The right way to fire an employee
Managing a company can be a challenging task. Supervisors need to perform various managerial roles for their subordinates, and one of the most difficult challenges for a superior is to fire his/her employee. Almost every boss considers the employee’s termination the most difficult part of their job. There might be various reasons for firing employees from their work, but action needs to be taken to meet organizational objectives without interruption. If you want to learn how to fire a difficult employee, below are some appropriate ways.
Record the Performance
Recording the tasks performed by your employees is essential. Superior needs to collect information related to an employee’s work and monitor their work. Summarize the improvements required to secure their job by giving the implementation deadlines. Set a target and do not expect all the problems to be solved simultaneously. Your employees are humans, and they need time to improve, too. With your supervision and guidance, they should be able to perform better. Giving them proper training and facilities can enhance their contribution to the bottom line.
Superior should lead the team and always focus on the goal. Terminating is the right decision if the return does not harmonize with the expectation. If the employee’s performance is way below expected even after all your training and monitoring, you can simply show them the result of their performance and state that they are not suitable for the job.
Take a Quick Action
Your question on how to fire a difficult employee does not require much time to be answered. Taking swift action against unethical employee behavior is the key. Superior needs to respond to and solve a problem as quickly as possible. Firstly, you need to communicate about the issues that have been noticed with the employee. Then, ask the employee if they need help or guidance to visualize their perspectives and feedback. After that, record the conversation’s conclusion in written form and have their signature. If the employee’s performance does not improve after the meeting, then show the paper of the previous meeting and declare that they are fired.
Become Decent
Firing an employee is a difficult job. While taking this action, the superior should appreciate the employee’s effort and terminate them without having any bad blood. Make sure you give employees your reason to fire them. Do not lengthy the conversation; clarify that this is your final decision. Answer the question raised by the employee tactfully, and do not lead the conversation to a discussion. Be prepared to handle the employee’s anger decently and choose your words cautiously.
Make a Proper Plan
Before conducting the meeting with an employee, make a plan about where the meeting is to go. Select the firing words and study faults in employee jobs. Prepare the witness and records of their performance. Prepare all the paperwork before termination and discuss the situation with the team. Become calm with the employee.
Involve other Managers
How to fire a difficult employee? Involve other people! While firing an employee, make sure you take the help of other managers in the meeting. This makes your task much more comfortable as you can tackle the problems that may arise in the conversation with the employee and handle the situation efficiently.
Avoid Argument
After termination, most people are quiet, but some argue and get mad. Difficult employees can be a headache to deal with. Make sure that you do not let the conversation lead to an argument. For handling difficult employees, you must maintain your composure and talk to them through evidence and witnesses. Become calm and select the words more carefully. Do not disturb the mentality of the employees, as they might become emotional or angry. Speak carefully, as the employee can feel worse or open legal issues if their termination is unjustified.
Stay Professional
It is always a good idea to stay professional with your employees. You can build a good relationship with your employees without being their friends. If you get too personal with them, it will be difficult to characterize accountability and responsibility in your work. If you are too friendly with your employees, it can be challenging to give them a command, let alone fire them. Even if you are friends with your employee, their termination has to be done professionally.
Have a safe side
While terminating an employee, make sure you have a solid document of evidence and witness, as protecting yourself legally is very important. Have a summary of the meeting and make it signed by the employees. Also, ensure that after an employee is fired, he cannot access the organization’s information system. Protecting your financial and legal interests is critical. It is ideal if you inform your IT team to shut down the terminated employee’s accounts and access company property immediately after termination or while the meeting is happening. To protect company data, forwarding the fired employee’s email to another employee is better.
Offer to Help
In many cases, the employee who underwent termination is not bad; he/she is just not suitable for the job. You may feel like the employee genuinely made an effort but was simply out of luck. If so, you can maintain a good relationship with them by offering to give them recommendations regarding their leadership, attitude, teamwork, reliability, and whatever parts of the jobs they were good at. Ultimately, you can wish them luck and thank them for their hard work.
