Terminating an employee is one of the most daunting tasks you can face. While making such decisions isn’t enjoyable, there are instances where they become necessary for the good of your organization.
How and when you handle the process, however, can leave lasting impacts on both your departing employee and the remaining team.
A well-managed firing process, meanwhile, can mitigate negative consequences, protect your company’s reputation, preserve team morale, and reduce the risk of legal consequences.
To help you understand how you can do this yourself, we’ll walk you through how you can fire an employee with professionalism, empathy, and strategic foresight.
Why handle employee terminations professionally and empathetically?
To start, there are several reasons for handling a termination in a positive manner.
Protects organization’s image
A poorly handled firing can tarnish your company’s reputation and employer branding, leading to challenges in recruiting new hires.
Treating employees with respect throughout the process, on the other hand, sends a clear and positive message about your company’s values and culture.
Minimizes legal risks
By professionally handling terminations, you ensure compliance with labor laws and regulations. This reduces the likelihood of getting hit with wrongful termination lawsuits that can be costly and time-consuming.
Preserves team morale
An empathetic approach to firing an employee helps maintain your workforce’s morale. When remaining employees see their colleagues treated fairly and respectfully, even throughout the termination process, they’re more likely to trust leadership and remain engaged.
Encourages positive departures
Taking steps such as helping the erring employee find a new job, allowing them to share what they feel, and the like, allows individuals to leave with dignity. This lowers the likelihood a departing worker shares grievances online or with competitors.
Nurtures a respectful work culture
Handling a difficult workplace scenario like a termination with empathy and professionalism fosters a respectful environment.
Making individuals feel valued, even though they’re leaving, establishes a culture where employees feel appreciated at all times. This enhances worker satisfaction and loyalty as well.
Role of talent-management solutions in the employee termination process
When faced with the difficult decision of whether or not you should let an employee go, talent-management solutions play a key role. Here’s why you should include them in your process:
Objective decision-making
Avoiding biases and personal emotions can be challenging when considering a termination. Talent-management solutions, however, mitigate such issues.
Since they offer concrete information and metrics that highlight an individual’s contributions, performance gaps, and problem areas, they enable informed and fair decision-making.
Identifies performance issues and development needs early
Tools such as assessments let you track performance over time, as they provide reports on a worker’s effectiveness and skills—all thanks to the various tests and peer feedback they utilize.
Spotting underperforming employees early, meanwhile, allows you to take steps towards their improvement, like offering upskilling and reskilling opportunities or reassigning them to a more skill-appropriate role. This can resolve issues before they escalate to a need for termination.
Performance documentation
Since these solutions generate records of individual performance, colleague feedback, and, if any, disciplinary actions an employee underwent, you have a clear trail of evidence that justifies your firing decision. This protects your organization from potential legal disputes.
Assesses role and cultural fit
Talent-management systems often include assessments that measure an employee’s competencies, personality traits, and behaviors, indicating how well they align with their current role and your company’s values.
If an individual consistently struggles, such evaluations let you recognize whether issues are tied to skill deficiencies, cultural misalignments, or role mismatches. This can guide reassignment or termination decisions.
Deciding when to fire an employee
Now that you know why an empathetic, yet comprehensive, termination process is critical, we’ll walk you through how you can thoughtfully formulate your final decision.
Signs that point towards a necessary termination
First, identify these obvious indicators.
Consistent underperformance
If an employee repeatedly fails to meet your organization’s established goals, quality standards, or expectations despite efforts to address their shortcomings, it may be time to consider letting them go.
Negative impact on team morale
Underperformers may cause problems for their teammates, as they’re the ones who have to pick up the slack. Those with bad attitudes or who engage in toxic behaviors, meanwhile, can undermine team cohesion and productivity.
Whatever the case, such issues can start with an individual, then spread to the rest. This fosters negativity and lowers engagement within the team, so it’s best to think about firing the root cause.
Regular task redelegation
If you find yourself or the team constantly reassigning an erring worker’s tasks to others, mainly because they’re unable to keep up or have lost their colleagues’ trust, this strongly indicates a skill, role, or cultural mismatch.
Increased absences
An uptick in absenteeism, especially without a legitimate reason, can signal one’s lack of engagement or commitment to the role. The tasks they neglect will be passed onto their teammates as well. If this behavior becomes consistent, it may be best to fire the offender.
Consider a performance improvement plan
Despite the above signs, formulating a performance improvement plan (PIP) is still an option for employees whose issues can be addressed with the right training or adjustments.
For instance, their current skills or competencies may simply be underdeveloped or don’t match well with their role.
Evaluate fit for other job positions
Before moving on to termination, gauge whether your transgressing employee might perform better in a different role, particularly one that aligns with their strengths. To do this effectively, conduct a job fit assessment. This systematic process involves:
- Skills tests
- Personality evaluations
- Interviews
- And the like
Assess culture fit
If the erring worker doesn’t match your organization’s values and goals, they’ll clash with its culture. This can give rise to conflict in the workplace, as they’ll have a different approach to their job and work relationships.
