… this just isn’t working. 

If you’ve been following December’s focus on poor fit employees, you may have come to a difficult decision yourself…

And decided that poor fit employee finally has to go. 

Now, confronted with this situation, you probably have two thoughts racing through your mind:

Firstly, how do you get them to leave?

And secondly, can you ever terminate them positively and leave them advocates for your business?

N.B. Right of the bat I’m going to cover my legal disclaimer: Clearly, individual circumstances always apply, as well as different State and Country legislations. Relevant expertise should be sought where required.

How to terminate in a way that keeps both parties positive

To allow people to exit your business positively, you must build an open feedback culture from the start:

• Have regular, open discussions about career planning and ways to keep people motivated and engaged
• Let people know how to communicate if they’re feeling like a change or have been presented with another great opportunity
• Set performance, culture and conduct expectations clearly from day one

Remember, exiting employees can be positive or negative sales agents for your company, so it’s important that you frame it in the right way…

Ultimately for both parties, there’s nothing worse than having someone who doesn’t want to be there, isn’t feeling challenged in their role or feels as though they’re being held back.

The sooner this is realised, the better for all.

Below are the main ways an employee may leave a business, each with a slightly different process and factors to consider:

• Resignation
• End of Contract or no more casual work
• Non-continuation of probation
• Poor performance
• Conduct
• Serious and Willful Misconduct
• Redundancy
• Retirement

Let’s be honest, it’s not an easy task to have employees raving about your business when you terminate them…

However, if you do the below four things, you are much more likely to make it easier and less painful for all parties:

1. Openly discuss people’s futures and provide an environment where people feel supported sharing how they are honestly feeling – particularly about leaving an organisation (this requires you to not freak out if an employee is honest with you!)

2. Have honest and transparent performance discussions with people highlighting areas that they need to demonstrate improvement to be successful

3. Address performance management with a genuine desire to support the employees’ success

4. Have clear policies, expectations and lived values

Any questions?

If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.

Thanks for sharing!