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Step 1
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You should consider firing the employee only if
you've done the following
a. Given the employee clear indication of what you
originally expected from him or her (via a written job description previously provided to the him
or her);
b. Provided clearly written personnel policies which
specify conditions and directions about firing employees
and have the employee initialized a copy of
the policy handbook to verify that he or she had read
the policies;
c. Counsel the employee in successive and dated memos.
Clearly described degrading performance over a specified time despite your specific
and recorded offers of assistance and any training
provided the employee.
d. Clearly observe the employee still having the
performance problem after counseling and training.
Note: that if the employee is being fired
within a probationary period specified in your personnel
policies, you may not have to meet all of the above
conditions.
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Step 2 |
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Take a day or so to consider what you are about to
do.
Making hasty
decisions when you're angry can lead to regretful
choices. Wait until you've had the opportunity to
think it over and consider the possible consequences. |
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Step 3 |
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If you still decide to fire the employee, do so
promptly.
Once you've
made the decision to fire the individual act swiftly to
notify the employee and remove them from the premises.
Delaying the action will not make the act any easier to
execute. |
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Step 4 |
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Write a letter of termination to the employee.
Make it
official so that there is no doubt in the employee's
mind about what action has been taken against him/her.
This is also for the official historical records.
You don't want the organization to make the mistake of
hiring the employee again in the future. |
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Step 5 |
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Tell the computer system administrator to change
the employee's password.
Take
precautions to prevent the employee from gaining access
to vital company records in order to do harm.
Close all accounts that give the employee access to
company records and prevent them from acting as though
they still work for the company. |
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Step 6 |
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Meet with the employee. Provide them the letter.
Explain how the termination will occur.
If you're
going to fire someone have the courage to look them in
the eye and tell them what they need to do to make the
process go well for you as well as them. |
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Step 7 |
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As with other meetings, make notes of what was
said and exchanged.
If an ex-employee
didn't like the exit strategy you orchestrated for them
they may want to sue you in court. Protect your
organization by keeping a record of what was said in the
exchange with the employee during the firing process.
If you can't avoid the legal battle at least be prepared
to win.
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