2 Simple Ways to Protect Your Business from Idlers

One of the biggest challenges for any employer is learning to deal with employees who don’t achieve the expected results of work – either because they don’t put in enough effort or simply don’t have the necessary competencies. In an organization where the workflow requires everyone to contribute equally to complete a given task, one unproductive employee can affect the output of the entire team. That’s why in the following article we will reveal how you can protect your business from this danger.

  1. Trial work – prevention is better than cure

During the initial contact with a candidate for a certain position, it is difficult to fully assess his work abilities. There is a possibility that after some time it turns out that the employee you have chosen is not suitable for the position after all.

The Labor Law[1] gives you the opportunity to solve this problem by contracting a trial work period, during which you will be able to monitor the work of the new employee and check his knowledge and abilities. This period can last no longer than 6 months, and during that time the new employee works like any other employee who is not on probation.

If during this period it turns out that the new employee does not have enough knowledge and expertise, you can cancel their employment contract even before the end of the trial period (with a notice period of at least 5 working days). This termination procedure is shorter and simpler than the standard termination procedure because you do not need to give the employee a warning before termination. But you have to justify the decision on dismissal, i.e. to state the objective reasons for which you consider that the employee is not competent to work in the position for which they were hired.

Another possibility is to check the knowledge and expertise of the new employee during the entire probationary period so that at the end you can conclude whether the new employee has enough knowledge and expertise to perform the specific job. In this case, there is no notice period, but the employee’s employment ends on the day the trial period ends. However, you will have to make a decision on the termination of the employment contract, which will confirm this – with an explanation.

  1. Dismissal due to failure to achieve work results or lack of necessary knowledge and skills

The Labor Law gives you the possibility to cancel the employee’s employment contract due to nonachievement of work results, i.e. lack of necessary knowledge and abilities even when no trial work has been contacted – but the termination procedure is somewhat different.

In this case, you can cancel the employee’s employment contract only if you previously provided them with a written notification regarding the deficiencies in their work, instructions, and a reasonable deadline for improving the work, and the employee does not improve the work within the given period. Keep in mind that the Law in this case provides for a notice period that cannot be shorter than 8 or longer than 30 days.

In order to be able to measure the results of the work of your employees, it is necessary to first determine the standards of work, i.e. what is expected of an employee assigned to one workplace. You determine them through a general act (work regulations or collective agreement), in accordance with professional customs.

P.S. Since every procedure prescribed by law must be followed for the termination of an employment contract to be legal, consider hiring professional help to avoid possible litigation.

For more information on this or any other legal, tax, or business topic, write to us at [email protected] at any time or call us at phone number +381113281914 every working day from 08:30 to 16:30.

[1] Labor Law (“Sl. glasnik RS”, br. 24/2005, 61/2005, 54/2009, 32/2013, 75/2014, 13/2017 – odluka US, 113/2017 i 95/2018 – autentično tumačenje)

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