Employee Termination

Our recommended employee termination procedure

You own a business, and this means you have a big responsibility on your hands. Not only do you worry about the company's overall financial success, but you also must keep an eye on its daily operations. And your employees affect whether your business runs smoothly or continuously runs in crisis mode. To protect business productivity, you must fire problem employees as quickly as possible. This means you must develop guidelines for employee termination and apply them in a consistent, but fair manner.

Problem Employees Need to Go

If you keep a problem employee on the payroll too long, it will hurt both the working environment and your profits. Moral in the company plummets. Loyal clients and customers start to take their business elsewhere. Without strong guidelines for employee termination, you will find it difficult to fire the problem worker quickly enough.

However your guidelines will help you avoid this. First you must set up clear and effective rules about termination. Second, you must communicate these rules to all employees. Everyone should know what to expect. Third, you need to follow through on your own policy. Only then can you fire problem employees while minimizing the effects on your business.

Developing Guidelines for Employee Termination

All businesses need to have an employee manual. This should outline all the basic roles, responsibilities, and benefits for working with you. In addition, it should explain your standard guidelines for employee termination. This tells all employees you are serious about your work and will not tolerate bad behavior. After all, it is a business, and if you are losing money because of a problem that is grounds for firing.

To develop your guidelines for employee termination, work with your legal department. If you do not have a legal department, find a lawyer who specializes in creating these types of guidelines. You want these guidelines to list disciplinary actions, possible situations that could lead to termination, and the process one must go through to terminate an employee. Consult with the lawyer to decide if you must include anything else specific to your business needs.

A Fair Environment

By putting the termination policies in writing for everyone to read, it evens the playing field. It tells employees, you will treat them fairly and equally. If a few people feel like they are singled out, it will affect overall worker productivity. Remember that problem employees can cost the company money. You must discipline them so the company does not lose customers and clients. When you develop strong guidelines for employee termination, it makes this process much easier.

What you must know before terminating any employee