Free Report About Dealing With Problem Employees In The Police

Maximum productivity at the workplace is a goal of every HR manager. An HR manager will always strive to make sure that they employ the most qualified and the most productive persons into the workplace. Though it is quite a hard task to manage employee’s behavior, the HR manager has to make sure that everyone performs to the best. Nevertheless problem situation and problem employees can never miss in an organization. There are a people that rarely follow the rules and the regulations in the workplace and will always be a cause of trouble in the organization. The case in point is worth analyzing because it brings out some of the challenges that HR managers face in their service delivery. It as well gives a highlight to some of the ways to deal with the challenges whenever they occur.
In this case, Newton is simply a problem employee. Problem employees are always there to give managers as headache. They are simply everywhere, and no one organization can miss them, and no organization can be immune to these people. Often these are just time eaters and will always try to keep other employees from being productive. At worst these elements can go to a length of threatening the stability of the organization. The case in point shows that Newton is simply a problem employee. His actions and behavior are not only aimed at disrupting the other colleagues and the police chief, but also to stop them from being productive. Ideally, there are various types of problem employees. They range from the poor fit, the disappearing act, the scofflaw, the sour apple and the filcher type.
The type of problematic employee one can see in Newton is the poor fit or the disappearing act. The poor fit is the kind of employee that is not just cut for the job. They keep on behaving in a manner that does not show the competence at the workplace. This seems to be the case with Newton he keeps on doing things without getting concerned about how they will affect other people around him. He does not display any ethical principles when he chooses to tattoo his body with a naked woman. Though he knows that this could disrupt and interfere with his colleagues, he puts on a don’t-care attitude that is quite disheartening.
This case cannot be problem situations since it does not merit the definition of a problem situation. In most case, problem situation arises from internal contextual factors such as the organizational priorities, power and responsibility sharing and the compliance to process and policies. Most of the problem situations arise from the physical resources and also the legal prescriptive matters. Looking at the case of Newton it is clear that these are only problem employees. There is no issue that is related to sharing of resource or prescriptive matters.
Dealing with problem employees can be quite a daunting task for any manager or HR manager. The first step when dealing with the problem employee is to identify the problem. Most problematic employees tend to be disgruntled, suspicious and even apathetic. They have chronic attendance problems, performance issues, and many disciplinary issues. This seems to be the problem with Newton. As such the police chief has an important responsibility of dealing with this problem. Thought he can explore a number of disciplinary measures, care should be taken because his behavior does not seem to go directly against any laws and regulation of the police. Some punishment might work, but they might end up being a challenge for lacking any legal framework.
There are two options that the police chief has. First he can choose to call Newton and coach him. This option is good for a first time offender and in the case that the problem is quite small. Secondly the police chief can opt to disciple the officer. This is the best remedy in the case that the mistake is serious and that the offense is quite frequent. It is also necessary to use this option if the problem is a willful disregard of the company policy and rules. In this case, the most appropriate strategy he should use is coaching. This is because this option helps to change the employee and still maintain them in service. In the case, that Newton remains adamant and not ready to make changes then the best thing could be to dismiss him from the forces. Though he can argue that he has the liberty of dressing his behavior is disruptive in the workplace, and this can affect the performance of the other employees. On this basis, I could opt to suspend the officer for some time. If they are ready to change then, it can be possible to take them back to the force.
Though the chief has the responsibility of maintaining order and ensuring that the officers carry themselves in accordance with the law, he has to consider some ramification. First he should consider if the Newton had prior knowledge of the consequences of his action. In this case, the police chief should try to find out if Newton had knowledge of how he was affecting the performance of the other employees and that he was going against the city’s policy. Making this consideration is important because the consequences can be serious to the police chief if he just carelessly dismisses Newton. Secondly, it is important for the chief to determine where Newton’s action was breaking any rule in the police and if the rule helps in increasing orderliness, efficiency and safe operation in the police department. The chief should also ensure that they do a fair investigation to Newton’s conduct. It is important that before making a decision to discipline the employee the chief ensures that they do an investigation that gives change to Newton to give his version. Finally, the investigation should ensure that they find substantial evidence that the employee misbehaved.
It is important the police chief gives a fair hearing before making the final decision on this issue. The chief should also consider options that can give Newton an opportunity to correct. It is not fair for him to simply dismiss him from the police without giving him a chance to correct and make amendments.

References

Shepard, G. (2013). How to manage problem employees: A step-by-step guide for turning difficult employees into high performers. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.