Nine Essentials Of Employee Terminations

It started so well - high expectations and enthusiasm on everyone's part. And then it started to unravel. And in a period of months, that new hire or promotion or transfer is just not working out. And it comes time to part company. At that point, the most critical part of the termination process takes place. It's the place where the people remaining evaluate how it was handled - it's critical because well handled terminations create positive emotions, and poorly handled ones cause the organization to lose credibility in the eyes of its employees.

What are the nine Essentials in a termination situation that can positively impact the morale and perceptions of the people that remain?

1 - Be aware of the "there but the for the Grace of God go I" feelings of many of the remaining people. Terminations, even the most justified, create insecurity in the minds of many of the good people. View the actions taken by the organization through the self interest of the workforce.

2 - It's absolutely essential that respect for the person being terminated is shown. Privacy and providing the opportunity for constructive discussion show respect. It provides employees with the assurance that respect for individuals is part of the organization's culture.

3 - All employees want to know, by the actions of the organization, that there is a system of due process that ensures actions taken are subject to discussion and review before action is taken.

4 - Confidentiality is important. It's tempting to want to justify the termination of an employee by communicating the reasons for it. Don't. Trying to justify and/or gain the approval of others is a lose - lose proposition. Plus the terminated person may feel an obligation to seek recourse because of what is said about them.

5 - Not following what has been written and practised in order to terminate someone degrades the trust the workforce has in the word of the organization. Often aggressive managers - the same ones who would short circuit the selection process, are the ones who want to act without regard for process in termination. It's a poor investment in the morale of any organization - and almost guaranteed to result in legal action.

6 - Offer the opportunity to resign, whenever possible. The most effective action is often one where the boss and the person have a "it's not working out" talk, and the person is given time to seek other opportunities while continuing to perform their duties - or not.This can be tricky - trust is a big part of this kind of arrangement. But in most cases, people are relieved that the opportunity to salvage their self respect and protect their security is offered. Most people who are not performing well know it - they often find the discussion a relief.

7 - The Hiring Manager has to be the one to notify the person of their termination. A representative of the Legal or HR staff may be a witness and may be the resource to provide information on benefits, salary continuation, references, insurance, financial matters - but the Hiring Manager has to respect the individual by informing them of their termination.

8 - It's absolutely essential that as soon as performance issues are identified, action is taken. Failure to take action has the effect of reducing employees expectations of what represents acceptable levels of performance. And once action is deferred, it makes it more difficult to act later - while the bar of acceptable performance has been lowered.

9 - Don't make the same mistake twice. When the dust has cleared and the mistake in selection has been fixed, review what happened and take what was learned and apply it to the next selection. Continuing to do the same things and hoping for a better outcome are marks of a poor manager. And do not tolerate the "throw them up against the wall and see if they stick" approach to selection. That leads to sloppy selection practices, legal headaches, poor performance.

Review your actions when you have the responsibility for terminating someone - then compare your actions and the actions of your organization to the essentials listed. See how you can improve the morale and commitment of the people left to do the work. It's an investment in behavior that will create focus on the future rather than on the past.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

How To Keep Top Candidates From Falling Through The Cracks

Top people are scarce - just ask any organization how tough it is to attract the best, let alone select the best. At the same time, I'm willing to bet that more top people - the right people for the right jobs - slip through the cracks in the selection process than anyone could imagine or admit. After thousands of dollars in recruiting, interviewing, travel and all the other assorted expenses in time, effort and money associated with attracting top candidates, organization after organization drops the ball on top candidates. And they don't even know it!

