We generally talk about hiring right and conducting proper employee background checks. The reason being that a wrong person could subject the company to a lot of risks, and also prove to be very costly in the long run. Find a detailed description of the costs entailed for every new hire in this earlier blog post – Employee Background Verification and its effect on employee turnover rate.
Terminating an employee is not an exciting process, yet it becomes a business compulsion in several occasions. Conducting proper employee background verifications reduces likelihood of terminations significantly. However, in this blog we talk about the correct ways to handle a termination. It is indeed a long, costly, yet necessary process.
In the above mentioned scenarios, the employer is liable to conduct fool proof investigations, before taking any serious action. Considerable care is taken to maintain employee confidentiality while the verifications are conducted. However, these are considered to be serious offences and the employee has to be fired immediately in most cases. The employer can also execute his judgement on case to case basis (eg. substance abuse) depending on the severity of the offence commmitted and avoid terminating the employee after a strict warning or a suitable punishment.
All the situations stated above often lead to for-cause dismissals. Yet, the employer is liable to suitably warn the employee about his negligent behaviour. The warning protocol is different for different organizations. But it has been observed that after a sequence of warnings the culpable employee does make efforts to mend his ways and get back on track.
However, if the employee does not show an intention to improve, a termination is unavoidable.
If employee terminations are not handled properly, theycould potentially lead to a number of lawsuits against the company in future. Accurate documentation of the entire process protects the interests of the employer as well as the employee.
The warning protocol commonly followed :
• The employee is first given verbal warnings. In case this does prove useful then written memos /emails are handed over. The number of such memos/emails are generally not beyond three to four.
• No prescribed protocol is followed during the probation period.
• The senior members of the company need to be consulted before going forward with the termination.
A case based view about the topic in hand is explained beautifully here: Indian Labour Laws (Part 2) – Termination of Employee for Misconduct.
Exit Interviews :
• Exit interviews are planned carefully in order to handle any unforeseen questions or behaviour.
• It is best to have two individuals handling the exit interview.
• Personal attacks and comments are completely avoided.
• The severance process is explained to the employee.
• The employee is allowed to express his views. This might in some cases give some unknown internal insights regarding the company.
• The employee should be allowed to remove his belongings at a low visibility time to safeguard him from further humiliation.
• All the exchanges are documented properly. This proves useful in the incidence of a lawsuit in future.
• A small note regarding the termination is sent across to the team members. But it should be concise and not derogatory in nature.
• The employee is also entitled to a written explanation for the reason of his termination.
Unbiased, data and process driven terminations which arise due to business needs save an organization from any form of negative publicity or unnecessary litigation. No matter how carefully a termination is carried out, a preventive measure such as conducting proper background checks is highly recommended.
