Terminations
Terminations are not anyone’s favorite thing to do but it is necessary.
With the right discipline process in place, we can help you set up and ensure that you are at the lowest possible risk of any legal law suits for a termination. Employees can sue for any reason any time but it isn’t just about legal lawsuits, you also are at risk for an EEOC charge, for unemployment for retaliation which is growing today.
Terminations bring in so much concern for an employer and business owner. That is why here at Straight Talk HR Solutions we can help you Best HR Consultant Texas has to offer.
If you do not have your disciplinary process in place then contact us to help. Here is what we can do to help. Review what you have in place, we can be your HR and conduct terminations, we can be a witness to your HR termination but most of all review your termination recommendation and let us see what the risk is that you have and if we support your recommendation.
Do you have the proper documentation to support a termination?
Are you consistent in this termination vs your past terminations? Do you have documentation to beat unemployment hearing? Are you at low risk or medium risk or high risk with this termination? Are you being consistent? Are you being emotional or factual? There is so much to a termination.
The decision to terminate are either arrived as a last resort to the discipline process when coaching and verbal and writtens or perhaps a suspension has taken place and the you are in a position where termination is the only option. However, do not termination when emotional because you have to stop and think through things; such as, safety, retaliation, unemployment, risks, replacement and of course the employee’s mental well being.
SCRIPT
You will need a script before you terminate. Why you ask? Terminations should be clear and concise communication and keep it brief. Do not over explain or overshare or give too many details. This is to protect you and everything you say may help you or hurt you if you are sued or have a charge against you. Does it sound like too much? That is because it is. This is very important to remember.
What do you know when they ask you questions? You read the script again is what you do. Terminations are very crucial and critical. I highly recommend to include Straight Talk HR Solutions to review all your terminations in advance. The one fee is so much less than what you would pay in fines even if just one fine, you would save money working with Straight Talk HR Solutions.
One thing that you may not be thinking about when you are conducting terminations is discrimination, wage disparity, retaliation, safety, documentation, unemployment hearings, disability, HIPAA, and so forth – these are all things that you must consider before conducting any termination. This is not meant to scare you but rather to make you aware what you need to be thinking to protect your company/business. You are not needing to know all this but you do need to know that you are at risk. We at Straight Talk HR Solutions can help you with every step of the termination process. We can help you create a termination checklist, we can help build you termination templates, we can help you and your supervisors with a termination script, and role play to prep you and or your supervisors to be prepared for the termination conversation.
Most supervisors who conduct a termination are not able to sleep the evening more and have a hard time, I often check in with them after the fact to check on their well being as well.
When is it time to terminate? It’s not a one size fits all but many people wait for months or years to terminate and some terminate right away and both can be a risk.
Does it matter what their age? The answer is YES, are they under 40 or over 40? It makes a difference.
I know, there is so much to know but again this is why you don’t have to be the subject matter expert. It is about who you know, and the good news is you know us at Straight Talk HR Solutions and we are here to help evaluate your risk, be proactive and prevent as many risk as possible. Let us help you build your termination process in advance is always best but we will meet you exactly where you are.
Termination is not personable although it feels like it. Termination if done correctly is on the employee at the end of the day if done right. Here is why, because you have provided every opportunity to communicate clearly that they are at risk when you provide a verbal termination or a written termination and for sure prior to a final termination. Which means that they were aware and yet still chose not to comply. As uncomfortable as it is, by this point, the employee chooses to not follow the policies and procedures you have in place. I tell my Executives, Managers, Supervisors, Business Owners all the time if you care more than your employee and they do not then there really isn’t much more you can do. It is also supposed to be uncomfortable to terminate someone; it isn’t easy but necessary.
One thing to remember, it is your job to provide them every opportunity to be successful and it is your job to communicate effectively; however, it is not your job to do their job for them.
It is a lot but it doesn’t have to be. You do what you do well and expand your business and focus on bringing the profit in and hire the right person to help you protect your business. Schedule today! There will be times you won’t be able to do anything about it because there may be truly personal reasons for them to leave beyond anyone’s control but the ones that you can, let us help by scheduling you’re FREE 15 minute HR RISK ASSESSMENT today.