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Before you terminate an employee, always assume this! They haven’t heard you.

I say this to every manager and every time they are surprised when they employee says they had no idea it was coming.

I don’t know what it is but if you haven’t sat down and officially written up your employee prior to their termination, you can almost guarantee they haven’t heard you. They will say they didn’t know it was that serious.

It’s as if those conversations happened but then evaporated into the ethers!

OR, maybe you weren’t as clear as you thought. After all, these conversations are uncomfortable and not at all easy at first.

Managers will come to me all the time at the end of their rope, beyond frustrated with their non-performer and ready to pull the trigger and make them “available to industry.”

I always ask the same things –

  • Have you written them up (Performance Improvement Plan)?
  • Have you been clearly following up your expectations after the discussions in an email which they confirm?
  • What is the protocol for terminations in your employee handbook?

If they haven’t done the write ups, it’s almost a sure thing that it went in one ear and out the other.

To be fair, the person who is not performing in a role is not usually the one who you have one conversation with and it never happens again. I’m talking about the one who you are repeatedly stating the expectations and they are repeatedly falling short.

Say, for example, they are supposed to bring in three new clients a month and four months have passed and they haven’t brought in one. You’ve checked their understanding, you’ve given them ideas for marketing and you’ve even sent them leads. Yet, nothing. That’s who I am discussing.

Most likely they are in the wrong role for themselves. I’ve seen people cling to jobs clearly not meant for them only to go on to do something different and succeed.

When I say “cling,” I mean continue to come in everyday, probably late, say they are going to get results and not get results. Maybe they also take long lunches, call out sick every Monday – Do everything but quit!

They are the ones who when you go to officially terminate them they will say they had no idea and didn’t see it coming.

You will want to make sure you’ve had the conversations.

You will want to make sure you’ve followed up in email. “This is to confirm the conversation we had today. You are expected to bring in three new clients every month. Please acknowledge your understanding by responding to this email.”

If that doesn’t work, you will want to give them a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).

If you’ve followed the steps above, when you go to terminate them it should be no surprise. They should say “I know. You’ve told me,” instead of “I had no idea!”

Where I struggle as an HR professional facing an employee termination, is that the manager thinks they have clearly communicated and is usually at the point where they do not want to do anything additional. They are over it!

When I ask for any written support to show they’ve had these tough conversations, there is nothing. I hate telling them that even though they’ve probably had a hundred conversations with that person, if they can’t show it in writing, it’s almost as if it never happened. It’s your word against their word!

Now, many people like to tell me it’s “at-will” employment, to which I say “Yes! It is.” EXCEPT, the unwritten law is that you can terminate anyone at any time for any reason AS LONG AS IT’S NOT THE WRONG REASON. The problem is that “wrong” is subjective.

Can they say you let them go because they were of a specific ethnicity? Old? Any protected category? Can they say you didn’t follow your own employee handbook protocol for terminations?

That’s where the written communications come in handy.

Not only to protect you legally, but something about receiving communications that feel “official” start to move the employee into action on an energetic level.

Either they will get the point that this is now serious and start to step up to the plate, or they may start interviewing on the side which is great. It shows a shift. Maybe they’ll be getting their resume ready so they can spring into action if terminated.

Or, by the time you sit down to give them a PIP, they may quit right then and there because they see the writing on the wall. At that time you can decide to part more amicably and help them transition their work out of respect for their honesty. Maybe buy out their two weeks notice and allow them to leave?

All those are better scenarios than them being surprised and you having no way to show you’ve attempted to get through to them. You definitely don’t want to trigger any hostility.

Making sure you’ve been heard can make it a “gentle termination” instead of an abrupt and potentially disgruntled one. You don’t want an employee out there angry and hostile toward you any more than you want them on the job making mistake after mistake.

Clear communication. Written acknowledgement on their end demonstrating understanding.

Gentle.

Proof you’ve been heard.

Time for it to sink in with them.

Not shocking.

As with any termination, before you hand them their final check you should consider running it by an attorney, to be on the safe side.

And of course, spending the time on the front end on how you hire and doing your due diligence is always a good idea!

Really getting specific about your needs and hiring well helps with turnover more than anything else!

XOXO,

nicole strychazSave

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