Stiffing an Employee…What would your company do?
Ok, here is the scenario. You are a good size retailer and you have dozens of part-time employees (minimum wage) with pretty high turnover.
It is the Saturday before Christmas, you provide all of the employees with a personal greeting card and a nice company golf shirt as a gift. Sounds good so far?
One employee does not get the gift however, he followed company policy and turned in a two week notice and is leaving for a better job. He is scheduled to work through New Year's weekend.
This employee has been there 7 months, longer than average, never missed a day and consistently worked 25-30% more hours as scheduled and management requested. He would do any task required and showed great flexibility for this employer.
He got stiffed with no Christmas present because he is leaving.
How would you feel if you were this employee? What would your business do in this situation?
One more fact, this employee also spends $50 to $100 per week at this store as well. What would your brand and shopping loyalty be after such a situation?
Human Resources | admin | 28 December 2006 |
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By Jim, December 29, 2006 @ 4:50 am
Isn’t this a no-brainer? Any company would be very foolish not to send the card and provide a company shirt to the ex-employee described above.
By Steve Rucinski, December 29, 2006 @ 4:51 pm
Not as no-brainer as you think. This is a real life actual that occurred. Not effective management in my book.
By Phil Gerbyshak, December 30, 2006 @ 4:27 pm
Dumb idea by a manager not to give the shirt, though the employee may never wear it. A better idea would be a store gift certificate and a handwritten thank you for the hard work and longer than usual dedication. As a manager, I would have done this gesture out of my own pocket had the company not supported me on it. $20 is not much to spend to do the right thing. Larger companies have tougher decisions, though when it comes down to it, it’s up to the manager to do the right thing.
By Steve Rucinski, January 1, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Great answer Phil! I support your philosophy of ‘doing the right thing.’