Perhaps you have an employee that just isn’t getting the job done, isn’t right for their work environment, and hasn’t been able to improve their performance. This means that firing them might be your best or only option. Firing employees is a very sensitive subject and doing so is certainly never easy, but it is very important for HR professionals to know what steps to take and how to handle firing an employee. This will make the break easier for you, the employee in question, and the rest of your employees. Here are some things HR can do if you need to fire an employee and keep damage to a minimum.
Even if you let them down as gently as possible, a fired employee can become disgruntled and upset, perhaps even attempting to sully your business’s name. Firing an employee doesn’t have to lead to bad publicity if you treat them as fairly as possible before their termination. This won’t give them the ammunition they would need to trash talk your business. If you can, offer a severance package that includes a non-disparagement clause. If you fire an employee and they attempt to damage your reputation, they will lose their severance. It is also important that the HR department still treat this employee fairly, even after you have fired them. If you receive calls from other employers in regards to this person, be honest about your experience with them but don’t go out of your way to ruin their chances at getting another job. This could cause the employee to become angry at you all over again.
There are also a few things that HR can do to limit damage within your own company if you are firing an employee. This person likely has friends among your other employees, and possibly even some sour coworker relationships. Keep gossip to an absolute minimum. Your employees will probably be curious and may have possibly already felt the consequences of the fired employee’s poor performance. Remind them that HR is taking care of the issue and that talking about it is not a productive use of time. HR should make an announcement when an employee is fired. Otherwise, your remaining employees will speculate amongst themselves about what happened and why it happened. It’s okay to be honest with your employees about why you have fired an employee but make sure they know that gossip about the subject isn’t healthy for the workplace environment.
It can be scary to think that a fired employee could take their resentment and use it to harm your reputation. This doesn’t mean that you need to keep employees that aren’t doing their jobs well. How the HR department handles firing an employee can mitigate a lot of damage, both outside of your business and within your business. It’s never fun to fire an employee but it is a necessary part of creating a functional, positive, and productive workplace.
