What course of action would you recommend to Jeff? Why? In this scenario, how would you explain to Jeff the importance of aligning employee needs with business objectives? How would you establish credibility with Jeff? 

 

SCENARIO

 

Ben is a forty-eight-year-old employee at The Prince Group, a large engineering firm that specializes in civil engineering projects, such as roads, bridges and infrastructure. He has been with the company for eight months; prior to this, he worked as a retail sales clerk for a men's store, but joined The Prince Group because he wanted to have better career opportunities. He works in a team of six from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. as an Accounts Receivable Representative, and his work includes calling customers regarding outstanding invoices, processing payments, and issuing invoices. Despite a four-week training period and frequent follow-up by his manager, Ben makes frequent mistakes which require redoing some work to correct the errors. In general, his coworkers like him, and he occasionally goes out for drinks after work with a group of guys from his office. He also just joined the company hockey team. However, Ben has come to work late four times in the past two weeks and his coworkers are starting to notice. There have also been some rumblings from the team about having to correct Ben's mistakes or deal with irate customers resulting from Ben's errors. When his manager, Jeff, spoke with Ben about his recent lateness, Ben replied, "Well, I guess I'm just not a morning person." Jeff has come to you, the Human Resources representative, to ask for advice on what to do with Ben.