Years of experience with a number of organizations has led to the conclusion that two tasks that managers dislike doing most is conducting performance reviews and terminating employees. They frequently perform both poorly.
In the case of performance reviews this negative attitude should not occur since a well developed performance review program should be a positive experience both for the manager and the employee.
In the case of terminations, they are seldom if ever positive experiences. They are frequently fraught with confrontation and bitterness. In many cases they can be emotionally draining events.
Communication, Training and Planning
The stress attached to both tasks can be lessened by improved communications, manager training and preparation (planning).
Recently a client complained to me that one of his junior manager's had delayed for an extended period of time the task of executing a necessary termination. The situation had become so acute that the senior executive had to do the termination.
My initial reaction was that perhaps there should be two terminations; the termination of the employee, and the termination of the junior manager who failed to carry out the task.
However, the more that I got to know the client the more I became convinced that the fault did not lie completely with the junior manager who had procrastinated in firing the employee.
It became apparent that the organization had carried out little if any training of individuals in management skills. The internal communications program was deficient. The performance appraisal program was not well designed nor well implemented.
Communications
Termination generally divide into two types i) redundancy due to changed business parameters or ii) poor performance or conduct.
Terminations should not be surprise events in either of these cases. If the termination was due to lack of profitability, management should have been honest enough to make the employee(s) aware of the changing business situation. If the employee is being terminated for personal performance they should have had sufficient warning through performance reviews and ongoing mentoring to know that they were not performing at the standard that senior management required.
In many cases when an organization has good communications, employees will either improve their performance or realizing they are in trouble will leave the company on their own, thus saving the organization severance costs.
However, having made this statement, organizations must be careful not to threaten employees in such a way that the company's communications can be construed as constituting dismissal.
Training
Have your junior managers received any training on how to terminate employees or conduct performance appraisals? In many organizations, junior managers have risen from the ranks. Their current assignment may be their first as a manager. Their management skills likely will be intuitive or learned from a book.
Very few management courses teach a manager how to terminate an employee or how to conduct an effective performance review.
Is it a surprise therefore that these two tasks are poorly executed? Unfortunately terminations that are poorly handled often end up as lawsuits. These can be very expensive for the company. In most cases the company is the loser because a poor job has been done.
It would benefit a company financially to send their managers on courses specifically covering the subjects of how to terminate employees and how to do performance appraisals. If it is not feasible to have managers away from work, an alternative is to have experienced person conduct "in-house" workshops on the subject during periods when the plant is closed or at a low operating level.
A training program needs to cover both the "when" and "how" aspects of termination. It also needs to cover those issues that result in mistakes being made. Although it may cost a few thousand dollars to train employees in this subject, the cost will be much less than a law suit.
Planning;
The last area that needs to be managed in a termination is that of preparation (planning), its execution and its ramifications. Our next article will cover many of the planning aspects of terminations. We will cover issues that affect both the employee being terminated as well as managing the remaining employees, managers and other stakeholders.•
Fred Pamenter is managing partner of PPB&D Consulting Limited, a Toronto based Human Resource firm. T: 416-620-5980
E: ppbdconsulting@aol.com
