Causes for a performance management meeting could be such things as:
- persistent failure to arrive at work on time;
- failure to comply with the company’s policies and procedures;
- failure to meet Occupational and Safety standards;
- failure to comply with reasonable directions; and
- failure to achieve the goals the company has set.
A performance management meeting may or may not follow an annual or periodic performance review. It doesn’t have to.
Support
Under the Fair Work Act all employees are entitled to have a support person at any Performance Management Meeting. (This is one way it differs from an annual or periodic review).
Lining up a Performance Management Meeting
- The employer should write to the employee pointing out the areas of concern about the employee’s performance.
- The employer should nominate a date for a performance management meeting. The employer should give the employee adequate notice, say 5 working days.
- In the letter the employer has to advise the employee that he/she is entitled to bring s support person to performance management meetings.
- The letter should also advise the employee that no advance decisions will be made about the outcome of any meeting. There can be a number of outcomes from ‘no action’ to a first warning to a first and final warning.
The process then involves a number of steps
The first meeting with the employee is usually informal though it need not be.
Both sides discuss the goals the employer expects the person to aim for, and the employer can outline a time frame to achieve those goals.
An employee who believes that either the goals or time limits are unreasonable should say so and the employer should record that.
If the meeting is informal, nothing needs to be done.
If the employee continually fails to meet the standards and goals set by the employer, there should be a second meeting.
This meeting should definitely be formal. Notes will be taken.
The second meeting may result in a warning, either a first warning or a first and final warning. This will depend on the importance of the areas in which employee has failed to perform adequately.
If all else fails, there may be a third formal meeting where the employer gives the employee a final warning or terminates the employee if that person has still seriously failed to meet the previously stated standards and goals. To make sure you are complying witha all laws always consult an employment lawyer before terminating a contract.
