Week 6 Discussion Board
This is a Current Events discussion board. Your initial post should summarize an article that addresses an HR-related topic that is covered in this week’s material. The article must be from a mainstream newspaper (e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal), SHRM, or a mainstream business magazine (e.g. Forbes). The article may not be more than two months old. After summarizing the article, explain its connection to the course material, the implications to the HR profession, and your opinion on the matter. Make sure to properly reference the article. In your posts to your classmates answer the following: What additional implications are there? Do you agree with their opinion (Why or Why Not)? How can the information from this article be used in the daily practice of HR?
Week 6 Discussion: Article Review
The article which is covered here is related to the HR-related topic which is Making time to limit liability for layoffs. The article is available on the SHRM website and it was written by Allen Smith on 17 August 2022. The article here states about the defection of the work hours of the employees. The article is interesting to read as it provides both education and insight to employers who may be considering the layoff of an employee or a group of employees. The purpose of the article is to make employers aware of the legal implications that an organization may face if the process for issuing a layoff is not completed properly. The article mainly focuses on the layoff of employees nowadays layoff of employees is seen to be very much common in every organization. The article here is all about the layoff and how disadvantages it can also cause to the organization without providing the proper layoff to the employees.
It is correct that no person wants to lose their livelihood suddenly as laying off seems to be the same as sudden layoff leads to hampering the people and their lifestyle as well. The actual cause of the layoff is sometimes due to the not proper working of the business or the business is facing the loss as well. The article here explains that if the layoff is not completed fairly and properly then the employer can face legal troubles as well (Cregan et al. 2021, p.205). This has an impact on the HR profession as the HR team of an organization will want to ensure that the decision as to whom to lay off and the number of persons that need to be laid off is completed ethically and legally. It can be said that the purpose of the article is to make employers aware of the legal implications that an organization may face if the process for issuing a layoff is not completed properly.
The article explains that before laying off any of the people from the organization one should always be ready that which people are going to be laid off and what facilities should be given and make then know the decision before someone month so that they can also have the time to face the situations. Mere laying off without any proper decision or without providing any help puts the organization in legal trouble and the organization has to face this as well.
The connection with the course material
The article I selected is connected to the course material. The article here emphasizes the layoff of the employees and the circumstances that the organization has to face If the layoff is not done fairly by the employer, then they have to face severe circumstances.
Examples from the first section of the article define reasons to go about the process of issuing a layoff appropriately including determining the business reasons for the layoff, the size of the layoff (i.e., 5 persons, 10 persons, 100 persons), the date of the layoffs (i.e., one month from now, 4 months from now), how the layoffs will affect the operation for the remaining employees, the administering of severance packages, determine as to in the organization will decide as to who will be laid off, a review of adverse impact, the identifying of any legal issues that may occur (i.e., ADA, ADEA), and finally the suggestion for an organization to have a well-defined plan. It can be said that before laying off any of the employees one has to be ready to give the benefits to the employees who are being laid off. The benefit here is that they should be given some grace timer so that they can understand and know that they are being laid off and can search the work at another place (SHREM, 2022, p.1). The employees should be paid the salary for the particular period so that it does not hamper their final position named they can get the extra time to deal with this certain situation.
Implications to the HR profession.
The article discusses how the author of the article recommends that the organization monitor the outcome of the decision as to who is laid off and determine if a disparate impact has occurred. If disparate impact has occurred, the organization will want to note which protected group. If the disparate impact is identified, the organization may find itself open to a discrimination claim (Tu, Li & Wang, 2021, p.5). It is recommended that the organization use poor workplace performance as a method for issuing a layoff rather than workplace seniority as basing the decision as to who to layoff based on seniority may not leave the organization with the best employees once the layoff is executed It can be said that the article here provides the brief description that one should need to be ready with the proper planning and the discussion before any layoff of the employees.
References
SHRM (2022) Making time to limit liability for layoffs retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/make-time-to-limit-liability-for-layoffs.aspx (Retrieved on 17th August 2022)
Tu, Y., Li, D., & Wang, H. J. (2021). COVID-19-induced layoff, survivors’ COVID-19-related stress, and performance in the hospitality industry: The moderating role of social support. International journal of hospitality management, 95, 102912.
Cregan, C., Kulik, C. T., Johnston, S., & Bartram, T. (2021). The influence of calculative (“hard”) and collaborative (“soft”) HRM on the layoff‐performance relationship in high-performance workplaces. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(1), 202-224.
