This week, we have some advice on what to do if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of needing to end an employment relationship under the trial period legislation. Many employment issues that have developed into serious employment problems, could have been avoided by taking a ‘no surprises’ approach to communicating with your team […]
Industry InsightDisciplinary & Dismissal
Standing up to a bully
At HRtoolkit, we met a client with an employee who shouted and intimidated another team member. It was an obvious situation of bullying, but the stories about this guy were legend. Evidently, a colleague was so scared after one encounter, that he hid in the local police station to get away! The problem our client faced, […]
HRtoolkit mythbuster – Discipline
At HRtoolkit, we frequently hear that it’s almost impossible to discipline staff in New Zealand. This is an absolute myth as there are only three legal requirements for a successful dismissal process: Invite your employee to a meeting Let your employee know that you want to speak to them, this can take less than five […]
Medical Incapacity, where should you draw the line?
Dealing with an employee on sick leave or ACC with an uncertain prognosis of recovery can be frustrating for everyone. And however much you may want to, it may be impossible to keep your employee’s job open indefinitely. There is a point where it may be essential for your business to dismiss an employee for […]
Being fair and reasonable
When considering a discipline or grievance issue, what is a fair and reasonable decision? 1. Did you investigate the issue? 2. Did your employee understand the consequence of their actions? 3. Did you give your employee a reasonable opportunity to respond? 4. Did you genuinely consider what your employee had to say? View our video […]
Workplace drug testing
As kiwi homeowners spend millions fixing P-contaminated homes, drug and alcohol testing is becoming a hot-topic with employers. Methamphetamine is being detected in an increasing proportion of failed workplace drug tests in New Zealand. And the costs to our economy aren’t just the clean-up operations, but also health problems including skin disorders, respiratory and neurological […]