How to Properly Terminate an Employee

Welcome everybody to HR Simplified. Today I'm going to be talking about a topic. I'm going to be doing a solo episode here to talk about Terminations, firing employees. It's something that unfortunately comes up every single day in our office. Somebody's reaching out, needing some guidance about how, what, why they should or should not terminate an employee. And it's honestly something that's obviously very sensitive, but there are some best practices to think through when you're looking at terminations that can protect you as an organization, but also allow you to go through the process in a humane fashion that allows everybody to maintain their dignity when and/or if a termination needs to occur. So the first question I always ask somebody when they call me and say, hey, I want to fire Joe. The first question I always ask is, will Joe be surprised? So if you sit down with Joe and say, listen, Joe, we're just going to have to let you go. It's just not working out. Is he going to be completely blindsided? Now let's think about that because if he's completely blindsided, that means he hasn't done anything that's so obvious to warrant a termination, something like workplace violence or egregious harassment or unacceptable performance issues during an introductory period that are just almost, almost borderline negligent, um, or they're violating workplace safety rules. People should not be surprised when they get fired if they have done something like that. And then also the other side of that is if they're having performance issues and they're not doing things as you see fit, then they should have had some performance conversations leading up to that, that would allow them to not be surprised by the termination. So, so that's always my first point is, hey, is Joe going to be surprised if you sit down and have a termination meeting with him today? And you know, that, that usually sparks some conversation and then we'll get into more of the, well, Matt, it's a, you know, Joe's just not a good fit. This is a, a right-to-work state, and we just don't really want to have him around anymore. I'm really pushing to get Joe off board because he's just a problem. And I don't want to, I don't even want to deal with all these disciplinary conversations. And so, you know, while a lot of states are right-to-work states, they're also right-to-sue states from the former employee that we've terminated. So protecting yourself by properly documenting performance issues and by making sure that you're following a progressive discipline process is a way that you can preclude those incidents from happening. And so you, you don't really want to leave any mystery behind why somebody is getting terminated, going back to, are they going to be surprised? So if I've had 3 sit-down performance reviews with you or performance conversations with you, during the last two, you've mentioned to me that if the performance continues the way it is, that I could be terminated, then I am definitely not going to be surprised. And to further that, I've got documentation that's been signed by me as Joe that says, hey, we just had this conversation. And I'm not going to be surprised because you mentioned during the conversation that if, if this persists, I'm going to get terminated. Now, not to get too sidetracked here, but those conversations that you're having with an employee during a progressive discipline process. And, and sometimes progressive discipline scares people because they get worried that they have to do things exactly the same way every time they have to follow step 1, 2, 3. That's not necessarily the case, right? There's just more of a process of understanding that there's going to be some sort of a warning, some sort of a write-up, some sort of a progression. And typically we want to see something in a verbal warning, a written warning, and then a final warning. But that's not always the case with each individual, right? Once again, there are things where you go from verbal warning to final warning because of the severity of what has been done. And so backtrack just a moment there. When you're looking at documenting those conversations, the verbal warning— verbal warning is a good example of, hey, maybe I'm just going to write this down on my own, put it in the employee's file that I warned him today about the performance that he's been having. Next up, written warning. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to have a conversation with that employee, and I'm going to have them sign off on that document at the end of the conversation. Now, by signing off on it, they don't necessarily have to agree with everything that has been said, because oftentimes that's the, the, you know, you'll get people that are defensive that are saying, my, my performance isn't what you're saying it is. This is happening because of X reason. This is happening because of Y reason. So it's not that they necessarily have to agree with everything you said, but they're agreeing that what was said transpired in the course of that conversation. So they're saying that the conversation was had and they're signing off. And that's, that's an important point to make because oftentimes people get wrapped up in, I'm not signing this because I don't agree with what you've said here today. And, you know, really what they're signing is, is that it was said, not necessarily that they agree with it. And then, so when you move into the final warning, you're going to treat that the same way. You want signatures on that. You want it in the employee file. You're going Because whether it's unemployment or a potential lawsuit, you want to be able to pick up the file and say, hey, here's the history of incidents we were having that were leading up to the termination. The message was clear throughout on here were the performance issues we were having that could result in termination and did result in termination. And that's why we came to the decision we did. So, uh, but ultimately let's, you know, I'm going to take a step kind of sideways on this here and, and talk a little bit about, obviously terminating employees is less than ideal. And, you know, one of the main reasons folks tell us that they want to terminate an employee is because they are— I'm using the air quotes here— not a good fit. And so when somebody is not a good fit, I really always try to dive into that and understand what does that mean to you that this employee is not a good fit? Are they not performing what you expected from the role? Are they performing at a subpar level? Are they just somebody you don't like? Like, what is going on with the not a good fit thing? And it reminds me of a conversation I had with a client several months back where, you know, she wasn't a good fit. Okay. Explain to me why she's not a good fit. Well, she doesn't do these 3 things the way we expect them to be done here. So that's great. Has anybody