Best strategy in regularizing ‘endo’ workers

ELBONOMICS: Motivation and bathing have one thing in common: they must be done daily.

We’re now ditching the “endo” practice in anticipation of the new administration’s policy on job security. We’ve already converted 30% of our contractuals into probationary status. They represent the cream of the crop of our agency work force. What’s your suggestion on how to make the transition successful? — New Life

There was a young bride, a despicable cook, whose husband came home to find her crying. “The dog ate your dinner,” she sobbed. Out of the blue and speaking mindlessly, the husband replied: “Never mind, honey,” he said. “We’ll get another dog.”

Sometimes, people say what they don’t mean. We don’t intend to hurt. But, on certain days and circumstances, we simply blurt out something that betrays our true intentions. Take the case of “endo” cyclical hiring of workers. I’ve written a lot about different scenarios when the abuse becomes apparent.

In shopping malls, factories, and hotels and many establishments, workers doing the same tasks have different employment status. Most of the time, “endo” workers outnumber the regular work force by as much as 80% temps to 20% regulars until the practice becomes an abusive employer practice.

Now, that you’re in the process of regularizing 30% of your temps, would that mean an admission of you being a “despicable cook” like the young bride in our story? Are you admitting your past mistake s ? Alas, you’ve no choice now as the labor department becomes strict in the implementation of our laws on job security.

Newspaper reports indicate that the new administration is poised to reduce “endo” by 50% this year, and eliminate it all together by 2017. Already, this is happening as I heard many establishments are pre- terminating their contracts with manpower agencies and is now in the process of hiring directly “endo” workers.

With that as a preamble, how are you going to effect the transition so that everyone becomes happy, productive, and legally- compliant? For one, 95% of manpower agencies have no performance evaluation system. They rely much on the verbal instructions of the principal on who will be replaced the following day. It’s that simple, but very pathetic indeed.

In fact, many “endo” workers don’t even know why their services are being terminated. That’s the second whammy. Many of these poor workers are not even aware of the performance work standards and rely much on verbal instructions that are often confusing, conflicting, and unclear because they’re second-hand information they got from agency bosses, many of which have no inkling on what to do except to collect service fees.

Therefore, the first hurdle of integrating “endo” workers into the regular work force is the performance standards and review process. Strengthen the system to make it palatable and understandable even to the unschooled or even those with high school education.

Don’t take this for granted because “endo” workers are not used to being evaluated, in the first place. The trick of the performance evaluation trade is to separate the review from the merit increase and the promise of regularization. This allows for more open, objective discussion between line supervisors and their employees.

Otherwise, if the “endo” workers, now probationary employees feel their comments are tied directly to their prospects of being regularized or not, they are more likely to be more defensive when discussing the negative aspects of their performance.

This must be done within the guidelines of your established company policy. There’s nothing worse than starting to prepare for a review and draw a blank when you try to remember both the positive and negative aspects over the past five months of probationary employment. Whatever happens, be specific on the acts and omissions of workers as they pertain to established work standards.

Broad statements such as “spent too much time in the cafeteria” or “average performance” are not acceptable measures in an objective evaluation setup. Whatever happens, your decision must rely on the totality of workers’ performance and not on minor achievements ( like the perfect attendance) and minimal transgression like a one-time non-wearing of company ID.

And more importantly, you have to work out the task objectives with the “endo” workers. The standards and targets must be mutually acceptable. This is where line supervision comes into active play. Take the time to do this carefully by empowering and equipping your supervisors with management skills to avoid future issues.