Business Help: When to Fire Your Employee

trump-youre-fired-when-to-fire-an-employee_thumb Whether or not to fire an employee can be such an agonizing decision, but doing it at the right time can save you tons of money and customer service headaches and even increase company moral. The short answer is: fire your substandard employee as soon as your gut tells you to do so. However, before you can trust your gut, you will need to build a good database for gut feelings to process properly. An excellent article gives a checklist of questions you should ask yourself first before you take the plunge.

Have I provided all the necessary training so that this person is successful?

Have I considered transferring them to another department or role?

Is their workload reasonable?

Do they have all the resources they need to be successful?

Have I coached and supported their development along the way?

Have I communicated my performance expectations clearly (in writing with a deadline for improvement and clear consequences)?

Have I communicated both positive and negative feedback in a constructive manner?

Has this employee been welcomed into the team?

Has my boss approved my decision to terminate this employee?

Have I documented all the incidents that have lead up to this point?

Do the human resources and legal departments believe I (could) have handled the situation (more) appropriately?*

Have I made the necessary preparations so that the team can function without this individual?

Will I be able to sleep at night knowing I have done the right thing?

Is there anything on this list I can’t say yes to?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, then you have a little more work to do.

1. Have I provided all the necessary training so that this person is successful?

It’s often easy to overlook the cause when it seems that an employee is under performing. 9 out of 10 times, it’s not because they don’t want to do a good job, but it’s because they haven’t been trained properly or thoroughly enough. My very first manager, who we’ll call Devon, took the brunt of my lack of training as new entrepreneur. I had believed that Devon’s lack of follow through, drive and staff management skills were because she was too inexperienced and too ‘good’ to get her hands dirty with the rest of the staff. In hindsight, the real issue was me. I had not provided enough training. I just assumed that she would know how and when to do things my way. That was a disastrous assumption on my part. I had thoughts like, “Why didn’t she know better?” or “Why didn’t she ______?” and “She’s just incompetent!” or lazy or she sold me on her skills or a whole list of increasingly negative thoughts on her behavior and her as a person. Through some training and experience, it turns out the issue really was me! I know, it didn’t seem possible to me either but when I put aside my totally ginormous ego I saw that I rushed through my training because of a barrage of excuses that ranged from:

I don’t have time.
I could do it faster.
I could do it better.
She doesn’t want to do this so why waste my time?
I shouldn’t have to tell her to do this, she should just know to.

2. Have I considered transferring them to another department or role?

I hired this really cute receptionist at my first salon named “Tina.” I actually hired her after having a group interview and saw that she was so vibrant and I loved how outgoing she was. Well, it turns out that her grammar wasn’t quite up to par for the front desk and that her communication skills with higher level clients was so frustrating that I wanted to fire her. I gave her bad scores on certain parts of her performance reviews and I felt terrible about the outcome of our working relationship. Tina probably worked for me for about 8 months before she put in her notice and let’s say that it was a great ending for both of us…or so I thought. About a year later, she reapplied and I was quite hesitant about rehiring her. But we were short staffed and I desperately needed people. The only issue was that I was extremely picky about our hires and Tina had proven to be trustworthy amongst other fabulous traits. Another issue we were having was that I didn’t have a front desk position for her, but I needed assistants to our technicians. The pay was about the same so we were able to make a deal. I was still apprehensive. Well let’s just say that within a month of rehiring her, not only did she blow away my staff, but she blew me away with her leadership and organization skills. She was great with the limited communication with the clients, but she was able to organize the staff and lead them to get the place spotless and to get chores done more efficiently so the girls didn’t have to stay unnecessarily long after their shifts. Her attitude was even better this time around because she started to excel in her work! This proved to me that rearranging staff into the proper position was positively one of the best ways to effectively keep turnover down and keep new hire training costs down.

3. Is their workload reasonable?

Being overloaded with work myself from the moment I started my first business to, well…now, I have not always been the most objective person about workload since I seem to accomplish an insane amount of work. I did realize though that when one of my favorite managers “Shannah” was taking work home and working upwards of 60 hours weekly, that I needed to do something because I did not want to burn her out. Apparently one of the causes of her anxiety was that she was never able to finish off her daily checklist. I advised her that I kept a daily checklist too. I would take care of the most time sensitive issues, client issues and staff issues first and then everything else – in that order. Anything that I couldn’t finish that day I would roll over to the next day. The trick was this: make peace with the fact that you might never finish everything off of your checklists. However, if you continue to work as efficiently as possible and take care of the most pressing items that day, then you’ve had a successful day. I promptly re-examined her workload and gave her a part time assistant. Productivity went through the roof from Shannah with maintenance meetings to make sure I had a good pulse on her workload. If you can’t afford to give your manager an assistant, then see where you can step in to help.

4. Do they have all the resources they need to be successful?

You can’t expect your manager to be on call all day and receive multiple calls from you and/or your staff if you don’t pay for their cell phone bill. You can’t expect your staff to go above and beyond with customer service and assist a client with directions to the nearest (favorite restaurant, post office, store, etc.) if you don’t give them (high:-) speed Internet access. You can’t expect your staff to be able to track your clients’ behaviors and contact information for better marketing and accounting purposes if you don’t give them computers and any needed software. There are so many places to cut corners when opening up your own business. A shoestring budget is what we had when we started our first salon, so I am no stranger to being frugal. However, all the experience I had showed me that certain things were a must. Evaluate the biggest problem(s) you’re having to see how you can make your workplace more efficient and productive.

