The act of terminating an employee
can be stressful for a human resource person or a small
business owner. If the employee has not changed after
repeated warnings, both verbal and written, then it
can final step for a particular employee’s reform.
You may be asking how terminating an employee can
still be seen as part of that person’s job betterment.
Simply put, a good business has its roots in the community,
and by terminating an employee who does not show up
on time or care to put forward enough energy for a
job, and then you are doing the community a service.
The terminated employee will likely be reflective (after
a period of time) on why exactly they were let go.
During that time, they will remember what it is you
told them and hopefully make changes to correct their
behavior.
Terminating an Employee without Distancing Yourself
from the Staff
We have all seen the employee who has great social
skills, who can make friends with most of the staff,
and might even host parties outside of work for their
coworkers. What if that very employee underperforms?
Do you back away from terminating them, even though
it might be the best thing for the work environment?
Of course, there are tradeoffs when an employee like
that does not perform up to standards. On the one hand,
they offer the environment good morale boost, and might
be valuable enough to keep on for that reason alone.
But if they are constantly distracting and underperforming,
and have not listened to several warnings then terminating
that person might suit the business the best.
In the small business world, terminating an employee
should take place face to face, preferably at the end
of a business day, maybe even on late Friday afternoon.
By telling the employee in the privacy of an office,
at the end of the day, you take away the dramatic effect
of others hearing the firing (never fire someone during
an angry outburst) and bringing down the attitude of
the workplace.
So before you take that final step in terminating
an employee, be sure to gather you thoughts, review
the files, and approach the situation in a straightforward
and dignified way. The employee may react poorly, so
you should prepare yourself mentally before going through
with the termination. But if you go about terminating
an employee from the right angle, then the process
should go smooth and not cause any ill effects within
the workplace.
Our
recommended employee termination procedure.
Legal and fair.