Employee Termination

Our recommended employee termination procedure

As a manager, you may hope to never have to write an employee termination letter. But in reality, this will never be the case. Unfortunately while many companies provide management training, most managers do not get any guidance when writing this letter. It is a topic no one wants to discuss. But this does not help you, when you need to write one. Getting a sample employee termination letter and using it to create your own document is a wise move when you must fire an employee.

The employee termination letter is the last step in progressive discipline. Here your employee has repeatedly failed to improve his or her behavior and you have documented this case thoroughly. This specific letter usually follows the employee warning letter. Its main purpose is to document and clarify the reasons for the termination, when the termination takes effect and what final benefits and pay the company owes the employee.

Sample Employee Termination Letter for Poor Performance

The following is a sample of a termination letter for poor performance. As with any business writing, you should get to the point first. Thus, the first sentence states the purpose of the letter. Here is one sample:

---Address information here---

Dear Employee,

This letter is to inform you that your employment with --Company-- will be terminated effective --Date--.

The reasons for this termination are as follows: (You must include your specific documentation here. Be sure to address specific incidence, their dates and the consequences for the business. The information below is just an example.)

* Misrepresenting project status on -Date--. At the staff meeting you informed management the project was on track but in fact you failed to do this.

Before this you had been warned that this is unacceptable practice by a project manager such as yourself. The warnings were:

* You were verbally warned to give accurate project status on --Date-- and if a project was going to be late then say so.

* You were given a written reprimand on --Date-- when you gave a misleading project status report at a staff meeting.

These misrepresentations caused problems with scheduling resources on future projects and delayed other projects. This affects overall business profitability and jeopardizes every employee's position in the company.

Once this termination meeting is complete, you will turn in your electronic access badge and building keys to the Human Resources Department. You will not be allowed to return to your workstation. We will pack up all of your personal items and leave them with the security station at the main entrance.

You will be mailed your last paycheck on --Date--. If you have any questions, please contact the Human Resources Department at 555-1212.
Thank you for your contributions to the company and we wish you well in your career.

Sincerely,
--Your signature block--

A Review of the Employee Termination Letter

Note the sample employee termination letter specifies the reason and the efforts to correct the situation. If this had been a letter of termination due to a reduction in force then this section would be replaced by economic information that led up to management's decision to reduce the force. Of course in this case you would want to say something positive about the employee's past performance in a more positive light.

What you must know before terminating any employee