Avoiding Costly Mistakes

As business owners, we all know that terminating an employee is never an easy task to engage in. Additionally, and more important to understand is that terminations carry numerous legal pitfalls and must be accomplished with great care.

In today’s difficult economic environment, small employee problems can become big problems for you due to the potential for desperate acts of employees in fear of losing their jobs.

Couple a desperate employee with a legal system that gives far greater weight to employees than employers and you have a situation that will require cautious forward progress

Before you decide to terminate an employee, consider these steps:

• Document everything! Disciplinary issues, pay raises, employee classification changes, job description changes, promotions and demotions must always be handled in writing so everything is clear and concise.

• Do not let small problems go unanswered. If an employee is not acting as someone who really wants to be an asset to your organization, the time is now to begin dealing with the problem and move toward correcting the behavior or setting up a legal termination.

• If an employee is not behaving properly, be sure performance evaluations are in line with the issues they are having. Make sure you do not contradict yourself when you decide to terminate.

• Be sure you have properly counseled the employee to ensure there are no hidden issues and that you have given them every chance they deserve to improve.

• When it is time to terminate, consider all pertinent information such as potential discrimination issues, recent injuries or job complaints, health issues and available performance documentation to name a few things.
• Terminate decisively when everything is in line. Explain to the employee why they are being terminated but it is not advised you go into detail about the offenses or problems associated with their employment. This should have already occurred during counseling sessions.
• The employee should never be surprised by the termination if you have done everything properly.
• Be sure to provide the employee with all required paperwork, final pay, unemployment pamphlets, COBRA information and anything else required at the time of termination.
• Do not deduct costs associated with unreturned tools, uniforms, loans or other monies owed to you by the employee. final paycheck deductions are rarely legal. It is best to handle these through other means.

This by no means covers everything you need to do before terminating someone but it does provide a basic guideline top stay out of trouble. Form ore information on terminating an employee or any other employee management issue, please contact Champion Employer Services at 800-513-2153.