told her that? Oh, well, you know, she knows, she knows. How does she know? She's worked there for 2 weeks and she's not a good fit because she's not doing things at the expectations you have. And you're a small business with about 10 employees, the pretty minimal training program. And so she's kind of been thrown to the wolves. And now you're saying she's not a good fit because of these things that she's not doing, but nobody sat down and talked to her about that. And nobody's coached her and given her an opportunity to improve on that. So this, this not only dovetails out of that, hey, you know, into a hiring process, into a training process, into how do we coach our employees? Uh, but we have to look at those things holistically because they're so expensive, time-consuming, and de-energizing when we do them wrong. So we've done some other things about hiring processes. I think if you check out some of the other episodes of HR Simplified, we dive into hiring a good bit, but that education and training, when you bring somebody on in the initial few weeks, few months, and getting them into a deep understanding of the expectations of the role, The culture, how you do things, help to eliminate a lot of what could be potentially bad hiring decisions or eliminate possible terminations because you're giving people the opportunity to improve. You're coaching them, you're giving them a roadmap on what it takes to be successful. And, you know, there are certainly times where you get employees in and maybe they're not the right fit. Maybe they can't do things as well as they said in the interview process. And you're just now finding that out. Maybe there's, just not enough getting done from, from a productivity perspective. But typically that can be fixed with some coaching and training and a growth mindset that allows you to pour into this person. And so, you know, we're not naive enough to think that terminations don't happen with reason or with cause, but at the same time, a lot are avoidable. And sometimes that's avoidable by making sure you're doing a really thorough job during the hiring process. And making sure that you're finding the right person, making sure that you're setting proper expectations of what the onboarding and training process is going to look like once they're in the door. Have they been a part of a smaller organization before that maybe doesn't have as well-built out of a process? And so they're going to be expected to come in and produce from day one, setting those types of expectations and allowing an individual to step into something that they're familiar with prior to coming on board are really critical and can help you from avoiding terminations in the long run. So, so we want to coach employees up, help them to improve their performance or behavior. And if that doesn't work, then really what we want to try to do is get them into a performance improvement plan. So when we look at this progressive disciplinary procedure, you know, one of the options you have when you move from verbal warning to written warning to final warning is to put in, in place a performance improvement plan. And so what this is, if you're not familiar with it, uh, affectionately known as a PIP sometimes, and, and sometimes misleading in the, from the perspective that a lot of people think that once I put a PIP in place, I'm just trying to fire this person. That's not true. I mean, it's called the performance improvement plan for a reason. We want to help somebody to improve their performance to the expectations that we have as an organization. And sometimes this can just be a restacking of the deck from your side to make sure that you're properly setting expectations. I just went through this with a client a couple months ago where they had somebody who'd been there for a year and a half. He wasn't meeting expectations according to them. However, they never really provided him with any expectations. So what were these expectations he wasn't hitting? How was he to know? Nobody had put them in writing. Nobody had sat down with him and shared them. They were just sort of these nebulous things that he was not doing according to what they expected. But he should know, he should know is kind of the old, you know, the old fallback is, you know, he knows what's expected of them. She knows what's expected of her. You've got to clearly articulate these things. Otherwise, not only are you not setting the employee up for success, you're leaving yourself open for liability down the road. So proper— properly communicate expectations consistently. Uh, you know, we want to see these things happen monthly or every 90 days, make sure people are on the, on the same track with how frequently you're doing performance check-ins with employees. That also helps you avoid some of this down the road. If you're doing like an annual review process where you're never sitting down with people and talking about their performance, then you're going to leave the door open for more issues as well. So definitely something to keep in mind as we look at all the arms of human resources, we look at recruiting, hiring, performance, training and education, compensation and benefits, perform— you know, all these things come together, right. And they all kind of play harmoniously together and, you know, performance management and how you do that on a consistent basis to manage the number one asset of your company is going to dictate how much time and energy you have to invest in the hiring, termination, you know, backfilling, all those things. So definitely want to make sure that you've got a good performance management program in place. And a performance improvement plan can be a byproduct of that where we say, hey, look, Here are the expectations over the next defined period of time that you should— we need you to abide by if we're going to continue employment. And if not, then this probably isn't a good fit for you. I think oftentimes those, when done properly, are very fair, right? Because they reset the expectations. They give that individual the opportunity to go, oh geez, this is what I should be doing. And this isn't— I haven't really been hitting the mark here either. I'm glad that I now know. And set them up for an opportunity to course correct. And when executed properly, yes, they do one of two things. They let you and/or that person know that this is not a good fit. They cannot meet these expectations, or they course correct and give somebody the opportunity to exceed expectations because they now know what they are. And that's a critical component of this. So performance improvement plans, I just have to say, approach them with a positive mindset. We really want to use them as an opportunity to recapture an individual and bring them back into the fold. So let's talk about once you get into the actual termination meeting with an employee, um, all fails and you can't make it work out and you do have