As a manager, one of
the most difficult things you must do is fire a bad employee. Once you've made
the decision there are five things you need to do before sitting down with the
employee.
See if there is a better-fit
elsewhere within the company. An employee that just does
not work well in your department is not necessarily a bad employee. It just may
be a mismatch. So before you fire someone for poor performance, look around and
see if there is a spot where this person would be a great fit. Please note,
this is not an instruction to dump your bad employee on some poor unsuspecting
manager, but an instruction to look and see if there truly is something that
would be a better fit. Be honest with your peers about the problems you've had
and where you see this person's strengths.
Approve the
termination all the way up. I know that you are the
boss and what you say goes, but unless you own the company, you need to get
formal approval from those above you. How far up the ladder depends on how big
your company is and where you are on that ladder, but this always includes your
boss. Why? Because people object to being fired and as part of their objection
they are likely to complain. And sometimes your boss is an idiot who will
demand that you reinstate the person. And you know what is worse than having a
bad employee in your department? Having that bad employee still working because
your boss overrode your decision. Get approvals and agreement before you
terminate.
Get consensus sideways. Frequently, your employees have contact with other departments. These
department heads don't manage your staff, but they do depend on them to get
work done. (For instance, your team may provide the sales figures that
operations use to do their product forecasting.) When you fire someone from
your staff, you are directly affecting other groups. Explain what is going on
and how you are going to meet this department's needs while you are searching
for a replacement.
Consider how this is
going to impact your whole team. Depending on the person's
problems, your other staff may or may not see this coming. For instance, if the
reason for termination is that your employee is frequently late, takes long
lunches, and says rude things in staff meetings, your staff will breathe a sigh
of relief when this slacker is finally gone. But, if he is making errors that
only you see, is not driving sales as expected, or is an extremely
smooth-talking slacker, they may be horrified that he's gone. This doesn't mean
you should change your mind, it just means you need to take your remaining
staff's reaction into consideration. Remember, their workload will increase
when you fire this person. Think through what you will tell them, and how you
will divide the work, and be prepared for fall out.
Dot all your i's and
cross all your t’s. The need to terminate may seem so
incredibly clear to you that there is no reason not to go ahead and terminate
today. However, your company probably has procedures in place. These are not
set up to annoy you or thwart you. They are set up to protect the company. If
the policy is to place someone on a 30, (or 60 or 90) day performance
improvement plan, do so. (Remember that if the person meets the conditions of
the plan, you won't be firing him.) Check and double check with HR to make sure
you're following internal procedures and that all employees are treated
similarly. (If your employee has done X wrong but last year a different
employee also did X wrong but was not terminated, you may be exposing the
company to lawsuits by terminating.) HR needs to sign off as well. It's their
job to protect the company.
Doing these things
before you terminate someone help ensure that things go smoothly; they will, of course, still be
painful, but looking for potential problems in advance will help you and the remaining staff.
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