Why We Fire

Domain: Managing Others - Estimated reading time: minutes

Firing an employee is a result of a failure by the business.

Employees certainly have accountability for their own performance; however, the decision to fire suggests that there was an error in decision making or execution by the business at some point. This can occur as early as the recruiting/hiring process through the very end of the corrective action process that leads to termination (and anywhere in between).

The nature of the failure will depend on the situation…

• Maybe the individual was a bad fit for the role. This is a hiring/recruiting failure.

• Maybe they weren't trained sufficiently. This is a training/onboarding failure. There may be multiple failures here as the prospect of "re-training" was likely an ongoing opportunity after the initial onboarding.

• Perhaps there wasn't enough work to justify keeping an employee. This is a capacity management and planning failure.

• It's also possible that a manager wasn't equipped to provide effective coaching to help an employee course correct a performance issue, which may compound some of the above issues.

At the end of the day, managers have responsibility for ensuring they've done everything they can to not add another failure point into the process. If you are even considering firing someone, consider the following…

Capacity/workload

Maybe things have slowed and there just isn't enough work to keep people busy. These situations feel more challenging because it's usually not the employees fault.

The first thing to do is to determine how long you expect the drought to last. You need to be realistic here and rely on any market indicators and/or projections you may have. I've seen managers wait years for a turnaround that was not going to happen. They simply didn't understand or pay attention to the writing on the wall. If this is a short-term issue, it may or may not be worth keeping the individual(s). Only you can make that call.

If this is a long-term problem, you should explore whether there is a need and/or fit for the employee elsewhere in the organization. This may not be ideal for the employee but it's an alternative to unemployment that's at least worth considering.

Finally, this is an opportunity to make sure you have a capacity plan in place. It may be too late this time around, but if nothing else you can learn from this experience and have better workload projections to help avoid overstaffing in the future.

Training

Training failures can occur when someone is onboarded or even when subsequent trainings on new processes aren't designed or executed effectively. As noted earlier, there may even be multiple training failures at play as the prospect of "re-training" was likely an ongoing opportunity even after someone is onboarded.

If you have multiple people who have experienced issues following training, it's a good sign that your training may not be sufficient.

How good are your trainers? Sometimes great performers are not good at training others to do the thing.

How well is the training process documented? This is often the cause of inconsistency.

Explore and cover these gaps before moving forward with firing.

Performance issues

This category is broad and often over-used. A performance issue could be a result of a number of underlying root causes. The first thing you need to do is understand why the employee is not performing. It still needs addressed, but understanding the situation will help you be more effective here.

This category is so broad that we could, and likely will, cover them in a number of separate newsletters. For now, focus on the basics of addressing performance issues. Make sure expectations are clear, provide consistent coaching and feedback, track performance with relevant metrics/behaviors and work with your HR partner if formal corrective action is needed.

Bad fit

I would never be successful as a nurse or doctor. Ignore the fact that I don't have the background or education for it. I also get squeamish about medical procedures and bodily functions, even if it's just on TV. Even if I got my degree in medicine and found such a job, I'd be a really bad hire.

Maybe you made a mistake hiring the wrong person. Maybe it was your predecessor who made the mistake. Regardless, it's now your responsibility to fix it. If you've provided thorough training, feedback and coaching with no results, the individual may just be a bad fit for the role.

Before you jump to firing them, take the time to understand their strengths and talents. Do you have a need in another role that would fit their abilities? Is there a need and a fit for them elsewhere in the organization? It should be noted that these moves should only be considered if it's a win-win for all. Don't just move a performance issue to someone else to deal with.

It's possible that you ultimately may still need to make a firing decision despite doing everything you can. This is still difficult, but at least you'll know that you've done everything in your power to help the individual succeed in their role.

Thank you for reading. My hope is always that you've found something helpful and easy to implement.

This week’s action items:

1. Begin creating a capacity model if you don't already have one.

2. Check to see if you have a strong training and onboarding regimen in place.

3. Are you over-due for a performance discussion with anyone on your team? Make sure that you are addressing all performance issues consistently and timely.

4. If you've addressed all of these and still have someone who is a bad fit, explore alternatives and next steps.