Read through the case study below and see if you can spot the issues. We will publish the key issues next week for you to reflect on.
Case Study:
Jim owns a small factory with 30 staff and has noticed that he is spending more and more time dealing with the company payroll. Small issues like staff leaving early, needing to take unpaid leave and parental leave are all starting to become a part of his daily routine. Jim needs to concentrate on other facets of the business and would like to take on a payroll person to deal with these issues.
He puts up an advertisement for a payroll administrator as he doesn’t want to pay for a senior payroll person and as he has done the payroll himself for decades without any training he is happy that he could train anyone to do the role for minimum wage. Everyone who works in the office works 9-5 this includes Jim, the Warehouse Manager, the Sales Manager and the receptionist.
Jim hires Andrea who is looking to start working in a payroll department having completed a certificate and having previously worked as a retail assistant. Andrea is professional and very eager to learn and seems to be a great fit in the office.
For the first three weeks Jim is ok with carving out some time everyday to show Andrea the ropes but he is starting to get bored of ‘teaching’ and is a little disappointed that Andrea isn’t showing more initiative with her own learning. After three months Jim is starting to roll his eyes when Andrea asks him questions that he thinks have obvious answers. Additionally, there seem to be times when Andrea has nothing to do and Jim resent paying her for doing nothing.
Jim comes to you in ‘a lather’ as Andrea has asked him if she could start working four days a week instead of the five as she has nothing to do on a Friday and she could save herself the cost of childcare. Jim sees this as an affront and tells you that when he hired her it was clear it was five days a week and he thinks she has a cheek looking to change those terms now. Jim also takes the opportunity to tell you that Andrea isn’t really working out and that she still has to take a lot of direction to do work he did in minutes and she seems to have a lot of downtime which is irritating him.
What do you see as the issues and what could Jim have done differently?
*This case study exercise is not to be misconstrued as legal advice and is presented as an exercise to help tease out potential HR issues.
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