Task 2

Assessment Instructions

You are required to answer a series of questions regarding performance management systems, procedures and legislation.

Complete the questions below. If you need help understanding any questions, ask your assessor to explain.

To be deemed competent you will need to successfully demonstrate the following:

• You must complete and successfully answer all questions.

Question 1: KPIs

You are a manager of a new call centre team. Design three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that the team must meet or exceed on a monthly basis.

The call centre has 30 full time and 30 part time call centre consultants. The consultants are there to take calls from motorists whose vehicles have broken down. Consultants are the first voice that motorists hear before their request is passed on to roadside patrol can travel out to solve the problem of a broken down car.

Consultants must answer any phone call within 4 seconds of the phone ringing. Consultants must correctly identify the caller (Name, address, date of birth and password) before they can respond to any requests. Length of calls must be no longer than 3 minutes. Consultants must clarify any information given before proceeding to sent customer request to Roadside Operators.

Question 2: You have designed three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that the new team must meet or exceed on a monthly basis. Why is it important to inform your team of these KPIs prior to commencement of work?

Question 3: What are the three stages of Performance Management?

Question 4: What is the main goal of a Performance Management System?

Question 5: List the four groups who are involved in Performance Management?

Question 6: List at least two pieces of NSW legislation with brief explanation that are related to performance management?

Question 7: What is the difference between an Award and Australian Workplace Agreement?

Question 8: Define GROW and provide two possible questions for each stage of the process?

Question 9: Case Study 1

You are managing Mike who was recently promoted to the role of team supervisor. Absenteeism has been a serious issue for Mikes new team and you encouraged him to conduct weekly meetings to keep on top of this difficult situation. In your third monthly review of Mikes team performance you are pleased to see that staff absenteeism has dropped by approximately 14%.

Your manager calls you into his office and indicates that you have done a great job with the team. You need to call Mike in and give him some positive feedback on his performance.

What steps would you take to provide positive feedback to Mike?

Question 10: Case study 2

Louise and David are working together on an important project on time management. Louise missed a project deadline and the whole project now is behind schedule by a week. This is the third time in a month that Louise has missed a deadline.

Louise is a new graduate and has been working on the project for the past two years as part of her post graduate study. Louise has had problems with time keeping in the past and has received one written warning already.

As her manager, you have been monitoring Louises performance over the past month and having lots of informal chats with her about the project and her progress. She has made several improvements regarding her time keeping skills and communicating with project managers regarding her progress in line with your coaching.

However by pushing the project out further, product testing has been delayed by a further month because the project Louise is working on is vital to product testing

The company made the commitment to its client that product testing would be started two weeks ago. Your client has just contacted you regarding the status of product testing. You had to inform the client that the testing had not started but had identified the critical factor.

You email Louise to set up a meeting for later this afternoon to talk about the project she is working on. Louise arrives to the meeting on time.

What steps would you use to give constructive feedback?

Question 11: What are the legal consequences for managers and organisations for not keeping records of any activity surrounding performance management?

Question 12: How would you provide assistance to an employee who:

1. has problems doing their job?
2. needs to develop skills to be considered for a promotion?

Question 13: Nick and Tony have been fighting at work. List all the steps you would follow to discipline both employees.

Task 3

Assessment Instructions

This is an individual assessment. You are required to answer all of the questions below, and include examples where appropriate. Please ensure that you have answered each question with an appropriate level of detail.

Read the following case study that relates to the discipline and termination of an employee, you are required to develop a clear argument to support the decision of Fair Work Australia, conduct a risk analysis and consider relevant policies and procedures, legislation and performance management issues to support your argument. You are required to produce a written report for your manager as to why your organisation lost the case.

Case Study

Sam is a programmer at a small security company. She has recently missed a couple of deadlines on a project. Sam has been pretty upset about this. She is a diligent worker, however the organisation has started working on a new programming language and Sam is not familiar with it.

You are Sams manager and are familiar with your predecessors methods for dealing with her. She would come out and yell at Sam and then go back to her office. Sam has a staff files show that there have been no verbal or written warnings recorded against her.

As Sams manager you have been managing her more effectively. You have been spending time to try and understand Sams issues and have reallocated resources in order to give Sam some extra time until she is confident and competent in using the new programming language. You have not specified any timelines for a performance review to discuss progress in meeting the required standard of performance or taken notes. You have also offered extra training to her.

However in a meeting about her inability to meet her latest deadline, Sam physically struck you and walked out of the office. She has not returned.

