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Picture this - You are driving down the highway on the way to visit one of your clients. You receive a call from another client on your cell phone that begins with “I’m letting one of my employees go in 3 hours time, how much will this cost me, and how do I protect myself from liability?” This exact situation has presented itself on more that one occasion in my own experience. Nobody likes conducting a termination, but unless completed wisely it can mean quite severe repercussions and liability for any business. Being a prudent HR/IR Satellite Affiliate Consultant, I immediately begin my consulting session as I drive. My first step is to guide the client to our Satellite website, and directly to the resources they will require. In this case I tell them they will need to login, and access the “Employment Processes, Forms, and Templates” link. I ask the client to scroll down to the “Termination of Employment” section where they will find templates for their termination letter and employee release form. I advise the client to select the appropriate templates depending on the reason for termination, and fill in the appropriate employee and company information. Once they have done this, I recommend they access the termination interview guide, which will give them the guidelines they require to conduct their pending termination interview effectively. While they review the interview guidelines and fill the appropriate information into the forms, I run rough calculations in my head summing up what the termination will cost their company in terms of outplacement, severance, wages, benefits, pension etc. With this estimate I suggest they e-mail me more specific data pertaining to the person they are letting go such as length of employment and salary, as well as the completed termination forms. I then let them go, tell them to ensure they follow the guidelines for the termination interview, and let them know that I will review the forms and send them back with a more exact costing quote before the time of the termination interview. With that I hang up the phone, ending the conversation with the client feeling confident that their business will not only survive the impending termination of employment, but effectively manage the entire process to ensure maximum assistance to the employee and minimum liability. |
