An Effective Termination Procedure Will Protect Your Organization

Help protect your  office from potential liability by having a written termination procedure as part of your office policies and procedures.

Two facts of employment: people get hired and people get fired (or resign).

Few supervisors and managers savor the idea of being good at firing people. Nevertheless, you need to know how to terminate employees in a way that preserves their dignity while meeting your organization's needs. Even the most experienced managers will experience stress and anxiety when they go through the termination process. Having a clear idea of the process won’t make it any more pleasant, but could prevent you from making costly mistakes.

The key to a "successful termination" begins with hiring and continues throughout the employer/employee relationship. Performance Reviews also play a critical role in a "successful termination". But the actual process of termination is what stays in everyone’s mind the longest time. Remember that a termination impacts everyone.

Outline of the Termination Process

• An employee’s manager or direct supervisor should call and conduct the termination meeting. Hold the meeting in a private location other than the employee’s normal work area to limit any embarrassment the employee may experience. Information to be covered in the meeting follows.
• Notify the employee how and why he or she is no longer working at the company. Tell the truth, such as facts about an employee’s poor performance, regardless of how uncomfortable it is. However, never make remarks about an employee’s personal character.
• Inform the employee that the decision is final and when the termination will be effective. (For example, immediately as is common with termination for poor performance or at sometime in the future as is common with a layoff due to reduction in workforce.)
• Let the employee know what benefits (unemployment, health insurance, severance pay, etc.) are available. State laws typically govern how and when final pay and vacation pay is handled.
• Give the employee a written termination notice. Send a written termination notice—by certified mail—to an employee that is being terminated because he or she has failed to come to work as required.
• If you are concerned that an employee may become violent or take legal action, you might consider preparing a statement explaining the termination and read it verbatim to the employee.
• Consider offering assistance to the employee for finding another job. You might offer company assistance in preparing and mailing resumes, making copies or job search coaching tips.

Following the termination meeting, document it with a written, detailed description of the meeting. Include what the employee was told and what the employee said in the notes.

How to Fire an Employee Checklist

• Decide exactly, and succinctly, why you want to fire the employee.
• Compare your reasons for wanting to fire the employee with the job descriptions for that employee’s position. Does at least one of your reasons include that the employee is actually not doing the job properly?
• If you have specific procedures for termination of an employee, follow those procedures.
• If the employee is working pursuant to a contract, you must comply with the terms of the contract having to do with termination; otherwise you may be in breach of contract.
• Be sure to tell employees why they are being fired and give them these reasons in writing. (This can be mailed to them later if more convenient.)
• After you tell employees why they are being fired, allow them to tell you any defenses or other responses they have to your reasons for termination. IT just may be that you are making a terrible mistake, or the employee may confirm your decision to fire them
• Make sure employees’ files include a copy of the written reasons you gave the employees for their firing. Also, make a note in the file of any comments or defenses employees made in response to being fired.
• Be sure all wages, benefits, property, or other things belonging to the employee, or to which the employee is entitled, are given to the employee.
• At all stages of the termination process, from deciding to do so until the employee files is closed for good, treat the employee with common respect and courtesy.
• Never, ever do anything to humiliate the employee. Simply being fired is humiliation enough for an employee.
• Firing an employee is not a pleasant thing. However, being sure of your decision, following proper procedures, and keeping objective records of the decision and the event can put you in the best position possible in case the employee later makes accusations against you, or even if they sue you.

Final Mental Checklist:

• Plan what you are going to say
• Be calm
• Be humane
• Avoid surprises
• Have a strong paper trail
• Write a letter of termination to the employee
• Change the employee’s computer password and eliminate all of their IT access (don't forget email group lists)
• During the termination meeting, make notes of what was said and exchanged

Related articles:

Is A Two Weeks Notice Necessary?

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Is Two Weeks Notice Necessary?

This is a discussion: Should you or should you not accept an employees two weeks notice when they quit?

