The recruitment process should not simply stop when a new employee is appointed. The likely success, or failure, of the relationship often depends on how well the employee settles in.
A probation period gives you time to make sure that the selection you made was the right choice.
It's an opportunity to evaluate the new employee's performance, commitment and general suitability for the role, and to take the necessary action I they are failing to meet the requirements.
Probation periods generally last from one to six months, depending on the role, the business, and the business needs.
How to Manage the Probation Period:
The Outcome
There will be three possible outcomes at the end of the probation period:
They’ve Passed! Congratulations, you’ve found a perfect fit!
Probation Extension! You’re still not sure whether this is the right person or not and need more time to assess them. Employee probation periods should not extend over 12 months.
Termination! After continuous monitoring, you’ve decided that it’s not going to work and that it’s best for everyone to part ways.
Whatever the outcome, a formal letter should be sent to the employee confirming the result of their probation.
For guidance on what to include in such letters, please refer to our sample template probation letters available here.
Best of luck with your new starters!
A former female employee of BCon Communications Limited has successfully defended her claim that she had been harassed and discriminatorily dismissed by her former employer on the grounds of family status and gender.
The Equality Tribunal heard that once Ms Mullen informed her Managing Director that she was pregnant with her third child he “froze her out”, removed tasks from her, and undermined her in front of clients.
It was also claimed that at an interview to find a maternity leave replacement the Managing Director reportedly said “I’m not sure if [Ms Mullen] will be coming back to work especially now she will have three children to look after”.
When Ms Mullen returned from maternity leave she was told that her role of Financial Controller no longer existed. She was offered a lesser role, even though the replacement was still carrying out her former duties. Ms Mullen refused to take on the lower role and the Managing Director considered Ms Mullen to have resigned when she refused to return to work in the lesser role.
The Equality Tribunal awarded Ms Mullen €80,000 for the discrimination suffered.
Family status and gender are two of nine grounds upon which discrimination is unlawful under Irish equality legislation. The other seven grounds include: civil status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the travelling community.
This case serves as a reminder of the importance of equality in the workplace and the high awards that are granted where weaknesses exist. To reduce the risk of such claims, employers need to have a clear equality policy in place which should be clearly communicated to all employees, particularly managers.
80% of Irish employees have rated their working conditions as good, much higher than the European average of 53%.
Under the research published by the European Commission to mark International Labour Day, 1st May 2014, working conditions comprise of a number of factors including:
• Working time
• Work organisation
• Health and Safety
• Employee representation
• Relationship with employer
Denmark topped the scale at 87%, followed by Luxembourg (86%), Finland (84%), and the Netherlands (82%). At the other end of the scale, Spain came in at 20%, Croatia at 18% and Greece being rated the lowest at 16%.
Across the board, younger respondents tended to rate their conditions as better than older respondents. Amongst 15 – 24 years olds 60% said conditions were good, whilst only 46% of those aged 55+ rated conditions as good.
Ireland also scored highly in Health and Safety, with 91% saying they were satisfied with health and safety at their current job.
Interestingly, Ireland and Germany have the lowest proportion of employees in full-time employment at 63%. Croatia topped the poll here at 94%. However, Ireland does have the highest number of employees on temporary employment agency contracts.
Working conditions are one of the key areas covered by European Law. It is extremely encouraging to see Ireland scoring so highly, particularly when the majority of Europeans report that their working conditions have deteriorated in the last five years.
Every address in Ireland will receive its unique Eircode in Spring 2015.
"The Eircodes will help the public, businesses and public bodies to locate every individual address in the State. Eircodes will bring many benefits to the daily lives of people, householders and businesses. Currently, around 35% of addresses - mainly in rural areas - do not have a unique name or number in their address. With Eircodes, delivery of services and goods will be much easier and quicker to these addresses." - www.eircode.ie
When people receive their Eircode next year, they will not need to change their address. They will just add the Eircode whenever it is needed or useful, so it will be very easy to start using it straight away.
Each Eircode has seven-characters that are unique to each mailing address. The seven characters are divided into two parts – a Routing Key and a Unique Identifier.
For businesses, some of the main things to consider are:
Our software offerings will all be updated to include an extra address field for eircodes and will incorporate all the required validation logic.
Managing employee absences is an on-going challenge for managers right across the country, from SMEs to multi-nationals.
According to research by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) 11 million days are lost each year in Ireland due to employee absences, at a cost of €1.5 billion per year to the economy.
One of the most effective ways of managing employee absences and helping to prevent reoccurring instances is to conduct Return to Work Interviews with employees. Return to work interviews are one-to-one meetings between an employee and their manager to discuss the employee’s absence.
To assist managers conduct these meetings, which can sometimes be quite sensitive, we’ve put together a short guide and template form to the help managers structure the meeting. This new material can be found under the Support section of our website.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) recently heard that a Galway branch of Dunnes Stores installed CCTV cameras to spy on employees they believed to be eating unpaid for chips, chicken goujons, and other food during their shifts. The cameras were installed without the employees being notified. Following their “investigation” Dunnes dismissed up to nine employees for eating unpaid-for food.
The EAT ruled that Dunnes Stores’ investigation “fell short of acceptable practice” and criticised the retailer for spying on employees. Whilst the tribunal recognised that the individual in question, in this case, had contributed to her own dismissal, they ruled that the dismissal was unfair and awarded her €8,000.
Lesson Learnt
This case illustrates the care that must be taken when using CCTV in the workplace. Use of CCTV is heavily regulated by Data Protection legislation. If employers do intend to use CCTV cameras, they must notify employees that cameras are in place and never use hidden cameras.
