Paper Example on Layoff Planning: Seniority-Based Selection & Challenges

Introduction

Several options are usually considered available when planning the necessary workforce reductions. These reductions can bring about adverse challenges and risks to employers in terms of treatment or severe impact on protected employees. There are different criteria used to determine the potential layoff of employees. They include:

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Seniority based selection

The seniority-based selection is where the last hired/first fired concept is used. The employer, in this case, is not protected from further risks for potential discrimination against other protected groups.

Employee status based selection

The employers, with part-time workers, may want to lay them off first to ensure greater job security for the remaining co-workers (Fijalkowska et al., 2017). However, this kind of method alone might not be sufficient to meeting downsizing needs.

Merit-based selection

Although this method is believed to be efficient among managers for weeding out poorly performing employees, it should be scrutinized. The technique has not been proven to provide an accurate qualitative means for ranking the differences among individual employee's performance in selecting employees for layoff.

Skill-based selection

With these criteria, employers can retain workers with the most sought after skills. This method tends to keep younger workers with the needed skill sets and lay off all the workers who may not have the necessary skills. Older workers are protected from discrimination by Age Discrimination in the Employment Act.

Multiple criteria ranking

The most effective method of selection is using a combination of all the criteria previously discussed. The ranking criteria used by some organizations that have implemented selection policies based on multiple criteria such as seniority skill and performance considerations are explained in various steps. First, the employee's performance is rated depending on the long term potential and attitude. Second, the employees are vetted based on education and experience levels. Here, competency is determined based on the academic skills of employees (Fijalkowska et al., 2017). In the third stage, employees are rated depending on the quantity and quality of work. The amount of work is defined by the number of tasks or projects completed by an employee. Contrarily, the quality of work is determined by the efficiency of the output in each completed job. The fourth step involves the assessment of employees based on the attendance history. Some employees may be late-comers, while others are punctual. Time management skills and consistency of attendance can be determined through a register. An organization can create the work register which is signed every morning when the employees enter the firm and in the evening when they leave. The register contains the date, employee's name, and the time for arrival or departure. The last step involves assessment of employees depending on their tenure within the company. Tenure implies the position held by an employee and the amount of time that the employee has spent in the office.

From the criteria above, Martinez will use the fifth criteria to determine which employee he can layoff. The criteria combine all other methods, thus deeming as the most efficient. Basing on the long-term attitude and potential, Gary and Chopra score the highest. Gary has been a loyal employee since joining the company nine years ago and seems the best among the four employees. He has an excellent attendance score and has been faithful to the company. In terms of education, it is not stated whether he trained for aeronautics or not. However, it is mentioned that he gained his skills from trade journals, and technical articles he read often. Also, Gary obtained his skills from his work experience. He worked for six years in airline maintenance while his three years of work were sent in the technology upgrade unit. Gary has shown an average performance and is consistent with his work attendance. Gary Meadors has been loyal and reliable to Aero Company. Other than this, he is the sole breadwinner of his family, and his average performance could result from the family issues. Thus, Martinez will not lay him off.

Aero Performance is operating in the modern-day set up where gender does not deter anyone from pursuing their goals. For instance, the company has hired Brenda Baldwin as the only woman in the company. Baldwin is a graduate with an airline technology degree. And has been in the company for three years. Moreover, Baldwin has enrolled in evening classes to further her education. Her attendance problem can allude to the fact that she is a single mother whose child is in elementary school. Therefore, she probably gets late after preparing her child for school. Despite this, her performance has decreased from high in the first year to average in the past year. Counseling is not serving her well, thus recommended for a leave. She may require time to spend with her child and strike a balance in the issues affecting her. Laying off Baldwin will be an injustice to herself and her dependent. It would also imply losing an asset for growth in Aero Company.

Craig Cottrell possesses as an icon for the company having been hired by a competitor. Cottrell has worked for Aero for three years and has a total work experience of 12 years. Cottrell and Gary Meadors are the most experiences in Aero Company. His first two years were poorly performed. However, he has gained relevance in n the company by working hard and now his performance is the highest. Being the most top-performing employee, Martinez may not lay him off even though he has been in an argument with other employees.

