Letting go of employees can be very difficult. Not only do you have to confront an employee about their less-than-stellar performance or bad behaviour, you have to be the one to tell them that they’re no longer going to be with the company. It’s devastating enough on their part to have to come to terms with it, but being the bearer of that bad news can be a source of added stress too.

That’s why it’s important to only fire an employee after a lot of thought and deliberation (unless they’ve done something egregiously bad that directly violates any ethics or company policies). Fired employees can lash out, get defensive, or even break down and no one looks forward to dealing with that. 

Many CEOs and business owners hire people that they believe will do a good job and show a lot of promise. Bringing someone into the fold isn’t an impulsive decision, it’s something that’s weighed up and calculated with the company’s success in mind. So when that employee doesn’t perform to standard and is hindering the business’ growth, it can feel burdensome to have to let them go given that you had high expectations. 

And while it can be emotionally draining on your end, don’t forget that it’s possibly even worse on the employee’s end—which is why treating them compassionately is the most important part of the entire process. This is especially true if they’re not doing anything to actively jeopardise your success but they just don’t deliver the quality of work you need. 

You’re only doing what you believe is the best for your business and sometimes it takes letting go of people who are only holding your company back. 

How to understand when you need to fire an employee

Letting go of an employee isn’t always a clear cut process. Of course, it’s much easier firing someone who breached contract or carried out criminal behaviour—but it’s not always going to be that way. Most of the time it’s just an underperforming employee who means well but is failing to carry their load.

Lack of motivation and unsatisfactory quality in work isn’t always a cause to let someone go. You have to make sure that you give your employees proper performance reviews and honest assessments on their work so they have the opportunity to improve and turn things around. However, if it’s a constant problem even after they’ve been criticised and reminded, they clearly are not taking accountability and it may be time to consider termination. 

When employees don’t act on the feedback given to them or even are defensive when presented with critique either from you, a supervisor, or someone from HR, it can be a sign that they’re not a good fit for your business. This can bring down employee morale and have people question your capabilities as a leader if you can’t set someone straight or let them go after their continued poor behaviour.

Remember that there are illegal reasons to fire employees, like:

• Absence due to illness
• Discrimination based on race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family or carer’s responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction, or social origin
• Absence due to maternity or paternity leave
• Retaliation

It pays to try and find out if there are any root causes to their poor performance. If they’re having family problems at home or health issues, that may be causing them to slip. These things are important as they’ll help you decide between offering them another chance or terminating them.

10 steps to follow when firing an employee

Firing an employee can be emotionally taxing but these ten steps will ease the process, show the employee that you care about them, and make sure that you and your company can take the necessary measures to protect yourself.  

1. Understand your legal position before firing

You need to know where you stand legally before firing an employee. By consulting the firm’s lawyer or legal professional, you can ensure that your choice to terminate your employee is legally sound and doesn’t breach any contracts in place. Have a lawyer go over the firing process and double check that it doesn’t infringe on any workplace agreements.

They can also give you advice around strategies and processes when exiting an employee.

You have to make sure that you’re not firing someone on illegal grounds and that you have sufficient reasons to let go of them. 

2. Always have a second person with you in meetings 

It’s important to have a second person with you not just to ease the burden, but also to ensure that there’s a witness who can attest to what was said and agreed upon. This second person is normally someone from HR, the employee’s direct supervisor, or another trusted colleague that can diffuse tension and vouch for the legality of the firing process.

This person will be able to say that you fired the employee ethically in case the employee seeks retaliation or threatens a lawsuit and accuses you of wrongful or unethical termination. Employees may also become aggressive and defensive so having a witness there can help de-escalate any untoward situation

3. Ensure that it’s clear why you’re firing them (don’t blindside them)

Before you even confront the employee, make sure you have all the documentation of their performance, all the facts you need, any reports that have been made against them, warnings they’ve received, etc. By having these prepared, you can give them clear evidence as to why they’re being fired. 

Show them concrete proof that they still didn’t improve even after you gave them opportunities to improve via your honest feedback at performance reviews. If you spring termination on them without having given them the chance to step up in the past, you’re blindsiding them since they were likely unaware of how badly they were doing.