Amanda works in a healthcare office. She is responsible for billing patients and has just given her supervisor, Jessica, her two weeks notice. Jessica knows that she will not be able to fill Amanda's position within the next two weeks, however, she begins her search. During the next two weeks, Amanda continues with her work and talking with her co-workers. She is no longer afraid of loosing her job for what she says, so she is more open about some of her negative feelings about the office, her supervisor, and some of her co-workers. In addition, Amanda accesses the billing records of some of her family members and "settles" their open accounts. Soon after, Amanda's two weeks are up and she is no longer with the healthcare office. However, what she did during those two weeks will be felt for sometime longer. Morale is lower, there is contention in the office, and the billing records are not matching up.

Giving a two weeks notice is a courtesy and not a legal requirement. It is intended to ease the burden on an employees current employer when that employee has decided to leave. Not giving a two weeks notice could cause excessive additional responsibilities on an employees current co-workers and cause some resentment or harsh feelings.

There is room for discussion for either choice:

Giving Two Weeks Notice - By giving a two weeks notice, an employer would have time to train a permanent or temporary replacement. This is also a time of closure for many of the people who have worked together for many years. During these two weeks, an employer is usually able to gather some honest and open feedback about the position, its responsibilities, and suggestions from the employee who is leaving. However, this is also a time that could make the employer vulnerable to theft, sabotage, or creating discord among the remaining employees.

Not Giving Two Weeks Notice - By not giving a two weeks notice, an employer must quickly assign responsibilities to other employees that were not originally theirs. This would add an extra burden on each of the employees and will have a negative effect on their original responsibilities. However, many times after an employee gives their two weeks notice, their loyalty, heart, and passion for the position no longer exist. The employees mind and focus is now on their new job. The employees effort and focus will not be on their current employer.

We are back to our original question: Should you or should you not accept an employees two weeks notice?

My suggestion - In my personal experience, I have seen many scenarios of what could happen during a two weeks notice period play out. An employer needs to decide weather or not to accept an employees two weeks notice based on the individual employee and the scope of their responsibilities. If the employee has access to sensitive information or an employers does trust an employees actions, then the employer may not want to accept an employees two weeks notice. Some companies have begun taking a different route. When an employee gives their two weeks notice, and that employee falls under the category mentioned above, the employer could offer to pay the employee for the next two weeks, but tell them that their office presence is no longer necessary.

Please share your experiences and opinion on this topic by leaving a comment.

Related article:
An Effective Termination Procedure Will Help Protect Your Office

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I Quit . . . It Began With a Toxic Employee

This is my personal example of how toxic employees hurt organizations.

Many years ago I worked for a new company that was growing fast! It had amazing potential and was just beginning to develop its own unique culture that was different from similar companies within the same industry. My stock in the company was rising quickly. Within six months of being hired, I was being considered for promotion. I loved my job and the people I worked with!

One of my co-workers was rewarded with the promotion that I was seeking. This only helped me work harder and really focused me on being even more productive at my job. My co-worker who was promoted became my supervisor, but we were still close friends. One day, my supervisor came to me and told me that one of my other co-workers came to him and told him various things about me that he knew were not true. He could not figure out why one of my co-workers would try to discredit me so badly.

It was a couple of weeks later that things became more clear. My supervisor came to me and told me that the came co-worker who attempted to discredit me, had just done the same thing to another of his co-workers. It had become obvious that this co-worker was a toxic employee. He was upset that he was not considered for the promotion, so his goal was to discredit all of the co-workers he viewed as competition.

All of the signs of a toxic employee were there:

• He spread gossip about other co-workers
• Did not care about his co-workers
• Only worked hard when somebody was looking
• He was over-confident
• Said, "that's their problem", "this is stupid", and "that's not my job"
• Pushed his work on other co-workers
• He bullied other co-workers

How companies deal with toxic employees says a lot about the company itself, but it also has a huge effect on its culture. After many complaints about this toxic employee, the company finally responded . . . they promoted him. This toxic employee was promoted into a newly created position and given the chance to work from home 50% of the time.