to separate employment. You've documented that the reasons why the employee is explicitly aware, they know that they're kind of on borrowed time here because they're not meeting the expectations and they've been told multiple times. You know, when we get into that meeting, we really just want this to be a short, direct, explicitly clear on why they are being terminated, why employment is like being let go, and also just treating them in a fashion that they can leave with their dignity intact. You know, it doesn't always work out. Not everyone is a, not everyone is the right fit for every role in every organization. But we have to make sure we made a hiring decision. We made a commitment to somebody and vice versa. We have to make sure we exhaust all options prior to, to moving into the termination route. And you know, this is, this is a really delicate balance of the, they say the old mantra is hire slow, fire fast. Yes, there is definitely some merit to that in that, hey, if somebody is not a good fit, you don't want them hanging on for 6 months, 2 years longer than they should be. But at the same time, you also have to give somebody enough time to prove whether or not they're capable of doing the role. And you have to open up that mindset of saying like, oh, hey, they didn't do this thing right the first time. So they're never going to do it right. It's their first time. It's their second time. It's their third time. Give them the opportunity to make a few mistakes, fix it up, get better, learn from it. That's how we all learn and grow. But back to the termination meeting. I'm always of the mindset, if the person gets emotional, defensive, let them get it out on site with you. As long as they're doing so in a way that's not disrespectful to you personally or the organization, I just let them get it out because you'd rather they get a chance to say their, their piece on site rather than doing it once they, you know, have more time to go home, whether in a public forum or, you know, through a lawsuit or through a, um, you know, some egregious claim back at your organization. So let them get their emotions out as long as they're being respectful, but do not engage in that. Right. So I've, I've given that advice to somebody before and then found out later that they were in a screaming match because she got very defensive with him after being let go. He returned volley and started coming back at her. That is not the intent here, right? They, The intent is just to let them express their emotions on site and move on. We really want a terminated employee's last impression to be as positive as humanly possible. And that's a challenging thing when somebody is being let go. But once again, if they're not surprised, it's not going to be as challenging as just, you know, blindsiding somebody with a, hey Joe, you're just not a good fit here. And, and We gotta let you go. I know you just dropped everything to come work here 4 weeks ago, and now I'm going to let you go. You have to give people the chance to prove whether or not they can be successful in the role. And 2 or 4 weeks is just not enough time unless somebody is just egregiously violating company policies. And so a couple other things I always want to think about when we look at terminations, we kind of had the opposite thing happen here, uh, recently with a client where they they wanted to, or excuse me, they have somebody who, you know, on paper, it makes sense that this individual should have been terminated a while ago. Whereas in reality, they've continued to have disciplinary conversations and continue to sort of grant some leeway to this, this woman. And she, you know, has continued to take that and run with it. And so the challenge that I have there is, is not that they're giving this person third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth chances, uh, with behavior that's violations of policy. In many cases, that's infringing upon others' ability to work in an environment that's, that's sort of comfortable and, um, and amicable, but it's the precedent that you set with that. And so all of these things we just talked about are all precedent setting. So when I terminate somebody after 2 weeks, for not having, you know, not being a fit. Now I've got everybody on eggshells when somebody new starts and they go, well, we hope you can make it longer than Joe. They fired Joe after 2 weeks. Oh geez. Well, I better make sure I keep my resume posted online just in case something better pops up, then I can go get it. Or if I'm that individual who has been given 10 chances and then the next person is only given 3 chances, And they're, you know, they're let go immediately. Well, now they've, they've got a whole other issue that they can look at and go, well, how come Joe was given 10 chances and I was only given 3? And so we want to be consistent in the application of our processes, whatever we determine those to be. However, once again, they don't necessarily always need to be, you know, steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 for every situation. Situations are different. There's nuance there. Uh, but we have to be careful with precedent. Also have to be careful with the precedent we set as far as somebody gives their 2-week notice and we immediately let them go and don't pay them. Uh, you know, had to guide somebody through this situation recently where individual gave notice. They said, that's great. We don't want them here anymore because they have access to data. So we're just letting them go. Do I have to pay them? Well, if they don't come in and work, you technically don't have to pay them. But you are setting a very dangerous precedent in that circumstance, because now anybody knows, you know, people talk about these things. I remember working at an organization like this where you knew the moment that you came in and gave your 2 weeks that that was going to be your last minute on site. They were going to escort you out, and that would be the end of your employment there. So, so if somebody was trying to do something meddling with the things that you're worrying about in that last 2-week period, they will have already done it because they will know that they're going to be let go immediately when they come in and give their notice. But now you're also setting the precedent that it's, you know, it's kind of a, oh, if you're not with us, you're against us, get out the door, bye-bye, adiós. We don't really care about the commitments you've made to the organization. You got to go. You know, that's, that's not really a very culturally sensitive thing to do inside your organization. We don't really want people, we want people kind of as alumni out there as brand ambassadors talking about what a great place this was to work and how much it elevated their career, we don't really want that ending in such a way that they are then, you know, with a really negative taste in their mouth, even when they