Are You Handling Employee Termination the Right Way?
As an employer, employee termination is unavoidable and if you haven’t already faced this, you will. Termination occurs when the employer has made the decision to release an employee from the organization. And, terminating a problematic employee typically solves the issue at hand, right? Sometimes, yes. Other times it creates a snowball effect of issues. With this in mind, there are many factors to take into consideration prior to employee termination. You’ll need to know what kind of termination you will perform, your reason, what supporting documents you have, the cost of recruiting for the vacant position, how will the employee respond, and what will your remaining staff think just to name a few.
Termination Options
Probationary Termination
First, you have probationary termination which occurs within the first three months of employment. Generally speaking, no termination pay or notice is required if the employee has signed an employment contract that stipulates this.
With Cause Termination
Second, there is termination with cause, which occurs for a serious act(s) of wrongdoing and assumes that a case for just cause can be made out. In this case, the employee will not be entitled to notice of termination or pay in lieu notice.
Without Cause Termination
Lastly, termination without cause occurs when an employer has a reason, but it is not considered to be a serious infraction of the employment contract or law. Consequently, termination pay/notice is required based on various factors, such as the employee’s age, position and length of service.
Managing Employee Termination
Employee termination can be very strenuous on an organization and may result in difficult repercussions for the employer. The costs associated with turnover rates can be exceedingly high when you consider all the time and money put into replacing the terminated employee. Recruiting agencies may get you a replacement quickly, but they charge high fees. To ensure you have effective job advertisements, job boards usually require employers to pay a daily or monthly fee. Not to mention the time commitment you spend interviewing and screening, or the backlog of work by employees who have taken on excess work due to the termination. This expense adds up and ultimately, company performance struggles. To make matters worse, employee termination sometimes creates an undesirable atmosphere. And this tends to spread poor morale throughout the company. Employers can combat this by focusing on their staff and reinforcing positivity. Similarly, employees also experience difficulties. The terminated employee may experience feelings of shame, disgruntlement, anger, or even depression. It is always best to handle terminations with compassion and sensitivity, especially if you are giving working notice. The last thing you want is a disgruntled past employee spreading rumours or tarnishing the branding of your organization through social media and job ad sites. Once your company has been negatively branded, it takes more than double the work to reverse this. It may be worth it to endure this negativity to achieve a sense of relief and positivity. Toxic employees will negatively impact your corporate culture. Once s/he is terminated, staff members and managers will feel relief. The tension will be removed and your staff’s spirits will be lifted. This will indirectly impact your service and leave your customers with a pleasant experience.
Transparency is Key
All of that being said, you should also be mindful that your remaining staff may fear their job security is at risk. The best way to rid this feeling is to be transparent with your employees and maintain the privacy of the terminated employee.