Employee terminations are a reality of an evolving economic climate. Terminations can provide critical cost savings necessary to the sustainability of your organization. Many employers wait too long to down size when they have excess employee capacity because they are fearful of making tough decisions to terminate staff.
Similarly, many employers will retain a poor performing employee who is an obvious misfit for their current position. This is a disservice to the employee, your other staff, and the organization as a whole. It is better to put together a transition plan and terminate employees who is not a fit. This will enable the employee to move on to career options that offer more opportunities for growth and improve the engagement and retention of your existing people.
We have experience in how to prepare and conduct a termination meeting properly. We plan for and conduct termination meetings in a manner that lowers our clients’ risk. All terminations are performed in a respectful manner that preserves the dignity of the employee being terminated; and reduces the employer’s liability. We partner with employer organizations to support them in:
- Creating a transition plan for all staffing redesign changes
- Evaluating other termination risk items based on each unique employee circumstances and scenarios
- Creating an employee termination checklist
- Drafting a termination letter and release waiver
- Determining what amount of severance pay to offer (if any)
- Determining the amount of notice period or pay in lieu of notice required to meet labour standards
- Conducting the termination meeting together with the employee’s direct manager
Termination as a process should not be taken lightly. You are dealing with another human being; and you should ideally express compassion in the transition process. Here are some tips on how to conduct terminations based on human resources best practices.
