Performance Appraisals

LPL · November 2001

Do we have the right to change an employees review date due to MLOA or FMLOA or out on STD or Workers Comp?

Gillian · November 2001

I would recommend against it because it looks like the employee is being punished for taking leave that they are legally entitled to take. An attorney can weigh in on the legalities but I think that it is very shaky from a legal perspective.

sli3076 · March 2003

what is the best performance management system out in the workforce today?

Susan Fentin MA · November 2001

Well, at the risk of sounding like a lawyer, "It depends!" If you have an employee handbook, check its language to see whether the company is bound to a specific schedule or whether there's some flexibility. If your handbook doesn't cover this, you can make an executive decision to defer a review until the employee comes back, and actually that may make some sense, because reviewing an employee who is on leave may not allow him/her to respond or participate fully, which could certainly be considered unfair based on a legally mandated leave of absence. Take care, however, to communicate with the employee and let him/her know that the review will be tabled until he/she gets back to work, and put a copy of that communication in the employee's personnel file for future reference. And be sure to hold the review when the employee finally does return to work. Sometimes it's a good policy to allow the employee to work the equivalent amount of time that would normally be subject to review before holding the review. So, if the employee has worked three months, would be subject to a review after 6 months, but is out on leave for three of those 6 months, you may want to defer the review until the employee has worked an additional three months, so that you are reviewing comparable periods of time. You can make other adjustments to the review schedule depending upon frequency of reviews etc., but BE SURE to be consistent with all employees who are out on leave and apply the policy evenhandedly to all who are similarly situated (deferring the review for one employee while mandating adherence to the specified time schedule for another employee could certainly be considered discriminatory if the second employee was in a protected class.) If you'd like to talk about this more, you can contact me directly at (413) 737-4753 or via email at [email]sfentin@skoler-abbott.com[/email]. Good luck
Susan Fentin

Performance Appraisals

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