Terminations happen within every company. No matter how well you compensate and treat employees some turn-over is inevitable. There are obvious costs to separating from an employee like lost production due to being short staffed, and recruiting costs. An overlooked potential cost is the effect on the other team members.
Once an employee leaves the other staff start gossiping about the cause. Were they fired? Am I next? Soon people are spending more time talking about the ex-employee, than anything productive with present work. Cutting off scuttlebutt and settling everyone’s thoughts about their job security is an important part of any termination.
- Be timely in discussing the separation. Call a meeting with your staff as soon as is possible after the termination. Kill any mystery or need to gossip by nipping it in the bud.
- Give an honest account of why the person is no longer working for the company. You should not over-inform, both the company and employee have a right to privacy. The information you do choose to disclose should be truthful and matter of fact.
- Keep the cloud of emotion out of the explanation. The last thing you want, as a Manager, is for other employees to feel the termination was personal or vindictive. Make sure to frame the separation as a business decision, that either immediately or in the future the company is better off financially without the employee.
- Address what is going to happen to the employee’s workload, and how they will be replaced. Give everyone a clear timeline as to when and how a new employee if going to be found. When you will start recruiting, and how they can be involved such as referring a person they know for the position. Make sure everyone knows their role in picking up the slack, and that you have a plan for how it will fit within their present work.
Having a short meeting that removes the unknowns about the termination will ensure that your team doesn’t spend time trying to work things out among themselves.