How to deal with difficult employees when nothing else works
There are many reasons that make it necessary for an employee
dismissal. As unpleasant as the idea of employee dismissal might
seem, business owners and Human Resource Managers can approach
it in a well thought out way to minimize the negative feelings
associated with “letting people go.”
Some of the reasons for employee dismissal are circumstantial.
* Business and technological changes in recent years have made
it necessary for employees to develop new skills. There are instances
where some of those employees either cannot master the skills
or simply refuse to do so. That brings the business owner face-to-face
with the need to eliminate a problem they cannot solve in any
other way.
* Downsizing is a business need that confronts businesses both
big and small. Asian countries such as Japan have had to learn
the lesson that in today’s global economy with all its
fluctuations and changes, the day of “employment for life” has
become financially impossible.
* Automation that replaces people in the workforce is also a
reality of our age. Labor-intensive tasks cannot keep pace with
automated competitors and businesses must stay abreast of the
times or go out of business altogether. Unfortunately, this fact
produces the same need to reduce the workforce.
And those are the easy ones--some employee dismissal is distasteful.
* The employee is not doing his or her job for whatever reason.
It is one of those situations that nobody likes to deal with,
but left alone it will not get better all by itself. There is
a dire need for the manager to take immediate action.
* There are times when an employee becomes a liability the business
cannot afford to support. For example, a refusal to wear protective
devices, smoking in undesignated areas, or after repeated warnings
for misconduct create situations where dismissal is the eventual
consequence.
The “when” may be clear, but the “how” is
another matter altogether.
When the need for employee dismissal arises, it rarely comes
as a surprise to either the employer or the employee involved.
Consciously or subconsciously, the employee facing termination,
will often begin offensive behavior to make it more difficult
to let him or her go. An employee-employer stalemate of this
kind can only make it worse and the manager must address this
immediately.
To borrow from a late President of the United States, the employer
has nothing to fear but fear itself. That is, of course, if the
employer has followed all the legalities associated with employee
relations. Unless the dismissal is disciplinary in nature because
of employee misconduct, there are successful ways of easing the
separation anxiety of everyone involved. Severance packages and
job relocation services may be a part of the termination interview.
Tactful language and providing a way of leaving the business
with dignity in front of other employees are conditions for making
the termination process less painful for everyone involved.
Here
are the steps for employee dismissal
|