Sam contacted her doctor after the meeting and was given a medical certificate claiming stress as the reason for her absence and given 7 days leave. This was sent to and received by the organisation on the day following your meeting with Sam. Sam called and verified with the Human Resources department that the certificate had been filed within the organisations systems.

Three days after your meeting with Sam you advised your supervisor that she had struck you and has since reported in ill; this advice being received from the Human Resources department. A meeting between you, your supervisor and the Human Resources department is convened and a decision is made to dismiss Sam on the basis of serious misconduct. A letter was sent by registered mail to Sams personal mail address.

Two days later Sam filed an unfair dismissal claim with Fair Work Australia (FWA). The organisation received a letter from FWA to attend a hearing.

Sam wins the hearing as no evidence was provided by the company to support its case of dismissal on the grounds of misconduct or serious misconduct.

The hearing went in Sams favour for the following reasons:

• The employer failed to follow a formal disciplinary process.
• There was no impartial investigation carried out.
• There were no records of any notes provided by the employer to back the claims that there had been meetings and reviews. The only written evidence produced was the termination letter.
• The original version of the medical certificate was not produced in the hearing by the company.
• Sam produced a verified copy of her medical certificate in the hearing along with email evidence from the Human Resources department confirming that the medical certificate had been received by the organisation and entered into its files.
• No documented evidence of any meetings, coaching sessions had been kept by the employer.
• No performance management review or development plans were presented by the employer.
• There were no copies of signed agreements reviewing Sams progress (performance reviews and development plans) submitted by the employer.
• No written documents outlining timelines were given for monitoring or reviewing Sams progress were submitted by the employer.
• No formal disciplinary hearings had taken place prior to Sams dismissal.
• Sam was not formally stood down while an investigation was carried out.
• There was no physical evidence to support the serious misconduct claim that the manager has been struck as no witnesses were called to verify whether an attack had taken place.
• No senior managers or Human Resource department specialists were present in any meeting where Sam was being warned of poor performance.
• There was no evidence to support the claim of misconduct by Sam. The manager had not documented any written warnings in Sams file. The only agreements that had been reached between Sam and the manager were verbal.

Sam was awarded costs of approximately $5, 000 for lost salary and wages and a further $5,000 for emotional distress.

After the decision was handed down, Rob, the Senior Human Resources Manager approaches you to discuss the reasons behind the decision going in favour of Sam. Rob wants a written report on his desk by the end of the week giving the background and reasons why the decision went in Sams favour against the organisation.

As part of your brief from Rob, he would like to see a completed risk assessment identifying areas that the organisation needs to address and implement in order to prevent this type of situation occurring again. The information in the report will guide whether the organisation will pursue an appeal on Fair Work Australias ruling.

Based on the findings of your report, Rob decides not to proceed with an appeal but to develop and implement a new Performance Management System.

Rob recommends that the organisation follow the two processes as outlined below to handle:

1. Performance Reviews for all sta
2. Disciplinary Hearings

Questions

Prepare a report that outlines and discusses the following:

1. Critically analyse the case and discuss the reasons why the organisation lost its unfair dismissal case with Fair Work Australia.
2. Outline a risk analysis of the case and strategies to mitigate future risks should similar situations arise.
3. Using examples from Sams case, describe the conditions under which misconduct and serious misconduct may be deemed to exist
4. List any legislation that applies and any internal policies and procedures that may have applied in situations similar to Sams case
5. Develop policies and procedures that an organisation would need to implement to avoid a similar situation occurring and to ensure that disciplinary hearings and terminations are considered to be fair and reasonable
6. Outline what documents would have to be developed for the organisation to evidence that it has implemented a process to support non-performing employees?
7. Using Sams case as an example, describe how all steps of the performance review process and disciplinary hearing process (given to you by Rob) should have been performed as per legal requirements and the organisational policies you have developed. Include:
   • What should have been done at each stage
   • when and where assistance from HR specialists would have been appropriate
   • What support services could have been deployed in Sams case
   • What documentation would have been appropriate at each stage

To be deemed competent you will need to successfully demonstrate the following:

• You must complete and successfully answer all questions.
• You must apply the necessary knowledge to monitor, review and document the outcomes of a disciplinary hearing, using a case study.
• You must show evidence of due process by following the disciplinary hearing process to substantiate the claim to dismiss an employee.
• You must carry out a risk analysis of the case study and strategies to mitigate the effect of any identified issue in the future.