When an employee ceases to a member of organization, employee separation happens. The rate at which workers leave the business organization is measured by the rate of employee separations in the organization.
The Costs of Employee Separations
There must be costs linked with employee separations. The cost may be less or more, depending on whether managers intend to replace the departing employee or to eliminate the position. Following are the costs that are associated with separations.
- Recruitment costs
- Selection costs
- Training costs
- Separation costs
Benefits of Employee Separations
There are benefits associated with employee separations as well, in spite of that there are costs associated with employee separations. Following are the main benefits associated with employee separations.
- Replacement of poor performers
- Reduced labor costs
- Opportunity for greater diversity
- Increased innovation
Types of Employee Separation
Based on who initiates the termination of employment relationship, employee separation can be divided into two categories. The employee initiates the voluntary separation. On the other hand employer initiates the involuntary separation.
See Also: Employee Rights in the Workplace
Voluntary Separations: It includes the following.
- Quits
- Retirements
Involuntary Separations: When management decides to terminate its relationship with a worker due to poor fit between organization & employee or economic necessity. It includes the followings.
- Discharges
- Layoffs
- Downsizing and rightsizing
Managing Early Retirements
The business organization’s first task is to examine alternatives to layoffs when it realizes that it needs to downsize its scale of operations. Early retirement is one of most popular method.
The Features of Early Retirement Policies: There are two features of early retirement policies.
- A financial incentive’s package that make it appealing for senior workers to retire before than they planned
- An open window that limits eligibility to a moderately small period. The incentives are no longer available to senior employees after window is closed
Avoiding Problems With Early Retirements: Careful design, implementation and administration are required in case of managing early retirement policies.
A host of problems can be caused when early retirement policies cannot be properly managed. It is make sure by all managers with senior workers that they do not treat senior workers any differently than other workers.
Managing Layoffs
When the labor costs cannot be reduced by any other means, generally an organization will institute a layoff. Labor costs should try to be reduced by first by managers with layoff alternatives.
Alternatives to Layoffs: Before deciding to conduct a layoff, there are many alternatives methods that should be explore by the management. Following are some of these alternatives.
- Changes in job design
- Employment policies
- Training
- Pay & benefit policies
- Nontraditional alternatives to layoffs
Implementing a Layoff: Managers must implement the layoff carefully, because thousands of people lives are influenced by it. Following are the problems that need to be considered.
- Developing layoff criteria
- Notifying employees
- Coordinating media relations
- Communicating to laid-off employees
- Reassuring survivors of the layoff
- Maintaining security
Outplacement
Human resource program develop to assist separated workers deal with to provide assistance in finding new job and emotional stress of job loss is refer to as outplacement.
See Also: Conflict in HRM
Goals of Outplacement: The organization’s requirement to maintain employee productivity is reflected by the goals of outplacement. Following are the main objectives of outplacement.
- The moral problems of the workers should be reduced who will be laid off so that they will keep productive.
- The amount of litigation should be reduced which is started by the separated workers.
- Helping detached workers in quickly finding comparable jobs.
Outplacement Services: Emotional support & job-search assistance are the most common outplacement services given to the detached workers. The goals of outplacement are achieved by the assistance of these services.
- Job search assistance
- Emotional Support
Role of HR Department in Employee Separations and Outplacement
The relationship between managers & HR staff in the worker separation process is characterized by cooperation & teamwork.
See Also: Labor Union and Its Objectives
Particularly in the dismissal process, HR staff can serve as value able advisors to the managers by assisting them avoid mistakes that can lead to claims of bad discharge. The worker whose rights may be violated by managers can be protected by HR staff.
Furthermore, they may help in the development of and/or selection of early retirement plans, contents of voluntary severance plans or buyouts and outplacement services.
