11 Things to Remember About Terminating Employees
Every HR professional faces the inevitable need to terminate an employee. It is essential to have a plan in place and follow very specific guidelines about the incidents leading up to the termination and the actual termination meeting. In this article, MedZilla asks the experts to provide important tips on best termination practices that help employers avoid lawsuits and other negative consequences.
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11 Things to Remember About
Terminating Employees
Marysville, WA 9PRWEB) August 29, 2003 -- The three
worst pieces of news a person can hear are about the death of a loved one, loss
of a job or divorce. So, when you’re firing someone, you’re delivering the
second worst message, says Emory Mulling, Chairman, Mulling Companies, an
outplacement, executive coaching and retained search firm
And with the
bad news can come anger, grief—even a law suit, says President and CEO of
MedZilla.com, Frank Heasley, PhD. MedZilla.com is a leading Internet recruitment
and professional community that targets jobseekers and HR professionals in
biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. “We’ve heard the horror
stories from MedZilla clients about terminations gone bad. It’s important to
plan for the inevitable termination and have best practices at hand. So, we
asked the experts what their top suggestions would be.”
Tip 1: Assume
that everyone coming to work for you will someday have to be terminated, says
Thomas K. Johnston, president, Worldbridge Partners, an executive search firm
that specializes in disease management and pharmaceuticals. If you assume this,
you’ll take the time have a plan in place for terminating employees. This
planning might include some kind of employee-employer agreement, such as a
noncompete or nonsolicitation, to spell out what happens should that employee be
terminated. These agreements, when they can be held up in court, help to ensure
that employees who leave or are asked to leave do not hurt the business by
taking away clients or information, Johnston says.
Johnston notes: HR
professionals should make sure to update the agreements throughout employees'
careers with a company so that they reflect their current status when they
leave.
Tip 2: Track performance in a standardized way, Johnston says.
Every company should have a standard internal policy letting employees know how
the company will track their performance and what their performance is expected
to be. This might include information about how to treat other employees,
including sexual harassment issues. It should also include the policy for
dealing with those who do not meet the company’s performance
requirements.
Tip 3: Document, document, document. Therese A. Hoehne,
SPHR, director of human resources at Aurora University, Aurora Ill., writes that
employers should be sure that termination is the appropriate action. Thorough
documentation helps to make better decisions and comes in handy should an
employee seek legal options.
If the termination is for performance
issues, an employer should ask if it has made an effort to counsel the employee,
provided training and made the employee aware of the performance deficits. Of
course, in the case of theft or other obvious violation of the employer-employee
relationship no initial counseling is necessary, as long as the organization's
policies have been disseminated, and they specify that major infractions such as
theft are grounds for immediate termination. Johnston notes, “Termination should
never come as a surprise to the employee.”
Tip 4: Set up a formal meeting
and make sure a witness is present (usually a fellow HR professional) to
terminate the employee, Mulling says. Make the appointment for the next day.
Don’t lie about the reason for the meeting. If the employee asks, Mulling
suggests saying, “We will discuss some issues that involve our department. I
need to get some information to you.” If the employee probes more, you can say,
“Let’s wait until our meeting and I’ll discuss it with you then.”
Tip 5:
Prepare for the meeting by having details on why the person is being terminated.
“You need to prepare this with your HR department so it is within the guidelines
of the company,” Mulling says.
Tips 5 through 10, offered by Mulling,
have to do with conducting the termination meeting:
Tip 6: Tell the
employee upfront that he is being terminated. Be factual and brief. You don’t
need to be apologetic, argue or lose control. If you go into detail, the
employee will start to argue with you, Mulling says. “If you start arguing and
[the employee] gets angry the termination session is a total
failure.”
Tip 7: BRIEFLY explain severance pay, continued benefits, work
completion and outplacement assistance. Don’t get into detail. They will not
listen. Some are in shock.
Tip 8: Tell the employee when and how to get
her personal belongings. Mulling suggests employers allow employees to clean out
their desks after hours or when other employees are not in the area.
Tip
9: Provide details concerning project completion, personal effects and company
property. Get the keys, security cards, computers, phones, credit cards,
computer passwords.
Tip 10: If the organization has an outplacement
consultant, introduce the terminated employee to that person and leave the room.
If not, end the meeting at that point. The whole meeting should last no more
than 4 to 5 minutes, Mulling says.
Tip 11: Stick to the mission at hand.
Final don’ts are: Don’t give employees false hope and say you’ll help them find
a job. Don’t say, “I’m sure your not going to have any trouble.” Don’t pass the
buck and say this firing was not your idea. Don’t give platitudes and say,
“You’ll feel better when you sleep on it.” Finally, don’t say, “I feel really
bad about this.” Saying these things only makes the situation worse, Mulling
says.
About MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the
original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and
employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare.
MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 13,000 resumes from
candidates actively seeking new positions and 50,000 archived
resumes.
Medzilla® is a Registered Trademark owned by Medzilla Inc.
Copyright ©2003, MedZilla, Inc.
Permission is granted to reproduce and
distribute this text in its entirety, and if electronically, with a link to the
URL www.medzilla.com. For permission to quote from or reproduce
any portion of this message, please contact Michele Groutage, Director of
Marketing and Development, MedZilla, Inc. Email: e-mail protected from spam
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/8/prweb78007.htm