From Susan M. Heathfield,
Your Guide to Human Resources.
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Assuming that you have taken steps to help an employee improve his work performance - and they are not working - it may be time to fire the employee. These are the legal, ethical steps in how to fire an employee.

Ensure that the company's actions as you prepare to fire an employee are above reproach. How you fire an employee sends a powerful message to your remaining staff - either positive or negative. So, always fire an employee as a last resort.

But, do not jeopardize your company success to retain a non-performing employee. Fire an employee to ensure the success of your other employees and your business.

Provide Feedback so the Employee Knows He Is Failing

The steps you take when you prepare to fire an employee matter. Unless the actions of the employee require immediate dismissal from the premises, progressively more intense feedback to the employee about his work performance is in order. Make sure you are communicating with the employee by obtaining feedback from the employee that you are communicating effectively. Keep in mind that the goal of the feedback is to help the employee succeed and improve. Document the content of the feedback meetings, and the date and times.

• How To Provide Feedback That Has an Impact
  Make your feedback have the impact it deserves by the manner and approach you use to deliver feedback. Your feedback can make a difference to people if you can avoid a defensive response.

• Coaching for Improved Performance
  Looking for a step-by-step coaching approach you can use to help an employee improve his work performance? This approach avoids the need for discipline and produces great results.

• How to Hold a Difficult Conversation
  Chances are good that one day you will need to hold a difficult conversation. These steps will help you hold difficult conversations when people need professional feedback.

• Performance Development Planning Process
  If your normal process is not assisting the employee to succeed at work, and you believe there is hope that the employee can and will improve his performance, you will need to introduce a Performance Improvement Plan.
  
  
• Performance Improvement Plan.
  The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is designed to facilitate constructive discussion between a staff member and his or her supervisor and to clarify the work performance to be improved. It is implemented, at the discretion of the supervisor, when it becomes necessary to help a staff member improve his or her performance.

  This format enables you to set goals, establish measures, conduct review sessions and chart progress. No specific amount of time is required for an employee to follow a performance improvement plan. In fact, if no progress is made, you can terminate an individual’s employment after several weeks.

Steps to Termination

• If you believe that the employee is unwilling or unable to improve his performance, you will want to start progressive disciplinary action. Again, documentation is critical so you have a record of the steps you took in the process. Use this Progressive Discipline Warning Form to document each step.

• Following the steps in progressive discipline should be consistent for each employee you fire unless an event out-of-the-ordinary occurs. You may also provide the employee with any number of options, starting with the performance improvement plan step.

• Ask the employee if he wants to voluntarily quit rather than participate in disciplinary action. You can agree on a timeline by when the employee will have given notice.

• You can agree that, for whatever reason, the employee is incapable of doing the job, provide a couple of weeks of severance pay, and say good-bye.

• Talk with an attorney to understand all of your options. In cases where you provide any severance pay, as an example, you will want to ask the departing employee to sign a release that is different for employees older than forty and under age forty.

Hold the Employment Termination Meeting

Eventually you will want to schedule and hold the employment termination meeting. I would not give an employee more than a few minutes notice before the meeting. You will cause the employee unnecessary worry and upset. In most cases, however, this moment is expected.

Complete the steps in the Employment Ending Checklist. Some steps, you will want to have completed before the termination meeting. Consider the termination meeting to be the employee’s exit interview.

Most Important Lesson Learned in Firing an Employee

Most people wait too long to fire an employee. If an employee is misbehaving publicly, disciplinary action should start after one event. If an employee is consistently missing due dates, and you’ve determined the issue is not training or another identifiable factor, gather documentation, and fire the employee.

If you’ve introduced a company mission and vision for your workplace and managers fail to support their implementation, fire the managers. If you are developing a culture that empowers and enables employees and a manager is persistently autocratic, fire the manager. People don’t change all that much; although I have witnessed transformations, I usually witness months of heartbreak and wasted effort.

I have also received regular feedback that firing an employee was the best thing that ever happened to them because it caused the employee to move on to better pastures. In my most recent note from a former employee who had been on a five day suspension, she thanked me. She had moved on, gotten her real estate license, and was looking forward to a great life.

Behave legally, ethically, with kindness, civility, and compassion, but do fire employees who ought to be fired.

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Please Note: I make every effort to offer you common-sense, ethical management advice, but I am not an attorney and the articles on the site are not to be construed as legal advice. The site has a world-wide audience and employment laws and regulations vary from state to state and country to country. When in doubt, always seek legal counsel. The success of your business and your other employees depends upon it.