Reference no: EM132809755

Jatin is a department head. He has been with the company for 30 years and knows his way around quite well. He has two employees as supervisors, Hema and Nitin. Hema has been with the company for 15 years and Nitin has been with the company for six years. Hema has always been cooperative, loyal and dependable but not an especially good supervisor. Recently, Jatin has noticed that Hema has begun to 'slip' in the performance of some of her duties. Nitin, on the other hand, is a very ambitious, energetic and dependable supervisor who grasps problems quickly and easily. Jatin has to complete performance appraisals on both individuals annually.

Ten months ago he did his appraising with a great deal of displeasure because he hated to face the unpleasantness of a negative performance appraisal review. As a result, he rated both the employees about the same. When a discussion about the ratings was conducted, both Hema and Nitin, appeared to be satisfied with the rating they had received.

Six months ago, business began to fall off due to pandemic and a reduction in force was put into effect. This week, after number of people were laid off or demoted, it became necessary to move either Hema or Nitin from the position of a supervisor to that of a worker until sales picked up. Jatin wants to keep Nitin on the supervisor job, but on the basis of appraisal there is no difference between the two. In the past when two employees had the same ratings, the person with the most seniority receives priority. Jatin must decide today what to do.

Questions:

a. What HR issues could be raised in this case?

b. If you were the HR Manager, how would you ensure that such problems do not happen.