HRM Essay Sample: Terminating an Employee

Communication

Effective communication is an essential skill to succeed in life. Managers who communicate to employees suitably and honestly, they stir up a positive relationship (Lawrence 2005). Honest decisions help in overcoming negative emotions. In the context of terminating an employee, proper communication skills should be essential. The manager should come up with clear reasons as to why he or she had to fire the employee at that time. The reasons for dismissal should be clear and straight to the point. Through this, the employees convinced as to why he or she had to be fired.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Giving a chance to the employee to vent. The manager should provide the employee an opportunity to air his or views concerning the dismissal. Depending on the way the manager delivers the information, the employee will react differently. At this time the employee may give feedback in a frustrated mood or may thank the manager for the chance to work in the company. Most employees are emotional when they have been told that they are dismissed from the company but when they are given an opportunity to vent their frustration, the manager will know how to handle the situation (Kulik et al. 2004).

The manager should show compassion to the employee. The manager should be compassionate by sharing the pain with the employee because of the stress of starting another life away from employment (Lawrence 2005). The manager should not argue with the employee to maintain peace and avoid stressing the employee. The employee can be given some compensation to cover the layoff expenses.

A Step-To-Step Process of Conducting the Termination Meeting

Dismissal meeting is essential for any organization which may wish to dismiss its employees. The importance of the assemblage is to deliver the information about dismissing employees. It is necessary to find a place to have the meeting to ensure that the message is delivered face to face to pass explicit details. Some laws need to be followed to ensure that it is conducted ethically and the meeting is active. Human resource managers follow a step-to-step process to manage the session (Robbins 2001). The step-to-step include:

The manager should Schedule a face-to-face meeting. The meeting should be done face to face not through email. Meeting physically with the employee allows the manager to deliver the information in a clear way thus the employee will understand very well why they had to be dismissed. When the message is delivered through email or text message, the employee may not understand clearly about the layoff. The news may also get to the wrong person. When conducting the face to face meeting, the manager should avoid arguing with the employee (Robbins 2001).

Conducting the Meeting in A Private Place.

When organizing for a place for the meeting, the manager should consider privacy. Secret areas tend to be cool no noise and concentration are highly reckoned. A private room can be in an office where there less movement of people. Privacy allows the employee to feel secure and free to say anything (Lawrence 2005).

Involving a Witness during the Meeting

When conducting the meeting, a manager can involve another witness from the department of human resource. The witness will help to confirm that the information given is real and it is a decision from the management because a person may think that it was the plan to dismiss the employee from a personal interest (Lawrence 2005).

Preparing what to discuss during the meeting. It is essential to figure out what to address and how to deliver the information. The reason for the rumination should be real and straightforward to avoid the employee not draw their conclusion. The manager should focus on discussing termination and avoid talking anything that is irrelevant (Kulik et al. 2004). At this point, the manager should consult with the employee about termination benefits if it is applicable. At the end of the meeting, the employee should be given the termination letter as per the requirements of the organization.

An employee should be given time retrieve personal items from the company. It is a form of respect rather than throwing them their items. The manager should be accompanying the employee to make sure the company's property is not picked. It also ensures that the employee may not claim that they have not been given an ample time to pick their things. The employee will even have time to say goodbye to his or her colleagues (Robbins 2001).

Gathering the organization's property from the employee and paying them their debts if there is any is the final stem (Lawrence 2005). The manager should request the items of the company from the employee to ensure that everything is well. The employee can be given their last paycheck according to the law to reduce litigation risk.

Compensation for a Separated Employee

Employees dismissed have some rights. They have right to receive some benefits from the company if they have been terminated by the employer (Robbins 2001). The right to receive a final paycheck and severance pay and others which are optional like health insurance coverage and compensation benefits for unemployment. Some laws state that the employee should receive they last paycheck immediately after termination or within some specified days.

The terms and conditions of a contract agreement can dictate if the employee should receive severance pay. Before anyone is employed in a company, an employee should sign a lease. It helps the manager to make transparent and ethical decisions when it comes to termination of an employer. The manager should use the contract when compensating the employee. Majority of the employees who receive the compensation are the ones who are dismissed by the manager. Those who are sacked because of violating the organizational laws, they do not receive any payment as per the terms and conditions of the company (Lawrence 2005).

Fired employees should receive insurance cover since they right to health insurance. According to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, the fired employees and their families should receive continued coverage on healthcare for some time. The terminated employee can get the employment compensation to replace any lost income (Kulik et al. 2004).

Disbursement of the Compensation.

Minimum years of service Maximum number of years Week of severance Months of severance

0 1 11 4

1 2 11 5

2 3 11 6

3 4 11 8

4 5 16 9

5 6 19 11

6 7 21 11

7 8 22 12

8 9 29 12

9 10 31 12

10 11 32 12

11 12 37 12

12 13 38 12

Impact of Terminating an Employee to the Company

Terminating an employee may seem an easy task, but the manager finds it difficult. Some employees play an essential role in the company, and when they are fired, the company faces some difficulties. Employees tend to work as a team in an organization an when one of them is missing; they feel that there is a gap. The gap can take time to be filled especially those who work as a team. Through this, the company may face some challenges (Lawrence 2005).

Direct Costs

Companies always need to save money for more investments in future or decide to open other branches of the company. When an employee is terminated, the company may incur some losses because they may need to compensate the employee as per the agreement after termination. If the company dismisses several employees, means that they need several amounts of money to pay them severance (Lawrence 2005). An extra amount of money is also required to pay the remaining employees overtime fee since they will be required to work extra to fill the gap of the fired employee.

Decreased Customer Trust

Customers always have loyalty to companies that retain their employees (Robbins 2001). When a company starts to fire its employees, customers start losing the confidence they for the company because it may be used as a sign that there is conflict in the company. The customers may give up on the company thereby becoming a loss to the company for losing its own trusted customers. When employees are few, it means that the workload may be heavy thereby reducing the productivity of the company.

Increased Turnover

Many employees resign from companies that terminate employees continuously. When employees remaining in the organization see that their friends are being fired, they find it hard to stay at the job thereby opting to resign because they may sense that the company has no future since it cannot maintain some of the employees. The increased resignation may lead to a loss to the company (Kulik et al. 2004). Some employees may be influential thereby influencing others to resign because they have terminated to revenge the scenario to the employer.

References

Kulik, C. T., Kulik, C. T., & Perry, E. (2004). Human resources for the non-HR manager. Psychology Press.

Lawrence, C. E. (2005). The marginal teacher: A step-by-step guide to fair procedures for identification and dismissal. Corwin Press.

Robbins, S. (2001). How to Communicate Layoffs. Harvard Management Communication Letter, 4(7), 1-3.