Terminating an employee, whether due to downsizing or for cause, can be a traumatic event for employers and employees. For many people, their work comprises a large part of their identity. In addition, many employees (even if working remotely) view their job as a “home away from home” that can be like a second family. And, of course, a work separation can cause the employee familial, financial, and reputational concerns. For these reasons and many others, the actual termination event is often uncomfortable, emotional, or worse.
If your company must terminate an employee, it is important that it be done properly. This means handling the termination in a thoughtful and respectful way, as well as being compliant with the company’s termination policies and procedures and all legal requirements.
As expert employment lawyers, there are a number of ways we can help you protect your business during those unsettling times when you must downsize or otherwise terminate an employee.
Training Opportunities
Your managers with supervisory responsibility and company human resource personnel are typically on the front line for employee terminations. To perform this sensitive responsibility well, they need to feel confident and understand their role. This entails not only being familiar with company procedures and prescribed guidelines but also understanding the emotional toll a separation can take on your employee.
Among other things, we can provide training to help your employees:
– More fully understand the employment law framework to provide a context for employee separations.
– Lay the groundwork for firings to ensure an appropriate legal foundation has been established and documented.
– Become cognizant of firing mistakes to avoid.
– Set the proper tone for a termination.
We have a variety of generic training modules that we can present to your team. We can also develop a training program specifically tailored to your company, your culture, and your unique business needs.
Training can also include helping your supervisory and human resources personnel write scripts to help them frame their own remarks, and role-playing to help them practice dealing with difficult termination scenarios.
Let Us Be Your Backup
In most cases, an employee’s supervisor conducts the employee termination. But it’s always important to have another person in the room. A third party from your company, typically someone from your human resources team, can observe, take notes, and potentially defuse volatile situations. Documenting the termination interview is particularly important if you expect that the employee may dispute the firing as discriminatory or retaliatory.
In certain cases, however, there might not be a company third party available. Perhaps you are a sole proprietor with only a couple of employees and no internal HR group. Or maybe the events which provoked the decision to terminate are so sensitive that you don’t want them further shared internally. In such cases, a Copper Canyon Law employment attorney can serve as an objective third party during the termination.
We Can Conduct the Termination
In most cases, at least from a personal perspective, it’s best that a company representative leads the team that is terminating the employee. But there may be certain highly unusual or sensitive situations where it’s best for an independent third party to conduct the actual termination interview. Perhaps an employee is being terminated because of evidence that she has engaged in fraud or theft, and the company has contacted law enforcement about criminal action.
Or maybe the employee has been overtly hostile toward his supervisor, and the company has a legitimate basis to fear immediate retaliation or violence.
In these types of cases, the most prudent course of action can sometimes be to have a neutral third party such as Copper Canyon Law conduct the termination.
Contact Counxel Legal Firm
Our team has the knowledge, experience, and sensitivity to help you terminate employees in the most professional and protective way. Contact us at (480) 744-6621 or at request@counxel.com. Don’t forget to check out the good things that others are saying about the services they received from Timothy Coons on Google.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice for your specific situation. Use of and access to this article does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Counxel Legal Firm. Please contact request@counxel.com or (480) 744-6621 to request specific information for your situation.
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