Fair and Effective Employee Termination

Fair and Effective Employee Termination: A Guide for Employers

While organizations rarely want to dismiss an employee, from time to time it may be necessary. In the case that you do need to carry out an employee termination, you’ll want to have a HR representative present at any and all meetings and to help guide the process. But why is this the case?

The Role of HR in Employee Termination

Put simply, the right HR professional can guide the process of how to terminate an employee, ensure the correct steps are in place, and minimize the risk of potential fallout should the employee believe they were unfairly dismissed. In this section, we will explore the role of HR in the employee termination process.

Grounds for Employee Termination The only reason you can dismiss an employee without notice is for serious misconduct such as fraud, theft, violence, and serious breaches in safety. For all other grounds to terminate an employee, there will be certain provisions and rules regarding notice, dismissal, and entitlements to be aware of. We will discuss these provisions in this section.

Involving HR from Beginning to End If the issue is regarding an employee’s poor performance, HR should be closely involved from the moment the issue is first identified, as HR will be able to assist with the necessary structured performance reviews and formally supplied feedback. A performance improvement plan (PIP), for example, can give the employee the appropriate time and opportunity to respond and improve their performance. We will discuss the importance of involving HR from beginning to end in this section.

The Benefits of Outsourced HR in Employee Relations An outsourced HR provider can offer a number of benefits when it comes to employee relations. You can expect a truly impartial third party, a refined termination framework with the correct structure in place, and a team that’s truly up-to-date on compliance matters, to ensure everything is done by the book. We will discuss these benefits in this section.

End-to-End Management of the Issue End-to-end management of the issue is also possible with outsourced HR. For example, if there’s an accusation of misconduct, we can assist with an impartial workplace investigation to identify what actually happened, help you to handle the employee termination procedure if this is the right outcome, and document the process accurately to minimize the grounds for any unfair dismissal claims. Our specialists can also then provide a workplace review to identify and resolve any overarching issues, as well as training to help you get the best out of your team. We will discuss this in greater detail in this section.

Conclusion Employment termination can at times be an unpleasant but necessary part of business. Professional and well-informed HR professionals can be an essential part of this process to ensure everyone walks away feeling fairly treated and well informed.