The exemption being, of course, if they committed grave offenses like harassment, damaging company property, violating the privacy of other employees, etc. Those require immediate termination so they understand the gravity of their actions.

4. Conduct a face to face meeting 

You might be tempted to just terminate your employee over the phone, email, or text in order to save yourself the stress of having to do it in person. But if you reverse the roles, wouldn’t you want to be let go face to face rather than through a disembodied, impersonal, and seemingly even cruel and degrading message? 

You owe it to the employee to let them go in a private space where they can see your face and body language. Messages are so difficult to read in terms of nuance and you can’t convey any sympathy or comfort through text, something they’ll likely need with the kind of news they’re receiving. 

They deserve the courtesy of being told in person because you want them to feel like they’re important enough to speak to (which they are). It will only make them feel worse if you remove the personal aspect of it and it will also paint you in a bad light.

5. Stick to the facts and documented behaviour

Make sure you don’t veer away from the facts. By staying on-topic, you leave out any opinions you might have formed from any workplace gossip or any emotions you might personally have towards the situation or the employee. 

Stick to what can be verified like documented poor behaviour, tardiness warnings, etc. Injecting hearsay into the conversation is unprofessional and will make the employee feel even more alienated. 

6. Use an employee termination checklist 

Dealing with difficult tasks often comes with overlooking small details, something you can’t afford even if you’re distressed. You might fail to notice an important step in the firing process because of how nerve-wracking it is. A checklist will help remedy that.

You have to include everything already mentioned above and below as well as any compensation the employee is still owed, writing any required notices, collecting their security details and passwords, etc.

7. Fire them at the end of the day (if possible)

Allowing the employee their dignity is important so have the conversation and let them know of their termination when the day has ended and the office has cleared. You don’t want to embarrass them by having them pack up their belongings while people are looking, respect them enough not to humiliate them in front of other employees. You also might want to stay behind with them while they pack or have their supervisor/HR help them out. 

Doing this also ensures that you don’t disrupt the rest of the team or their work and keeps any gossip at bay. 

8. Remove access to important company information

This is not to say that every employee you will fire might want to take retaliatory action, but it’s best to be safe. Blocking access to company information is important as you never know if an employee will take their termination well. You want to keep the company secure no matter what, even if the firing was civil and courteous. 

Blocking their access is also good practice in case someone gets a hold of their devices and finds your company’s logins or passwords. Log them out of any of your websites, servers, and even wifi connections. Have them hand over and/or disable security codes and work emails.

9. Seize company assets or property on the spot to avoid future loss, damage, or conflict

Take back any company equipment or property such as laptops, phones, cars, etc. right away or as soon as possible to keep them from being tampered with, lost, or damaged. It’s possible for ex-employees to stew in their feelings about their termination and get angry or not want to cooperate when it comes to returning these things in a timely manner, leading to costly trouble and potential lawsuits.

Even if you’ve cut their access to data and information, the property still belongs to the business, not to the employee even if they’ve been exclusively using it. Unless there’s sufficient evidence to prove otherwise, they’re not allowed to ignore your requests to return them. 

Double check the contracts around the property to ensure that the equipment wasn’t a gift to them or look into clauses in the contract stating that they’ll have ownership of the equipment after X number of months under the company, etc.

10. Keep communications with your staff open

You don’t want to fuel the rumour mill so make sure you tell your staff why you fired the employee. If the situation around the firing is too sensitive, you can just talk about the circumstances of their termination broadly without having to disclose any delicate information. 

Doing this eliminates any workplace gossip where people will try to fill in the blanks on their own, often to ridiculous lengths. It’s not unlikely that the employee you fired might retain some workplace friendships so save them any humiliation by being clear about their termination. 

You also show your staff that you take everyone’s performance seriously and it’ll make them more attentive of their own work. 

Firing an employee can be taxing but it’s an integral part of the job in order to grow the business and set it up for success. For more information regarding the best way in building your business, book a call with us.