I have one scenario I wonder about what happens in this case
In human resource management, a team has been settled and worked on a project and in the middle of the process. The project should keep moving on to finish by deadline. One of team member is having maternity leave for 3 months. She is the only one who knows how to deal with her work. In this case, what the team does? Can the team hire a new person to replace her or do other team members learn how to cover her work?
I think the team should hire a new person to do her job only if the other team members seem inadequate at covering her work with the same level of efficacy and timeframe as she would have done. Although hiring a new face might be slightly costly for the company, it might provide the most advantageous result: the same level of work efficient, since the new face will have to have the same qualification as the team members who is leaving.
First, you should check your risk management plan and check the role of this member, what exactly she does, what skills does she has that make her the only one that can handle this work.Then check to see if anyone on the team has these skills and give him her mandates and duties to the rest of the team.
If not you have to hire a new person.
Specifically for this situation, I don't think hiring a new person is the right move. Maternity leave is a temporary absence but if you hire someone to backfill her position, you have to think about what happens when she comes back. Upon her return, there will now be an extra person on the team, and there may not be enough work to justify keeping that extra person. Not to mention, the hiring process is lengthy. By the time HR finds the right resource, the individuals go through the interview process, the team decides on a candidate, and that person gets up to speed with what's going on/what they'll be working on, that person will be back from maternity leave.
Instead, I think the work needs to be distributed accordingly. The person will obviously know that she will be going on maternity leave, so for the months leading up to it, she can start training the other people on her team to cover her work for her while she's out. Also, if necessary, you can bring in someone else from a different project team that knows how to do what she does. Whatever the decision is, it should be temporary and short-term, since she will be back from maternity leave in a few months.
@jordankayal I totally agree with your point, In Addition, I believe having this issues covers some of the company weaknesses. however, if some one was out for 3 months it will be hard to keep up with the project changes and each person have their own personalities in doing things and turnover need time. So who ever is going to work instead of here should keep that part tell the end of the task or phase.
@jordankayal I totally agree with the fact that a new person should not be hired. As you stated the hiring process would take way too long. Since the team does know that the person is going on maternity leave the months leaving up to her departure the other members should be taught how to accomplish her part of the project or at-least work on it until she returns. I believe this would be the best option because she will be returning and you would not want an extra person on the team. Also since the hiring process is long you cannot just hire someone for the time she will be gone it would not be smart because by the time you hire the new person she will be back from maternity leave. The team should be able to split the person's work up until she returns to work. This would be the most time efficient solution to this issue.
Like someone else said in this thread, if there are other members of the team that have skills that overlap with the one that is on maternity leave, they could take on some additional work load at the appropriate level to not overload their current work. In projects, if team members are pulled from different departments to accomplish a project, then if one individual is leaving for maternity leave, the simple solution would be to see if another person from that individual's department has the same skills needed to carry out the person's tasks at least up until they come back. This would seem to be the most feasible solution as it does not require external hiring which would cause complications once the individual comes back from maternity leave. Additionally, the present team members wouldn't have to learn new skills in order to accomplish the tasks. However, the issue is that this is dependent on the organization/company's work structure because projects are not always created in this manner.
Project human resource management involves organizing and managing a project team. The team is usually made up of people with specific skills and responsibilities. The project team, also known as project staff, should be involved in plans and decision making from the beginning of the project. Team members should feel invested in the outcome of the project. This will increase loyalty and commitment to project goals and objectives. The number of team members and their responsibilities can change as the project develops.
I am also in agreement that a new employee should not be hired in this case. Interviewing and selecting a good candidate, then having to train them on the job all to cover just a 3 month absence is counterproductive in my opinion. Unlike other circumstances which result in long-term absences, such as an unexpected medical emergency, maternity leave can be planned for months in advance. This gives the project team ample time to redistribute responsibilities and train somebody else on how to do the job of the person who is leaving. In general though, to prevent problems like this from occurring it is a good idea to have more than one person knowledgeable on how to perform tasks within an organization as a backup.
