off for all. That means , to complete the 40 hours in just four days, employees need to work 10 hours a day instead of the regular 8 hours a day schedule.

I have known many companies who have adopted this technique but since this policy is not mandatory, some employers who have found difficulty or have found inapplicability of the said policy to the kind of business that they have, did not follow such.

During the economic global crisis, this flexible work arrangement was used by some establishments and has gotten good results. It just shows  that, if this compressed work schedule will be used for its purpose and not to reduce the income of employees then, it will lead to maximizing the personnel or the human resources of the company at the same time giving them the benefit of having more time with their families.

There are conditions from DOLE  or Department of Labor and Employment which are needed to be accomplished before one can fully implement this so- called four days work scheme.

1.       It should be expressly and voluntarily supported by a majority of the employees affected. Hence, gathering of signatures, survey style on who is favored or not in favor of the 4 day work schedules.

2.       In firms which conditions are hazardous to ones health, a certification is needed from an accredited safety organization  or from the safety committee within the company, that working beyond eight hours is not harmful and that it is within the limits set by DOLE.

3.       Submit the requirements to the DOLE regional office for approval and notification.

To those companies thinking about the adaptation of this policy, it is important that having this shorter workweek and longer weekend , service and productivity should never be compromised.