Secondly, this case highlights the need to follow correct procedures when taking disciplinary action against an employee. Whilst this employee was in breach of the company’s policies, the company’s lack of adherence to appropriate practice resulted in a costly fine. Disciplinary policies and procedures should be adhered to.
For further information on employee theft see our blog “What to do if you Suspect an Employee of Stealing”.
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This year is marks the 15th anniversary of National Minimum Wage in the UK. To coincide with the anniversary, HMRC have released a list of some of the most unusual excuses given by employers about why they don’t pay their employees the legal wage. Reasons include:
• “I don’t think my workers know anything about the NMW because they don’t speak English.”
• “When the NMW goes up I do increase the amount I pay a little, even if the total pay is still below the NMW. I don’t think it’s right to ignore the rises in NMW.”
• “It wasn’t a conscious decision to say ‘I’m not going to pay this’, but I’ve never really considered doing it because I’ve not had people come to me and say, ‘I’m not getting paid enough’, or ‘Is this the minimum wage?’”
• An employee ran out of the premises when HMRC officers arrived to check for NMQ infringements. The same employee then returned, minus the work pinafore, pretending to be a customer.
• One employee claimed to be a friend of the owner and only in the restaurant as they were in the area. HMRC offices returned on a different day to find the person in the kitchen preparing food.
NERA have responsibility for carrying out workplace inspections and investigating possible infringements in Irish workplaces. Whilst the above excuses are from British employers, Irish employers are not all innocent either. For the period January 2013 to June 2013 €420,941 in unpaid wages was recovered from Irish employers, for the same period in 2012 €426,818 was recovered.
Minimum wage in Ireland for experienced adults is €8.65. An experienced adult is any individual over 18 with 2 years work experience of any kind.
Internships are an excellent opportunity for inexperienced individuals to gain valuable experience to kick start their career. They also offer many benefits to employers, helping them identify future talent.
However, employers who offer internships need to be sure they have the correct procedures in place and are operating with the law. In the UK, companies who are exploiting interns are being specifically targeted by the Government. The UK has seen many examples of interns being exploited, the saddest of which was in September 2013 when a 21 year old London intern collapsed and tragically died, apparently from exhaustion after working 72 hours without a break.
Thankfully we haven’t seen such extremes in Ireland, but employers need to be vigilant.
Do interns have any employment rights?
Yes, interns do have certain employment rights. These rights include the right to:
• Annual leave & public holidays
• Appropriate breaks and rest periods
• Protection from bullying and harassment
• Fair procedures
• Data Protection
Polices on the above, as well as Health and Safety policies, should be an integral part of any interns induction.
Should Interns be paid?
In some cases, yes an intern may be entitled to be paid. Whether or not an intern is entitled to minimum wage will depend on the facts of their individual situation, their relationship with the organisation and what actual happens in practice.
Under the Minimum Wage Act 2000, if an individual is carrying out work of value to an employer, has a similar level of supervision and responsibility as the rest of the workforce, they are likely to be entitled to be paid at least the minimum wage, regardless of whether they have the title of Intern or not. There is currently little case law on this, however the Act is broad so it could easily be the case that basic tasks of interns may fall under the Act.
Government Intern schemes such as JobBridge or various FAS schemes are exempt from some employment legislation, however private schemes will not be exempt.
What proactive steps can be taken?
If an employer is satisfied that an individual will be an intern, details of the agreement should be put in writing, clearly outlining the learning objective, training/support provided and schedule for feedback.Internships should generally be kept relatively short. The longer the internship the greater the possibility that the intern will be carrying out work, and acquiring employment status.
UK supermarket giant, Morrisons have hit the headlines over the last week after it was discovered that payroll data belonging to over 100,000 of its 131,000 strong workforce had been stolen by a member of staff.
The information which includes bank details was published online and sent on a disc to a UK newspaper.
The supermarket has confirmed that the information has been removed from the internet and also that no customer details had been accessed by the thief. They’ve also reassured the affected employees that they will not be “financially disadvantaged” as a result of the crime.
The case highlights the risks employers face with regards to confidential information being leaked. It emphasises the need for employers to take proactive steps in protecting their data. It may not be possible for every employer to implement complex data security systems, but at a minimum, employers need to have confidentiality policies in place that prohibit employees from disclosing confidential data. Internet, email, social media and telecommunication policies will also clarify what is expected behaviour for employees across these mediums. Having robust policies in place will enable employers to take appropriate action where inappropriate behaviour occurs.
See also our blog “What to do if you suspect an employee of stealing”.
The gender pay gap is still very much a controversial issue right across Europe.
Recent research by the European Commission revealed that on average across Europe women’s earnings are 16.4% below those of men. According to the statistics, gender pay differences are highest in Estonia at 30%, Slovenia leads the table with only 2.5% and Ireland is placed in 10th position with 14.4%, ahead of countries such as the UK, Germany and France.
In terms of sector, the gender pay gap is generally higher in the financial and insurance sector. In Ireland pay inequality raises to 20.6% in business economy workplaces.
The gender pay gap for those under 25 years of age is lowest in almost all European countries, and gradually increases as women get older. Reflecting the fact that, women’s family responsibilities do contribute to inequality figures. This would suggest that greater flexibility around sharing of parental leave between both the mother and father would be beneficial.
However, responsibility does also lie with employers; employers have an obligation to ensure that where men and women are performing the same or similar duties, then they are entitled to be paid the same rate. Where this is found not to be the case, employers could find themselves defending an Equality Tribunal claim, as was the case for an Garda Siochana in 2012 when clerical staff successfully brought a case of unequal pay treatment in which the Garda where ordered to close a pay gap of €9,000 per year.
Last Saturday 8th March was International Women’s Day. The day celebrates the social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas requiring further action. Considering these result, it is fair to say that equal pay is an area where further action is required.
European Gender Pay Gap by Country