|
Terminating an
employee is one of the most difficult things you have to do as
a supervisor or manager, but it sometimes has to be done. No one likes a major
change, particularly as disruptive a change as losing a job,
but it is not necessarily the worst thing that can
happen to a person. If it leads to the
employee’s finding another job where he can be successful,
then the termination was a blessing in disguise, an important
point to keep in mind.
Reasons For
Termination
Terminating an
employee should be the last resort, the one you consider after
you and the employee have exhausted all other possible
remedies. There
are many reasons for terminating an employee, but most fall
into two categories: unacceptable performance, and illegal or
unethical conduct on the employee’s part.
Unacceptable
job performance may be caused by something going on in the
employee’s personal life over which you have no control, such
as divorce, health problems, or distractions caused by any one
of a whole host of situations. While you have no
control over your employee’s personal problems, what you
do have control over is your response to the employee’s
unacceptable performance.
Unacceptable
performance can also be caused by a situation in the
employee’s work place, such as not being familiar with your
company’s culture or procedures, the employee’s placement in a
job for which he is not qualified, confusion on the employee’s
part about what you consider acceptable or unacceptable, and
so on.
The second
general category – illegal or unethical conduct – can
blindside you.
The best way to avoid the unexpected is to exert control over
the possibility of illegal or unethical conduct by
making three things crystal clear: your company’s standards
for appropriate workplace behavior, the consequences for
failing to meet them, and the enforcement of consequences
if the standards are violated.
Employees can’t
be expected to adhere to company standards they don’t clearly
understand, so it is important to spell out the organization’s
standards for appropriate workplace behavior. Don’t be afraid to
state the obvious (i.e., “Taking company property or money
without first asking is considered stealing and will be
treated as such.”)
Handling Unacceptable
Performance
There may come
a time when an employee’s performance begins to deteriorate or
becomes unacceptable. Your first response
should be to attempt to help the employee work through his
difficulties and get his performance back on track. Here is a four-step
procedure for dealing with an employee’s performance
problems:
1. Focus on the problem,
not on the person. Work with the employee
to figure out what is affecting his performance and put
together a strategy to reverse the trend or fix the
problem;
2. Avoid ambiguous
statements (“You have to do better.”) Be specific and clear
with the employee about what behavior(s) you expect him to
change and what the change will look like;
3. Give the employee
regular feedback about his progress by praising the positive
steps the employee takes, however small, and by viewing a lack
of progress as a problem to be solved, not as a character
defect;
4. Keep written records
of every conversation that you have with the employee. Then review your first
draft of these records for completeness. It is easy to skip the
review of your notes but going over them will result in a more
accurate and complete record of what was said and done.
Most of the
time, going through these steps will help get an employee back
on track, but sometimes it doesn’t. If nothing has worked
to bring performance back to an acceptable level or if you
come to believe that there is little chance that the employee
will be able to improve within a reasonable timeframe, then
termination may be necessary.
Angry Termination Is A
No-No
When you get to
the point that you believe that you must terminate an
employee, it’s usually not a pleasant place to be. You may feel betrayed
– “Look at all I’ve done to try to help him, and he still
won’t improve!” – or you may feel guilt or sadness – “I know
he wants to succeed but his mind is just not in the
game right now.”
However, it is very important to put your feelings to
one side and deal with the situation calmly, logically, and
compassionately.
You should never terminate someone in the heat of the moment,
when you may not have the control over your emotions that the
situation requires.
There are at
least three good reasons to avoid an angry termination:
1. When word of the angry
termination gets out (and it will get out) it has the
potential to adversely affect other people in your
organization.
What might feel to you like justified anger can easily look to
others like meanness or an abuse of power. Bad news travels fast
and is difficult to dislodge once it has arrived.
2. We live in an
interconnected world, and it seems to be growing smaller all
the time! You may
have heard of the “six degrees of separation” theory, that
everyone is separated from (connected to) everyone else by six
people. Remember,
therefore, that there may only be six degrees of separation
(or less) between your terminated employee and
·
your most valuable clients,
·
your most desirable prospects,
·
your best-qualified future job applicants.
The
disgruntled recipient of a poorly handled termination can
easily become a determined ill-will ambassador in your
business community. No one needs that.
3. What goes around,
comes around. I
call this “karmic blowback.” A termination that has
been handled poorly or acrimoniously is not a flattering
reflection of who you and your organization really
are. As my old
granddad used to say: behave in private as
if you were in public and you won’t have to worry about being
embarrassed later.
These three
steps can help you handle a termination with calm dignity and
thoroughness.
Let’s look at seven steps you can take to make sure a
termination runs smoothly.
How To Do Terminations The Right
Way
First, a
disclaimer: this
may not be an exhaustive list of how to do terminations the
right way, but these seven steps are a good place to
start.
- First
and foremost, check with your company’s legal counsel to be
sure that it is within the scope of your duties to terminate
this employee and that you are following all required
termination procedures.
- Remember
that a termination is a confidential employment matter;
don’t discuss it with anyone who does not have an
organizational “need to know” – an employee’s private
matters should never be discussed with other employees
unless the other employees are directly involved in the
termination process. (This includes your
best buddy, by the way.)
- Plan
ahead for the actual termination conversation. Rehearse what you
are going to say. Make sure that you
have answers ready for the employee’s questions about
compensation, continued access to work areas, turning in
company property, and everything else that you want to
cover. Do not
promise to do anything that you are not sure you will be
able to do.
- Have
another person in the room with you, someone who can be
objective about this termination. It often helps to
have an extra set of eyes and ears to keep the entire
conversation on track and to be able to confirm what was
said by each party.
- Remember
the parenting advice, “Don’t spank your child when you are
angry”? It’s
the right advice for termination situations too – don’t
terminate someone when you are angry.
6. Keep the conversation
objective and reasonably short. State the facts, not
your interpretation of the facts. Finish the
conversation by thanking the employee for his past efforts,
and wish him good luck in the future.
7. Keep a written record
of the termination process. Remember that we
talked about the need to keep records of your efforts to
improve unacceptable performance? This is the final
step; be sure not to skip it.
Terminations
are not the outcome that anyone wants to have happen, but they
sometimes have to be done. Keep these main points
in mind, review your company’s policies and procedures to stay
in compliance with them, and stay calm. Remember that getting
a person out of a position where he is not succeeding is
sometimes the best thing, long-term, that can happen for all
concerned.
Remember, People are not your most
important asset!
The RIGHT People are!
To hire the best, test!
To reveal management potential, test!
To diagnose
problem behavior, test!
Best regards,
Kurt G. Helm, Ph.D.
Phone Toll Free
800-886-4356
Email: khelm@helmtest.com
Website: http://www.helmtest.com/
PRIVACY
and SPAM POLICY: We never rent, trade, or sell our email
list to anyone for any reason whatsoever. You'll never
get an unsolicited email from a stranger as a result of
joining this list.
© 2007, Kurt G. Helm, Ph.D. All rights
reserved. You are
allowed to use material from this newsletter in whole or in
part provided that you include attribution in the following
form: “By Kurt G.
Helm, Ph.D., of Helm and Associates, Inc. Please visit our
website at http://www.helmtest.com/ for
more information about how to avoid hiring mistakes by using
pre-employment testing as part of the applicant evaluation
procedure.”
| 