5. Have I coached and supported their development along the way?

We often neglect continuous coaching and counseling. One of the biggest mistakes that managers makes in regard to coaching is that we tend to spend most of our time with the 80% of the staff that are not performing as well as the top 20%. When I learned to spend my quality time with my top 20% with coaching and counseling formally and even a casual meal or Starbucks coffee meetings, I noticed a few amazing transformations in my business.

My top 20% felt more appreciated and were better producers.
They gave better customer service.
They would consistently thank me for my job (some by request of their parents!).
My other 80% noticed the great attitudes and performance and would follow, therefore, many of my 80%’s production increased too!

However, I noticed that even with my top 20%, I saw that if I neglected them for any continuous amount of time, the reverse effects would occur. Their performance and attitudes would decrease and therefore that would affect the rest of the team. And believe me, your top producers always have an effect on the rest of your staff.

6. Have I communicated my performance expectations clearly (in writing with a deadline for improvement and clear consequences)?

Let’s go back to Devon, my first manager. I had underestimated the power or clear and concise communication or the lack thereof. I assumed that she knew that when I asked her to do XYZ, that she understood that she needed to put that on the top of her priority list and do it immediately then report back to me before the end of the day. Or if I asked her to do ABC, that she would understand that it was such a low priority and to take care of it at her leisure, just make sure to advise me when it was completed. I assumed that when I sent her an email, that she understood email etiquette was to at least send an acknowledgement. Ok, that wasn’t working for me. I had to relearn my communication skills over again. My communications changed to:

Manager, please take care of XYZ by tomorrow at 4pm. You can find the file on the desktop in the client folder. Just shoot me an email when this is done and let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! Lee PS – Please reply so I know you got this.

Notice all the new details I underlined. This information use to be ommitted and it caused chaos. Again, the problem was tracked back to me. My communication issues, not theirs.

7. Have I communicated both positive and negative feedback in a constructive manner?

If you haven’t even communicated your expectations with your employee, then firing them is probably not your best managerial decision unless they committed some heinous crime like theft or coming to work drunk. The easiest way to call a meeting is under an ‘evaluation.’ I find that a month is a great time for an evaluation, however, if your situation doesn’t afford you to wait until their month of employment, call it a 2 week evaluation or whatever you need to. This gives you a great avenue to give your employee positives as well as their areas that need improvement. Make sure to give them as much positive feedback as possible and to make your expectations for improvement clear and not ambiguous.

8. Has this employee been welcomed into the team?

If you haven’t formally introduced your new employee to the team, you might find that a team meeting may make it easier for your new and seasoned employees to bond. This could open up communication and your seasoned staff may find it easier to help someone that they’ve had time to bond with.

9. Has my boss approved my decision to terminate this employee?

If you’re the boss, this won’t matter, though you may want to bounce it off a colleague for those particularly difficult cases. If you have a boss that requires collaboration for terminating an employee, then definitley make sure you take the appropriate steps.

10. Have I documented all the incidents that have lead up to this point?

Documentation is something that used to only come up only after I started thinking about firing an employee. By then, my memory was a bit fuzzy on dates, time and specific verbiage. What I learned to do was to email myself with the employee’s full name in the subject line as well as the word ‘incident’ and key words. Then in the body of the email, I would detail the issue with only facts and no emotions. I would then e-file that document so that I would always have access in case we needed to battle it out with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). I have never lost a case with the TWC, however, that was due to good and factual documentation and firing with cause.

11. Do the human resources and legal departments believe I have handled the situation appropriately?

Again, if you are your own HR, then this won’t be an issue. If not, refer to your appropriate chain of command.

12. Have I made the necessary preparations so that the team can function without this individual?

Unless the offense is heinous, I never fire an employee without a replacement at least hired if not already in training if you are not willing to fill that position yourself temporarily. You will put your current team under undue stress if you don’t do your due diligence here.

13. Will I be able to sleep at night knowing I have done the right thing?

If you have done everything listed here, then you should feel at peace with your decision. If you don’t feel at peace, then more needs to be done before firing your employee. So let’s say that you’ve taken care of all of the above. Then the question of when to fire an employee is: as soon as humanly possible. Your gut instinct, once honed in the business world, is not to be dismissed lightly. I have found that the quicker you sever your ties with this employee, the happier everyone is. Here are some great side benefits to terminating quickly:

It sends a message to under performing staff that you are running a business and that you’re not there to be their ‘friend.’
Your team will be relieved to not have to carry dead weight and take care of someone else’s responsibilities while that person in under performing. They’ll even tell you so after the fact.
It frees you to get a replacement better suited for that position.
You will not be wasting money paying an employee who’s not carrying their weight.
You might have less customer service and other internal issues due to this employee’s under performance.

One of the best advice I got about terminating an employee was: Do it now because they will inevitably hurt themselves at work or get pregnant. And since you can’t fire either of those protected classes without opening yourself to tons of liablity, you shouldn’t tarry once you’ve made your decision to fire an employee.

The truth in this lesson:

We so often take longer than necessary to fire an employee. Sometimes the anxiety of firing an employee or the feeling of being the bad guy or not being liked can paralyze you. Get a grip. If you’re going to do it eventually, do it now and save yourself more damage to your business and team, and allow that person to find a job they are more suited for. *I made an adjustment to #11because I believe the meaning was inverted accidentally.

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