Continuing employee hygiene
problem? Here's the next step
A good severance package says a great deal about the
humanity of a business manager. A manager can tailor
it to the size and financial capacity of the business
while, at the same time, create a world of goodwill within
the community.
The employee who, like Bill Bailey, finds himself or
herself thrown out the door with nothing but a fine-tooth
comb, does not leave with the same dignity of the employee
who walks out with a folder full of hope. An alert management
is aware that when workers must be terminated through
no fault of their own, it creates talk among that person's
family and acquaintances. A good severance package allows
that employee to tell others what the business "did
for me" instead of what it "did to me."
The severance package need not be elaborate to create
goodwill, but the absence of such a program will not
go unnoticed by either the terminated employee or those
with whom he or she makes later contact.
Finding solutions to severance package benefits.
A severance package is not the same as a contractual
severance payment. A package includes more items like
a letter of recommendation, help to find another position
or an option to stay on the group health insurance program
for a limited time. There are many ways a business can
helps its former employee. Something as simple as a certificate
of appreciation costs the business little, nothing more
than the price of stationery and copies.
Why go to all that trouble?
Management may think the final paycheck and whatever
severance pay required by law is enough. Such thinking
is short-sighted and oblivious to the positive public
relations benefits of having a good severance package.
Besides, it goes a long way toward ameliorating any resentments
the terminated employee might feel toward the business.
In other words, having a good severance package to offer
a departing employee moves HR into the realm of PR, making
the effort put into the package all the more worthwhile.
The sense the company cares by offering such a package
to departing employees affects the ones who remain on
the payroll. The importance of this is immeasurable.
It eases tension among employees who might otherwise
get the idea the business has no heart, and they might
begin to imagine themselves as one day walking out the
door empty-handed.
Why
a bad employee is causing more problems than you
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