Also, I think this would not necessitate updating any documentation which lists out project team members and their responsibilities, such as the DDP. This maternity leave is just a temporary absence, and she is still technically a member of the project team and will have the same responsibilities upon returning, so updating all the documentation when it will all have to be updated again in 3 months is again counterproductive.
Assuming this situation has been anticipated months in advance, I believe the company should consider hiring a temporary or contract employee to fill in for her. This temporary employee would begin before she leaves for maternity leave in order to provide enough time to train them as needed. If a sufficient temporary employee is not found for this position, the team will have to try their best at doing her job for the time being. In either situation, I think it is important for the project team to prepare for her vacancy at least a full month in advance.
My team at work faced the same situation recently, one of our team members left for maternity leave but we needed an extra person to do her job because there was an overload on all team members, so the company hired a temp to take over her responsibilities (the temp was trained before the team member left) to ensure our project timeline is not delayed
I think because the nature of maternity leave gives some notice ahead of time, the company can hire a temp as some other classmates replied above. I can think of some scenarios where finding a temp could prove difficult as some jobs require a lot of training. I think for these jobs it would be important to bring the temp in for training before the person leaves for maternity leave. In other cases the other workers in the office or team would all chip in to cover the other worker who leaves for maternity leave.
I think it would be best to hire someone to replace her. Of course this person should be a very strong candidate and one who has the characteristics of someone who can work under such pressures. If the project is already underway and she is out for three months, the incoming individual would have to be able to manage the responsibilities.
The scenario also makes me wonder. Pregnancy and child birth are not separated by a day. Her absence should be anticipated. I believe it would be very poor planning not to make the necessary arrangements given her situation. If she is going to be out for three months, which is a bit lengthy, hopefully she would have had a conversation during their planning for her maternity leave.
In general, I also tend to think it best to always have someone else who can do the job. Putting all of one's eggs in one basket seems to be a potentially disastrous situation. I currently work in a place that basically only has one person per department. There have been two people to quit in the middle of the year. The jobs are quite specialized as well, so it is not as though these positions are easily filled. Whether someone quits or even becomes ill or whatever the case may be, depending only on one person to fulfill a position with no real ability to replace them seems like very poor planning.
I agree with kbentleymsm-edu this is very poor planning. I am sure the company was aware that she was pregnant and had more than enough time to prepare for her maternity leave. Therefore this issue is poorly managed. I believe that the decisions to bring in a new staff member or not depends on the task of the other team members. If the other team members have time to split the work of the pregnant woman's work. If so I believe that time wise, and money wise it would be best to assign the task to team members or a current employee working on this project. This would be the best option because hiring a new member may take up to a month, and once you hire them you will have to teach them about the tasks that the woman was doing. I believe this will take too much time, especially with a hard deadline.
I have one scenario I wonder about what happens in this case
In human resource management, a team has been settled and worked on a project and in the middle of the process. The project should keep moving on to finish by deadline. One of team member is having maternity leave for 3 months. She is the only one who knows how to deal with her work. In this case, what the team does? Can the team hire a new person to replace her or do other team members learn how to cover her work?
As a project manager, in the planning phase, I would seek to establish staff members who are fully committed, dedicated, and show nothing but loyalty to this project at hand. I am not saying employees are not allowed to have an outside life but unless pregnancy can be put on hold, I would need to find a staff that puts their career first to avoid any possible disruptions. Speaking from a women's behalf, I must say that pregnancies are not always planned, can happen unexpectedly, and God forbid but unfortunately can be forced upon women. With this being said I would not exclude women from working on a project, I would simply seek women who were more focused on their career opposed to family. I would also consider the time frame of a project when picking out staff. If the project is short, I would be willing to hire any individual with an excellent skill set. If the project is long, I would have to cautiously choose the staff. On the other hand, If a woman had to take a leave of absence during the middle of a project, I would seek another individual skilled at her task. I would have them trained thoroughly on the project and keep them up to date on any errors that were made, deadlines to be met, and ensure that they can communicate with other members at all times. Being a new member to team can be uncomfortable for some people but in the workplace, communication is key.
