The Pink Slip Carol Mixon, president of Skil-
Check Services Inc. in Marana, Ariz., provides a real-life example:
“We had a couple managing
a property, and they were both employees with a regular schedule. We have the phone number for the home office on the door at the store, and we were getting complaints from customers that there were times during office hours in which the office wasn’t open,” recalls Mixon. “We were having some other issues at the store, so I decided to go stake out the property without their knowledge. By doing that, I learned the man was leaving every morning to take the wife, who was also supposed to be at the store, to another job. He would then leave every day to pick her up, closing the office again. Not only were they clos- ing the store during store hours, but they were also lying to us about her performing her duties on site.”
Fortunately, that case is atypical.
Often, if you identify an issue, you’ll likely want to try to resolve it with the employee before termination. Termination can be costly to your company. Some employment experts say it can cost up to $30,000 to hire and train a replacement. Others esti- mate the cost at 50 percent of the employee’s wages.
Once you’ve identified the issue,
your company must have a plan in place to deal with the issue. If it comes to termination, this plan and documentation will serve as your backup.
When an issue is identified in
DeCoster’s company, they put into place a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). “This follows two repeated offenses,” says DeCoster. “Each of those is brought to them in person, if possible. “If that isn’t possible, we do it through Zoom and then follow up with an email outlining all we discussed.”
During the in-person meetings or Zooms,
DeCoster says they hit five main points: • Describe the circumstance. • State what you observed.
• Ask them about their intention and check for their understanding of the policy and what happened. Go over their point of view.
• Conclude.
• Let them know they will use PIP, so they know what the company expects, and they can measure their own performance.
According to DeCoster, the follow-up
email outlines the concerns, documents the problem discussed on the specific date and time, and documents that the employee understands.
If the PIP is put into place, DeCoster says
it contains tangible, measurable measures. While some companies give four to six weeks for improvement, she believes two weeks is an acceptable time frame, especial- ly if the employee has already had two prior discussions about the problem.
Every company should have its own
processes for dealing with employees, says Zucker, so the documentation is consistent and clear.
Firing Day Once you have all your documentation in order, it’s important to be prepared when the time to terminate comes. Mixon recom- mends these steps:
• Notify the HR department, if applicable, letting them know everything has been documented.
• Try to go with at least two people, not only to have a witness but also for your own safety.
• Ask them if they have any personal belongings in the office and watch as they gather those items.
70 September 2022 •
MiniStorageMessenger.com If you need to create a termination
checklist, be sure to include these items to document when you:
• Have the final conversation with the employee
• Gave relevant paperwork and compensation
• Collected keys
• Planned for them to move anything out of complimentary storage unit, move from on-site residence, and/or surrendered any keys
• Escorted from property • Change the locks or lock codes
• Change relevant passwords on sensitive digital data One final reminder: If they were doing
your social media, make sure you have access to your company’s pages.
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell is a freelance journalist based in the Ozark Mountains. She is a regular contributor to MiniCo’s publications. Her busi- ness articles have also appeared in Entrepreneur,
Aol.com,
MSN.com, and The Kansas City Star.
• Make sure you have a checklist for everything you need to do and collect from the employee to ensure you don’t forget anything. “It’s a stressful situation,” says Mixon, “and you can get into it and forget to get the keys or change the locks.”
• Don’t approach the situation with emotion or anger. DeCoster also advises not to send mixed signals. “Don’t say, ‘You’re an awesome person, but ...’ Just be blunt and tell them you are terminating their employment.”
• Have all relevant paperwork with you, including any required HR forms and paycheck(s).
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