What action do you take against the employee who has transferred money to wrong account by oversight?
From India, Bengaluru
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From India, Bengaluru
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Dear Sandhya Prajwal,
While raising the query, not giving adequate information is the bane of this forum. You have lived up to that bane. Please confirm to us the following:
a) Who was the employee in question? What is their designation? Was the transfer of funds part of their duty?
b) The account to which they transferred the funds wrongly, was it your company's account or the employee's or someone else's? What was the value?
c) Who discovered the wrong transfer of funds, and how was it discovered? After how long was it discovered?
d) Has the fund transfer been reversed? How many days/weeks did it take for the reversal of the funds?
e) Did the employee in question commit the same lapse earlier?
f) Did the wrong transfer create an embarrassing situation for the company? Was there customer dissatisfaction of any kind?
g) In the fund transfer activity for the company, two employees are involved. How come only one employee was involved in this case?
h) Do you have sufficient proof to say that it was done out of oversight?
We, the members of this forum, are outsiders. Unless we get a complete idea of what has happened in your company, we cannot give our opinions. Nevertheless, you may issue a show-cause notice to the employee. Based on the reply of the employee as well as replies to the questions, your management may take suitable disciplinary action.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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8223While raising the query, not giving adequate information is the bane of this forum. You have lived up to that bane. Please confirm to us the following:
a) Who was the employee in question? What is their designation? Was the transfer of funds part of their duty?
b) The account to which they transferred the funds wrongly, was it your company's account or the employee's or someone else's? What was the value?
c) Who discovered the wrong transfer of funds, and how was it discovered? After how long was it discovered?
d) Has the fund transfer been reversed? How many days/weeks did it take for the reversal of the funds?
e) Did the employee in question commit the same lapse earlier?
f) Did the wrong transfer create an embarrassing situation for the company? Was there customer dissatisfaction of any kind?
g) In the fund transfer activity for the company, two employees are involved. How come only one employee was involved in this case?
h) Do you have sufficient proof to say that it was done out of oversight?
We, the members of this forum, are outsiders. Unless we get a complete idea of what has happened in your company, we cannot give our opinions. Nevertheless, you may issue a show-cause notice to the employee. Based on the reply of the employee as well as replies to the questions, your management may take suitable disciplinary action.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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Hi Dinesh, thank you for the response.
This is the first incident. This happened at the time of salary transfer. The HR executive was supposed to give the correct account number of the new joiner, but it was wrong by just one digit. It was a typo error; hence, I said it was an oversight.
When the employee came back after a week, saying he didn't receive the salary yet, that's when we noticed the incorrect account number mentioned and that the person to whom it was transferred is unknown. They immediately withdrew the funds (Rs. 12,500).
We did discuss the incident with the bank. The bank has blocked that account, but the amount is still not reversed.
The new employee was upset, so I had to apologize to him. This creates a wrong impression, and he may lose confidence in the company and HR.
As an action against the HR executive for ignorance, written feedback is given.
I wanted to understand what actions others take during such situations when HR themselves make errors.
From India, Bengaluru
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This is the first incident. This happened at the time of salary transfer. The HR executive was supposed to give the correct account number of the new joiner, but it was wrong by just one digit. It was a typo error; hence, I said it was an oversight.
When the employee came back after a week, saying he didn't receive the salary yet, that's when we noticed the incorrect account number mentioned and that the person to whom it was transferred is unknown. They immediately withdrew the funds (Rs. 12,500).
We did discuss the incident with the bank. The bank has blocked that account, but the amount is still not reversed.
The new employee was upset, so I had to apologize to him. This creates a wrong impression, and he may lose confidence in the company and HR.
As an action against the HR executive for ignorance, written feedback is given.
I wanted to understand what actions others take during such situations when HR themselves make errors.
From India, Bengaluru
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Dear Ms. Sandhya Prajwal,
If the fund transfer took place to a wrong account, though inadvertently, then you say that you have "discussed" the matter with the bank authorities? However, in such cases, for the reversal of the funds, a letter from the MD on the letterhead of the company is required to be sent to the bank authorities. If sufficient funds are held in the recipient's account, then the bank authorities reverse the fund transfer immediately.
Anyway, now the bank has blocked the bank account. However, now send an official letter to them asking them to send an official letter to the recipient of the funds. He must refund the amount. Mere blocking the account is not sufficient. The action has to be backed by the official correspondence.
If the new employee has not received the salary because of the diversion of the funds to the wrong account, then your company should have paid him the salary anyway. Because of someone's wrongdoing, disbursement of salary to him cannot be held to ransom. If the salary is not disbursed, then do it immediately.
Your main query was on initiating disciplinary action against the HR Executive for doing the wrong fund transfer. However, here there appears to be a system's failure more than the person's failure. The cause of the incident is the lack of accuracy check on two counts. Firstly, whenever a new employee joins, and whenever the account details are uploaded to the bank account, why was the accuracy check not done? Secondly, for the disbursement of the salary, when the salary rolls were sent to the bank, why was the accuracy check of the new account holder not done?
This is an HR department's failure. For convenience, you cannot make the HR Executive scapegoat and cover up the matter. At the senior level, someone must take moral responsibility for what has happened.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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If the fund transfer took place to a wrong account, though inadvertently, then you say that you have "discussed" the matter with the bank authorities? However, in such cases, for the reversal of the funds, a letter from the MD on the letterhead of the company is required to be sent to the bank authorities. If sufficient funds are held in the recipient's account, then the bank authorities reverse the fund transfer immediately.
Anyway, now the bank has blocked the bank account. However, now send an official letter to them asking them to send an official letter to the recipient of the funds. He must refund the amount. Mere blocking the account is not sufficient. The action has to be backed by the official correspondence.
If the new employee has not received the salary because of the diversion of the funds to the wrong account, then your company should have paid him the salary anyway. Because of someone's wrongdoing, disbursement of salary to him cannot be held to ransom. If the salary is not disbursed, then do it immediately.
Your main query was on initiating disciplinary action against the HR Executive for doing the wrong fund transfer. However, here there appears to be a system's failure more than the person's failure. The cause of the incident is the lack of accuracy check on two counts. Firstly, whenever a new employee joins, and whenever the account details are uploaded to the bank account, why was the accuracy check not done? Secondly, for the disbursement of the salary, when the salary rolls were sent to the bank, why was the accuracy check of the new account holder not done?
This is an HR department's failure. For convenience, you cannot make the HR Executive scapegoat and cover up the matter. At the senior level, someone must take moral responsibility for what has happened.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar
From India, Bangalore
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There is no harm in issuing an advisory letter to the concerned employee citing this incident, to be more vigilant in the future. Moreover, you should devise a system to ensure that this does not happen again as it maligns the image of the company before a newcomer.
From India, Delhi
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From India, Delhi
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You are right. A letter has been issued. Below, the system we implemented:
1) We are implementing HRMS (Qandle).
2) We have implemented a stringent process to ensure reconciliation of payroll with the previous month is not missed.
Thank you all for your guidance and support.
From India, Bengaluru
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1) We are implementing HRMS (Qandle).
2) We have implemented a stringent process to ensure reconciliation of payroll with the previous month is not missed.
Thank you all for your guidance and support.
From India, Bengaluru
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A standard practice followed by many companies is to remit ₹1 to the account of new employees in advance and ask them to confirm that it has been received. Once such a confirmation is received, the account is included in the payment of salary.
The success of the process will depend on the number of new employees as well as the level of automation in the HR system.
From India, Mumbai
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The success of the process will depend on the number of new employees as well as the level of automation in the HR system.
From India, Mumbai
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