Fire Them Or Keep Them? What To Do When Employees Are Not Up To Par
Posted on: 31 October 2018
The hardest thing any boss ever has to do is to fire someone, especially when it is clear that person has been trying to improve. It is also difficult to fire people when your boss tells you that you have to pick any two or three employees and let them go if you expect to keep your job. If the problem is with efficiency and efficacy of performance, maybe there is a way to help the employees improve and stay employed. Try the following.
Career Coaching
Hire a career coach to work with the employees that are at risk of being fired. The career coach can help these employees determine if they really are in the right career. If they are in the right career, then the career coach can help them assess and analyze what they can do better, figure out how to improve personal performance, and be better overall at their jobs. If the career coaching helps, you may be able to keep these employees employed. On the other hand, if the at-risk employees discover that this is not the right career path for them, they can choose to quit on their own or accept being fired.
Extra Training Requirements
Sometimes, "remedial" training helps. Require these particular employees to take additional training to review what it is that they currently seem to be lacking. Provide them with a written or skills test at the end if they want to keep their jobs. If they pass with a specific percentage or higher, they stay. If they fail, they have to go. Do not highlight this fact when you tell the employees that they have to take the extra training. Just do what is necessary to encourage them to pass.
Two Weeks for Improvement
The last possible solution is to have the at-risk employees meet with you separately. Inform them that each of them has been selected for possible termination. Each of them has two weeks to improve specific areas of their jobs, and then each will be evaluated. Those that improve the most at the end of two weeks can stay, and those that have not improved or not improved enough will have to go. If you also explain to each that it is company policy to "clean house," then these employees might be a little less upset with you and a little more determined to work harder and better.
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