It turned out that this type of decision making was taking place throughout the company. Toxic employee were being rewarded for their "efforts" in multiple departments. Promoting and rewarding this type of behavior had a ripple effect throughout the company. It was the change to the culture of the company that was most noticeable. Rather than being unique, in a positive way, within their industry, the company earned the reputation as being one of the worst organizations to work for.

If the company would have tried to correct the behavior of these toxic employees or simply terminated their employment with the organization, things might have turned out different. However, as the situation was, during the next few months, many of the effective and productive employees found new places for employment, including myself.

Good and productive employees don't want to work with toxic employees who suck the life out of a company. If there are toxic employees within your company, it is vital that you act quickly to correct the situation. Otherwise, they will have a negative effect on the culture of your company and your best employees will leave.

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7 Signs an Employee is About to Quit

It is important to be proactive when you believe an employee is going to quit.

Jack has worked at his current position for more than five years. Today, Jack walked into his supervisor’s office and gave his notice that he will be leaving his current position in two weeks. His supervisor was very surprised at the news. Jack is an important part of what the company does and his leaving is going to affect the company in a negative way. Jack’s supervisor knows that it will take some time to replace him and then even longer to train the new hire. This will have a negative impact on the company for the next few months . . . at least! Unfortunately, Jack’s supervisor did not recognize the warning signs of Jack’s intent to find a new job. If he had, this situation could have been averted or prepared for.

Employee retention is an ongoing effort of every organization. They want to keep the best talent and the brightest employees. However, companies do recognize that they are not going to be able to keep everybody. When an employee does intend to leave, there are some signs that could give a company some awareness of that intention, before the employee actually quits.

1. Sloppy Work Habits – the best employees’ are consistent and complete high quality work on time. An occasional slip-up could mean nothing, but the company should begin to have concerns when prolonged lapses in quality or efficiency begin to happen. This could be an indication that the employee has grown tired of their work and has become disengaged from the company.
2. Attendance – Employees typically maintain the same schedule when they arrive to work and when they leave. If an employee begins to arrive to work earlier than usual or leave earlier than usual on a regular basis and begin taking random days off, this could be a warning sign that they are taking time out of their day to attend interviews. Taking random days off could also be a sign that the employee is trying to use up any remaining paid-time-off before quitting.
3. Appearance – Employees will usually wear the same type of clothes to work every day. If the organization does not require employees to wear a tie and an employee suddenly begins to wear one, then the employee should take notice. Does the day the employee upgraded their wardrobe also coincide with a day they slightly adjusted their schedule?
4. Isolation – You don’t want to jump to conclusions, but an employee who takes frequent trips away from his or her desk to seek solitude might be a sign that they are fielding calls from potential employers. It could also be a sign that they are dealing with a personal issue that is conflicting with work.
5. Life Changes – Birth of a child, loss of a loved one, marriage, divorce, sudden illness requiring on-going medical treatment are all life changes that could alter and employees’ career. These changes offer an opportunity to the employer to have a meeting with the employee to discuss future work plans. Failing to do so could end in the company scrambling to fill a big and unexpected vacancy.
6. Out-of-Character Complaining – Happy workers usually don’t make their negative feelings known to other workers. If an employee develops a surly personality and begins complaining about other co-workers or processes, this could be a hint that something is not right. This shows that the employee has become disenchanted with his or her work and the grumblings could have an effect on other employees’ attitudes.
7. Distancing – If an employee appears to separating or distancing him or herself from co-workers, this could be an indication that the employee has begun disconnecting from fellow co-workers in anticipation of their imminent leave. This type of behavior is also noticeable during meetings where the employee appears disengaged.

In order for a company to keep the best talent and brightest employees, its supervisors need to be able to recognize when an employee is preparing to quit. If a supervisor has cause to think a valuable employee might be on their way out, the correct course of action would be to have a meeting with the employee to discuss the supervisor’s concerns. If the employee does intend to leave, then the company can begin the hiring process. This meeting might also be an opportunity for the company to make some changes in pay, benefits, work schedule, etc. in order to keep the valued employee.

If this article was helpful, you may also want to read about employee burnout at: http://bit.ly/1PCFgd7

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