Top 10 ways To Fire An Employee The Legal Way

The proper route to firing an employee.

Terminating employees has never been an easy process. There is in fact no good way to say, ‘you are fired’. You being in the human resource department, your role is crucial in this aspect. Glenn Swan, Glenn Swan says,” Working relationships are typically very personal in a small business setting, and it’s not unusual for the person doing the firing to have a strong personal relationship with the person they’re letting go.”

However, to make your task a bit easier, here are the common practices performed by Human Resources professionals while firing someone who has been in consistent worst and have not worked up to your standards.

1. The key is to be certain. Take into consideration the various parameters of your company. Do not go by the heat of the moment and fire someone just because you are mad. Make sure he/she falls into the violating rules category. Do not go by the zero-tolerance policy.

2. Know exactly what you are going to say while termination. But before that make sure you have done your part right. In mean you have done your job correctly and followed all the required procedures so that there does not have to be a reason to explain your decision.

3. You need not argue. It is obviously normal to get mixed reactions. But that does not mean you will have to suck yourself into an argument. Be firm with your decision and produce the correct valid documentation. This way you can away from arguments or debates or even legal issues.

4. Prevention is better than cure. Let your employees know the company’s roles and objectives and work accordingly. Make them aware of the situation that might lead to their termination beforehand. This will help you avoid misunderstandings in the long run.

5. Employ an early-warning system. You can take help of the annual performance appraisal and alert employee if something is not going according to rules and might lead to termination in the future.

6. If you see something is not going as expected, learn to mend it right away. You may even require terminating an employee at the very instant. If your grounds are correct, such eliminations will not matter much.

7.   Another key to effective termination is to involve the employer in the process. Let him evaluate by himself and find out the real problem. In case he denies, you will have additional ammunition against his favor and the termination will be lot easier.

8. Make and sort out the necessary documentation before termination. Try to be rigid with your conversations and memos. Thoroughly mention instances that piled up to such a decision on your part without leaving any loopholes. Make sure that the employee receives a copy of every memo put up.

9. Offer help. Say that you will always be ready for reference and help them find another job. He/she might not be excellent in a certain field, but he/she will definitely be good for some other job.

10. Back everything up with a witness. Terminate the employee in front of a third person. It actually eliminates the risk of the employee claiming to have said things you did not. As the saying goes, better be safe than sorry.