This being the case, you may need to take them through extra training, as poor cultural fit can be as detrimental as skill deficiencies.
Preparing for employee termination
If firing your worker seems to be the only option, you must make comprehensive preparations to ensure a professional, empathetic, and legal process.
Gather necessary documents
Make sure that all records of the employee’s performance issues, their associated disciplinary actions, and feedback given by managers are ready. These clearly justify the termination decision and protect your organization from potential legal action.
Seek advice from HR and, if possible, your legal team
Once the documentation is ready, consult with human resources (HR) to ensure that all of your actions comply with the company’s policies, as well as employment regulations. They can guide you through the process, ensuring that it is empathetic, fair, and legal.
If you have one, tap into your internal legal team as well. Avoid costly litigations by guaranteeing a process that truly complies with local labor laws. Confirm that the termination aligns with requirements such as notice periods and severance as well.
How to fire an employee professionally
With all the preparations done, it’s time to finally push through with the termination process.
Tell HR about your decision
First, you must notify HR about the firing decision. Besides guaranteeing that you strictly adhere to the right procedures, they’ll prepare the rest of the requirements, whether they be forms or severance documents.
Inform the employee early and empathetically
With the decision being final, it’s time for you to meet with the employee in a private and respectful setting. Clearly and concisely explain the reasons for their firing. Focus on the role rather than the person as well.
To ensure a truly empathetic process, acknowledge their contributions, allow them to share how they feel, and offer support for their transition.
Conduct an exit interview
An exit interview provides departing employees a platform to give feedback about your organization, providing valuable insights into its strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement. Basically, it’s an opportunity to learn from the worker who’s leaving.
Ensure all documents are done properly
Just like how you prepared paperwork for the termination process, all the documents that enable its completion should be ready and compliant with legal requirements. So, go through them thoroughly with HR and, if you have one, your legal team.
Ensure everything is correctly prepared for the departing employee, whether it be their final paycheck, severance agreement, benefits information, and the like.
Provide support and resources
Finding new opportunities is often a stressful experience, as many uncertainties come into play. As such, with your focus being an empathetic firing process, the final step involves giving the individual you let go a helping hand.
Whether it be through career counseling, reference letters, or job placement assistance where appropriate, this step helps maintain goodwill and reduces potential backlash.
After the termination
With the employee firing over, your next major task is to properly handle the aftermath.
Manage the remaining team
Teams rely on each other for tasks, workloads, and projects. Losing a member, meanwhile, can shake up how they function. To mitigate any possible issues, take the appropriate steps.
Communicate changes in dynamics
Each team member plays a specific role that allows the entire unit to operate smoothly. With the terminated employee leaving behind their duties, everyone will have to shoulder a portion of the burden until your organization hires a replacement.
Due to this, it’s critical to inform team members about the departure, as well as any changes to their responsibilities. Be specific about who will take over certain tasks and provide support to those stepping into new roles. This should help them navigate their new situation.
Maintain team morale and productivity
With the team undergoing a significant shift, preserving their engagement and performance can become an issue. To minimize any problems, make sure to:
- Address uncertainties: A firing can lead to employees questioning their job security. To alleviate their concerns, be transparent about the decision and assure them that it was for the good of the organization.
- Reaffirm goals and vision: After a departure, it’s important to refocus the team and emphasize that each of them play a crucial role in achieving the company’s objectives.
- Provide emotional support: A termination can impact team morale, especially if the employee was well-liked. To address this, offer resources like counseling or team-building activities.
Ensure it doesn’t happen again
As we mentioned, an employee termination isn’t an enjoyable process. To prevent any recurrences, do the following:
Analyze departing employee’s profile
Understanding the behaviors or skill gaps that led to a worker’s termination lets you refine your hiring process. Having the individual undergo a thorough assessment can help.
Profiles Asia Pacific’s ProfileXT®, for example, measures an individual’s cognitive abilities, behavioral traits, and interests, all of which help you determine whether they match their job well.
Use assessments when hiring a replacement
With an idea of what characteristics can lead to either success or failure in a role, it’s vital that you have a tool that can assess a candidate’s suitability for it. Our Profiles Job Fit Assessment, meanwhile, is a tool that can evaluate a potential employee’s skills, behaviors, and cultural fit.
If you want to learn more about how our solutions can minimize the need for employee terminations, just reach out!
Wrapping up—Employee terminations must be handled professionally and empathetically
Firing an employee is an intimidating task that must be handled with professionalism and empathy. To carry out such a process effectively, remember these key points:
- Talent management solutions let you identify performance issues early and take corrective measures like PIPs.
- When termination becomes inevitable, careful planning, open communication, and adherence to legal requirements are key.
- Providing support to the departing employee and the remaining team will ensure a smooth transition and safeguard the positive work environment you’ve built.
By letting go of a worker in a fair and respectful manner, you not only preserve your team’s morale, but also protect your organization.
About the Author: Irish Almocera
