How to Fire an Employee Ballston Spa NY

Steps

1. Be clear about duties when an employee is hired. Provide a job description the employee signs off on to prove he or she understood the duties s/he was taking on.
2. Discuss with employees any behaviour that is immediate grounds for termination. Don't wait until behaviour is already occurring. Be sure that all employees understand firing offenses, such as failing to disclose a past arrest record, lying about past employment, failing a drug test, discussing wages with other employees, insubordination, excessive absence (how much is excessive?), etc.
3. Give annual performance appraisals. Evaluate employee work at least once a year and document deficiencies in performance versus your expectations or the actual job requirements.
4. Be sure of your standing. Unless you are the company owner, know your employer's rules about firing someone, as there may be specific steps you are required to take in order to actually fire someone - even if te employee is not doing the job. Never undermine your employer by taking on such decisions without at least conferring with him first.
5. Act quickly when problems are noticed. Be sure to communicate performance problems as soon as you are aware of them, and coach staffers on how to improve. It's best to communicate this over email (ask them all who receive it to reply so that you know they have received and understood) so that there is some record of this communication. When you counsel an employee, focus on behaviour. "You have failed to meet deadlines on eleven out of the past sixteen assignments" is appropriate. "You're slacking off" is not appropriate.
6. Retain a record of the disciplinary action. Have the employee sign some sort of document outlining the conversation in order to cover yourself. It should specifically state that the employeeis not admitting fault, but has been told that job performance is not satisfactory. Outline specific improvements / changes required in order for him or her to keep this job, and give clear deadlines as to when these improvements / changes must be seen. Also be clear that the next stage is termination.
7. Give benchmarks to meet. You can't expect all problems to be solved immediately, so giving a timeline and some improvements attached to deadlines will help show improvement (or not). If the employee continues to underperform, be sure he or she understands that improvements must match benchmarks or the employee will fail to meet expectations and be terminated.
8. Make a plan on how you will proceed without this employee. Think about that job's responsibilities and be ready to assign them to someone else.
9. Prepare to fire. Be sure to choose somewhere private.
10. Ready (your opening statement). Tell the employee the purpose of the meeting within 30 seconds of them entering the room. By dragging it out, you are just torturing the employee and yourself. Try something like, "Mark, I've called you in here because of your consistent failure to meet benchmarks set for your position."
11. Aim. Don't allow it to go on. The employee is now pretty likely to be aware of your ultimate purpose, so take aim early and tell him or her the truth without going into a lot of details. You don't need to delineate all of your reasons - those can be stated in a letter if you so desire, and frankly, the less you say, the better. "I know we've discussed the same issues a number of times. Despite repeated warnings and counseling, you really haven't made sufficient improvements."
12. Fire. Again, just spit it out. Don't allow the employee to turn it into a discussion or argument. "Because of this, I'm letting you go."

Video

Tips

• Be sure you have followed your employer's required steps for firing someone.
• Document the course of events to prove you had AT LEAST one conversation with this person and have given him or her at least one opportunity to correct the problem BEFORE firing. This is the absolute minimum you are required to do, but most employers go by a "three strikes" rule unless the offense is serious in nature.
• Question whether the entire problem is a bad employee, or whether your management skills have something to do with his or her low performance.
• It may be best to do it on a Friday, so the commotion does not cause disruption during the week. On the flip side, doing it mid-week allows the remaining employees to come to you with any concerns instead of stewing over them on the weekend
• How you handle this termination will define how other employees think of you and their job. If you are unfair or arbitrary, they will think they could be next. If you call security and make the discharged employee surrender keys and march out immediately (if there is no legitimate threat to the business) they will think you're a jerk. Remember other employees will have been friendly with this person.
• The Human Resources department (if your company has one) is always a good resource. You may even want (or need) to have an HR staff member in the room during the session.
• Keep in mind that dismissing an employee is not necessarily a bad thing for the employee, in the long run. It's distressing, of course, and it can create temporary hardships. On the other hand, if the person isn't suited for the job, it's better to free him or her to do a job that s/he can actually do well. Sometimes dragging along in a job that's a bad fit is more stress to that person than you can realize.
• If possible, terminate an employee with another manager present in a closed environment (an office, or conference room). Doing so will provide you a witness should things go south.
• Have your right hand man fire them for you. This way you avoid confrontation.

Warnings

• You should consult a lawyer or understand employment law in your state to be sure you comply and are treating the employee fairly.
• Consider this employee may try to sue you for discrimination.
• If you do not have adequate documentation such as employee signatures on job descriptions, performance appraisals, etc., then your organization may lose any lawsuit filed by disgruntled employees.
• Some states have "at will" employment laws. In those states, the employer can essentially fire an employee without reason, and on the flip side, employees can quit without notice. In those states, you'll want to be aware of that legal loophole. Also note that even if you can dismiss an employee for "no reason" that does not mean "any reason." Be careful how you rationalize a dismissal; you can easily put yourself and your company in an untenable position by saying the wrong thing. As mentioned earlier, in these cases, the less said, the better. If you have documented the employee's inability to meet stated job objectives, if the employee was counseled and/or disciplined, if the employee understood s/he was underperforming, then it's best to be direct and to the point, and don't ramble on about all the ways you tried to help, guide, etc. - you may inadvertently blurt out something that could be used by that employee to secure a wrongful termination judgment against you or your company, so be careful!
• For states and situations that do not have "at will" laws, it is in your best interest to document employee problems. If you have a troublesome employee that you need to get rid of, begin to document misbehaviors in writing. Put incident reports in their file, do write-ups when violations occur, and have witnesses logged for major incidents. Don't assume that you'll be believed, but be prepared to provide hard evidence.

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