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How to Fire An Employee
One of the most difficult tasks of a manager and leader is to terminate an employee. I believe that if you set clear expectations, offer proper training and resources and give continual feedback, and an employee is still not performing well, then you would never really need to terminate an employee because they will choose to exit themselves. While this may be true of employees with performance problems, there are times when an employee needs to be terminated immediately for theft, insubordination, fraud, fighting or unprofessional conduct. Let's take a deeper look at this process of termination and how to do it effectively by reviewing a manager's checklist for making a termination decision:
1) Are reasons for termination established? ___yes ___ no
a. Did I gather enough facts? ___yes ___ no
b. Did I perform a full investigation ___yes ___ no
c. Did I have performance appraisals to ___yes ___ no
back my decision?
d. Did I document in their file? ___yes ___ no
e. Did I give the employee prior warning of
performance or disciplinary problems? ___ yes ___ no
2) Have other employees been disciplined ___ yes ___ no
similarly in the past?
a. Is there a business reason if others have ___yes ___ no
not been treated the same in the past?
b. Have other employees with similar ___ yes ___ no
problems been treated less severely?
3) Have I followed the company procedures ___yes ___ no
for termination?
a. Have I followed the company handbook ___yes ___ no
and/or the policies & procedures manual?
b. Have I discussed the decision with HR? ___ yes ___ no
4) Have I made the decision to terminate? ___yes ___ no
a. Can I communicate the decision
tactfully? ___yes ___no
b. Do I know all the facts? ___yes ___no
c. Have I kept the incident confidential? ___yes ___ no
d. Have I prepared the final paycheck? ___yes ___ no
e. Have I prepared a COBRA notice? ___yes ___ no
f. Do I have a witness ready if possible? ___yes ___ no
g. Do I have security ready if necessary? ___yes ___ no
h. Am I ready to give only dates and duties ___yes ___no
as reference?
An employee should never be surprised when they are terminated. A good manager needs to communicate performance expectations continually so the employee is not caught off guard. Often an employee that is surprised by a termination will decide to sue the employer. If the employee handbook spells out clearly the behaviors that cause termination on the spot, and if the manager communicates and documents performance expectations continually, then the employer is on safer and more solid ground for making a termination decision.
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