Terminating Your Employees

Employers fail to properly handle employee terminations and because they don’t manage their employees properly they put the company at risk for potential legal problems. 

There are really 3 main reason why employers terminate employment. Employee’s are typically either terminated due to poor performance, misconduct or absenteeism. 

Employer should be able to say yes to the following:

1. Has the employee been properly trained?
2. Has the employee been given a proper job description and outline of performance standards/expectations?
3. Does the employee know the proper code of conduct and which behaviors would be considered as misconduct?

If the employer can say “yes” to the above questions then they can start having formal discussions with the employee.

Employer should’ve had at least 2 discussions with the employee about their concerns with their performance, misconduct and/or absenteeism.  The employee and employer should’ve agreed on an action plan for improvement in paper form and signed agreeing that performance must improve or  disciplinary action, up to and including, immediate termination.

If the employee still fails to improve  then you can terminate safely. You should have documentation on the performance discussions and a signed action plan to improve performance.

Remember that documentation is key. If you can’t prove that it happened then it never did.

Far too many employers just have verbal warnings and discussions with employees and find themselves in a bind when an unemployment claim or EEOC claim arrives in theirmailbox. Don’t be one of those employers!