SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: GUIDELINES TO CONSIDER WHEN TERMINATING AN EMPLOYEE

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Part 1

Silkin Management Group presented a series of five articles concerning important guidelines to look at when considering the possibility of terminating an employee. Some of these articles are posted on this Silkin Management Group blog site and the remainder are on the Silkin Management Group blog site which you can link to here: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/.

This series of Silkin Management Group articles will go over issues to consider once you have made the decision to terminate an employee and feel you have proper documentation and consistency surrounding the decision.

There are several important points to consider once the decision has been made to terminate an employee. We will go over some key points to be aware of in this Silkin Management Group blog article as well as upcoming Silkin Management Group articles.

As we’ve stated in every Silkin Management Group article on the subject of employee interaction, you must ensure you have proper office policies and job descriptions in place. Silkin Management Group’s extensive Office Policy and Job Description Manual that all Silkin Management Group clients receive, is an excellent starting place. Silkin Management Group consultants make sure that all new Silkin Management Group clients implement these policies and job descriptions and, as needed, adapt them to their office.

Assuming you have these policies and job descriptions in place, here are the first of several things that Silkin Management Group suggests that Silkin Management Group clients consider when they are ready to proceed with terminating an employee.

• When to do it: The best advice is to communicate the decision as soon as possible to the employee. It saves embarrassment to deliver news of termination to the employee at the end of the workday when everyone else has left the office.

• Witness: Have a witness present. This offers protection as well as evidence that various things were or were not communicated.

We will present more termination suggestions in upcoming Silkin Management Group blogs.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Follow Silkin Management Group at http://twitter.com/silkin



SILKIN MANAGEMENT GROUP: STAFF CORRECTION, GUIDELINES TO TERMINATE

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Part 4

Silkin Management Group’s first three articles on various guidelines to consider when terminating staff have been posted on this Silkin Management Group blog site as well as on the Silkin Management Group blog site which you can link to here: http://silkinmanagementgroup.org/.

The previous Silkin Management Group articles discussed 6 different guidelines to be aware of when considering letting a staff member go. In our last Silkin Management Group article we went over making sure you have consistency in your decisions and in your procedural actions. As mentioned in Part 2 of this series, you can’t be “shooting from the hip”, you must be consistent in your actions.

A “must” in being consistent and protecting yourself from potential legal problems associated with termination, and that all Silkin Management Group consultants go over with Silkin Management Group clients, is having adequate office policies and job descriptions in place. These are the backbone of being consistent and having proper documentation.

To help ensure that Silkin Management Group clients have policies and job descriptions, clients new to the Silkin Management Group program receive Silkin Management Group’s copyrighted Job Description and Office Policy Manual. The documents in Silkin Management Group’s manual can easily be edited and adapted to ones own specific office activities.

As pointed out in our earlier Silkin Management Group blogs, there are many things to consider if you are at a point where you are looking at terminating an employee. With the assumption that you have policies and job descriptions in place, here two more points that Silkin Management Group suggests that Silkin Management Group clients look at regarding the termination process:

• Skeletons and Pretext: Sometimes a practice tries subtly, or not so subtly, to cover up the real reason for termination and offer something that sounds plausible. Cover-ups usually unravel at very inopportune times (like with labor investigators, lawyers, judges.)

• Track Record: Why consider termination now? Does the employee have a history or track record of problems or is this something new?

We will present a few more guidelines for termination decisions, as well as guidelines to follow once the decision has been made in upcoming Silkin Management Group blogs.

Dave McKevitt
Silkin Management Group Consultant

Find out more about Silkin Management Group at http://www.ikarma.com/user/silkinmanagementgroup.