Rip the band-aid off fast!

I heard a tip from someone the other day.  Hire slow (see Help wanted post) and fire fast!  My experience has been that many managers hire fast and are pretty slow to fire.  

So now let’s talk about the “fire fast” part.  First the disclaimer – I encourage you to follow your company’s procedures when you need to let someone go.  Follow the guidelines, procedures and the law as it applies to your situation.

What I’m talking about is very human.  People like to avoid conflict whenever they can.    I’ve heard leaders say they “don’t want to be seen as not nice” or “they just want to give the poor performer one more chance” (after many chances) or “maybe she’ll quit” (they rarely do) or one of my personal favorites “he’s such a nice guy, how can I fire him?”

How can you not?  Hanging onto an employee that shouldn’t be there hurts the rest of the staff.  It sends a signal that the bad behavior or non-performance is ok and even endorsed by you.  The longer you wait, the harder it is.  You’re putting up with it, and now you aren’t?  Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?  Too often I’ve seen a collective sigh of relief from the rest of the staff when it finally does happen.  Not great leadership!

The day you think an employee is not working out, is the day you start the process of letting the employee go – or turning the employee around.

Tip 1:  Document.  Keep detailed notes about the situation and include date and time.

Tip 2:  Discuss.  Talk to your poor performer with the details.  Ask why this might be happening.  Have them tell you what they plan to do in the future.  This is a conversation, your tone should be neutral.  This is about specific behavior, not about the person.

Tip 3:  Follow up.  Set a time and date to meet again with a deadline to fix the poor performance.  If the performance has not improved, continue to document and work with your human resource department using a progressive discipline procedure.  Each organization is a bit different.

Tip 4:  Firing.  If you come to the end of the progressive discipline cycle and you need to let the person go, let them go toward the end of the day to cause as little disruption as possible.  Talk to your staff the next morning and let them know you had to let the individual go.  If at all possible, this should be in person and not through an email.  Don’t share any details regarding the employee, let the staff know who will be covering the work until someone is hired as a replacement.

Taking action about a poor performer will show your leadership skills to everyone.  Do you have any tips regarding letting a person go?  Any steps I might have left out?  Leave your comments below.

To print this or any other post, click the first icon in Share the Knowledge below.