My brother is a director at an microchip engineering company. He told me recently that he will never hire a black person again. Not because he doesn't think black people are qualified, its because he can't get rid of them if they perform poorly. He actually hired a couple of black employees that were transfered into his group a few years ago. According to him, they are below average employees but the HR department refuses to get rid of them. He suspects they were transfered into his organization because the previous group couldn't fire them and didn't want to deal with them anymore. He was OK with them at first but with the layoffs he has had to conduct the last few years, he has had to let go of some real strong performers due to the fact that he can not get rid of his black employees. I wonder how many other managers in the corporate world think the same way he does.
This has everything to do with his company's lousy HR department and nothing to do with the bad employee's skin color. Large corporations have a set process for low performing employees.. For an example, they take steps to identify the employees problems, inform the employee of their problems, set out steps for improvement for the employee, and offer an ultimatum unless they improve. I've had hire and firing privileges and have seen these practices in motion, and they work well. If his HR department doesn't have this process that covers them legally, that is on them... not the bad employees. This is all documented and agreed upon by every new employee. If an employee repeatedly does bad they are served with a PIF (performance improvement form), then are required frequent progress meetings to see if they are making their goals set forum in the PIF. If they do not, an additional PIF is served with more details and a more stringent deadline. If they still do no improve they are terminated. All steps and conversations can be recorded, and are also attended by a 3rd party, usually an HR rep.
He has also had some issues with layoffs. The HR department won't let him get rid of his black employees even though they are at the bottom of his list.
Again, that's the fault of the HR department. If your HR department is afraid of firing anyone, that shows a problem with the system, not the employees. He should take his case to senior executives and point out the failures in their HR department... maybe the layoffs should start there.
If these employees are as bad as he says, the established procedure is to document, document, document. If they are repeatedly written up for things that are enforced across the board, then firing them should be no problem. If he hasn't documented squat, then the HR department is right to check his desire to terminate the black employees.
Love how rules that are supposed to help black people find employment are keeping black people from getting hired.
Seriously man. HR is the real underperformers here. If they're too bureaucratic to change, then it's not the fault of the underperforming employees, but it's rather a chronic corporate problem.
An option your brother has to is one that works in the IT world; hiring new people via contract-to-hire. Hiring people on 6-12 month contracts before offering them full-time jobs makes it extremely easy to get rid of unqualified on under-performing new hires, as you can terminate their contract immediately without question for just about any reason.
Its easier to do the documentation stuff when the position is very defined. His guys are customer facing, are there to help customers use the products that they bought. Its not a job that is easy to quantify or set milestones so putting people on a plan is almost impossible. He expects his guys to self starters, and take care of business without supervision. The guys he's having issues don't do anything unless they are told to do it. They are also highly paid. I imagine most of his guys make around $125K or more.
I understand that. Its impossible to get rid of anyone in France. Mexico also, if you hire someone permanently. Thats why hire them on a contract basis and only if they have proven themselves for many years, do we hire them.
if a company with several $125K level employees doesn't have a better defined process for firing employees (with all sorts of that 'documentation stuff'), they'll probably be keeping the employment lawyers well fed regardless -- whether for wrongful dismissal, discrimination or otherwise....
Compared to other people in the same pay range, yes. Compared to an average employee, probably not. However, these guys are payed well above average.