Lastly, Udit Chopra is very hardworking, has a college degree in marketing and spends long hours at work. He has persuasive sills which the company needs to attract its customers. However, Chopra seems to be living lavishly and is assumed to come from a wealthy family. Therefore, the dilemma of who to lay off will be between Chopra and Craig. For one, Martinez may layoff Chopra since he comes from a good family and would easily find elsewhere, but this is not a valid reason. Contrarily, Craig will be laid off because he seems to conflict with other employees. Nonetheless, Martinez will make his decision depending on the possibility of one's position being covered with another. Seemingly, the only replaceable individual is Craig.

Severance Package

A severance package refers to the pay and benefits employees are entitled to receive when they leave a company due to a layoff, which refers to leaving the company unwillingly (Tijdens et al., 2014). The employees, therefore, in addition to their remaining standard regular pay, the following are also included in the severance package of the given laid-off employee.

Salary continuation

The salary continuation is majorly based on the years of service of the employee or his position. For instance, if the company decides to lay off Craig, he will receive a monthly salary of up to three years since the job termination was abrupt, and he left unwillingly.

Insurance benefits

In most cases, the insurance benefit plan of an organization may not allow a terminated employee to remain on the group health plan. Some other benefits, like the COBRA benefits, may apply, and the employer may pay the COBRA premium (Tijdens et al., 2014. Therefore, laying off an employee like Craig implies that he will continue receiving such benefits even outside the company.

Uncontested benefits

In other cases, an employer may agree not to challenge an existing employee's application for unemployment benefits. Therefore, the company will pay the employee for having laid them off abruptly or before the termination of the work contract.

Outplacement services

It is the assistance with finding a new job or a time of flexibility to apply or interview for new jobs.

References

It is an agreement on what information will be disclosed to future employers. Be sure to obtain legal advice before agreeing to omit information if there is a chance that the employer may, in the future, be held liable for that omission.

Miscellaneous

They are some other factors that may be relevant to the individual employees' situation, such as loan forgiveness or the transfer of an employer cell phone to the employee.

Therefore a severance pay usually is offered one to two weeks for every year worked, but it can be more. If the employee feels like the job will create an economic hardship, she/he needs to discuss it with their (former) employer. The general practice is to try to get four weeks of severance pay for each year worked. Middle managers and executives usually receive a higher amount. Some executives, for example, may receive reimbursement for more than a year.

Legal Implications for Laying-off an Employee

Every employee is protected by labor laws. Thus, laying them off without prior notice or valid reasons may lead to the lodging of a case against the company for violation of employees' rights. Several laws govern the illegalization of abrupt layoffs (Svalund, 2015). For instance, it can only be legal to retrench employees if the company is officially considered bankrupt or has terminated its operations. Any other reasons are considered unlawful. Therefore, employees follow the following consideration s before laying off an employee.

In case of a contract

Any employee who has signed an agreement stating the period they will be working for the firm and what illegal activities may lead to contract termination is fully protected by the law. Thus, an employer must revisit the contract of each employee before making a rash decision. For instance, if an employee's contract states that they can only be fired for fraudulent issues, breaching this contract implies that they are at liberty to sue the company (Svalund, 2015). Also, employees on a contract have more rights than permanent employees who are fired at will. It is not stated anywhere in the case study that any of the employees is employed on a contract. Therefore, they may fall under the at-will category in which the only choice they have is the implicit contract. In such agreements, the employee argues their rights for something they have heard in the company or read in the employee's handbook. However, this does not hold much weight.

Warning the Employees

Warning the employees implies correcting the mistakes that could lead to loss of job before eventually terminating their services. Additionally, it is described in the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) that any company intending to carry out mass retrenchment of close the business must notify the employees in right time (Deaken et al., 2014). Failure to do so implies that the employer will have to pay thee, employees, for 60 days after job termination. In the case study above, Martinez must notify employees in good time before making a layoff step.

Discrimination Laws

An employee may resist layoff if the act reduces the number of female employees in the company. For instance, Baldwin is the only female in the technology unit. Thus Martinez cannot fire her. Also, discrimination laws state that layoffs cannot apply to individuals above sixty years. The company will be sued even if it has financial reasons to support its actions. Discrimination of minority needs at the workplace is prohibited. Similarly, Udit Chopra is the only Indian employee from the three based on his name. Therefore, firing him will be treated as discrimination, and he may lodge a claim for the same. The federal law also p...