Here are ten of the top, invisible ways those cracks occur:

• Failure to understand that recruiting is as much a selling process as it is an evaluating process. To get top people requires as much selling as it does evaluating. And top people are doing just as much evaluating as they do selling. It's a two way street - but it's amazing how many people don't realize that, and take a "I've got something you want" approach. Top people slip right through the cracks when they see that behavior.
• Organization's don't know a top candidate when they see one. That sounds funny, but it's not. It means time hasn't been taken at the front end of the process to identify and define what a top candidate will look like in terms of the really important things.
• Superficial knockout factors: A manager I know will not hire a person who smokes cigars - period. I don't mean someone who insists on smoking cigars at work. I mean recreational cigar smoking - away from work. Apparently this manager had a bad thing happen with a cigar smoker early in his career. Everyone of us has biases about the strangest things - they can and do get in the way of hiring top people. The beard, the frayed collar, the wrong college, speech patterns - you name it - they are knockout factors in many organizations.
• Poorly kept restrooms and break rooms and lunch/dining /meeting rooms. Nothing says a poor environment like a badly served public use area. Nothing can chase top people away more than the appearance of a poorly kept facility.
• Lack of preparation. Nothing speaks to this more than unprepared interviewers, repetitive use of the same questions/scenarios from multiple interviewers - the "tell me about yourself" question. Holes in the interview schedule. Lack of interviewing skills and preparation. Bad choices of interviewers.
• Secrecy. The " don't tell them anything that may tip them off to what we are looking for." If you treat a candidate as a mushroom, it speaks to how they will be treated as employees.
• Poor followup and lack of feedback. "What you do shouts so loudly I can't hear what you're saying." When that top candidate leaves the facility, how long before contact is made? It's amazing how often weeks can go by before a followup call is made to the candidate. The excuse is often that the candidate - if truly interested - should get back to the organization. True - but failure to keep that communication door open on the part of the company lets top people fall through the cracks - without a sound.
• Relying on staff people to maintain contact. If you're a candidate for a HR job, then a HR hiring manager should be the key communication link. But HR people should not be the key communication link for other functional areas. They can coordinate and pester and cajole hiring managers, but the Hiring Manager has to be the link.
• Lack of respect for the candidate's time. I had the misfortune to work with a manager who, as a matter of practice, kept candidates waiting for hours beyond the time set up for an interview. The worst case was a General Manager candidate who waited four hours before finally bowing out. We never saw him again - even though we tried to reschedule him. What a waste - of everything.
• Overly long process. There are so many pressing, proximate things that can keep pushing selection to the back of the line. Before anyone realizes it, months have gone by and no decision has been made. I suspect in many cases a fear of making a mistake in selection has a hand in this. In any case, top people don't have to wait around. They slip through the cracks - and then show up working for a competitor.

Take the time to audit your own process. If you see any of these conditions take action to correct them. Top people are tough to get in the first place, without adding self inflicted conditions as a barrier.

Written by Andy Cox, President

4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com
Copyright 2008 All Rights reserved

How To Earn Respect

There's a secret to gaining respect - one that I had the good fortune to learn early in my career - and from a most improbable source. The secret to getting respect is to give respect.

Read on to see how that lesson was taught to me by a very special person.

Early in my career I was Branch Manager of a temporary help service. The largest part of our business was done in the Labor Division. The workforce was made up of day laborers - men who had fallen on the hardest of times. They were paid by the hour, and could receive a daily draw against wages earned. For most of them, working and getting the draw was the difference between having food and shelter or going hungry and sleeping in the Mission - or worse.

Every morning at 5:30 AM our office would open, and in would file the men looking for work.There were as many as a hundred who waited, drank free coffee, and hoped to be assigned and dispatched to a job. Many were assigned - some were not.

Early morning was a time when lots of bad things could happen - anger at not getting assigned - anger at perceived insults - anger at competitors for the same job - anger at life - and anger at being treated poorly by the full time staff. The result had been a number of fights, knifings, and one attempted shooting. Those problems resulted in a decline in business. I was sent there to correct the situation.

Our product was the labor that these men performed. It was definitely in our best interests to maintain a positive relationship with our own people. Unfortunately, many men left for jobs feeling angry, patronized and disrespected. Some never showed up at their assignments, others walked off the jobs, some forged their time tickets.

Observing the situation for a week I could understand why the men felt that way. They were patronized - they were treated as the bottom of the barrel - they were not given any reason to feel valued. And when one was publicly humiliated - and that happened too often - they all felt that humiliation. The only thing most of these men had left was a shred of self respect - or at least the need to feel respected. When that need for respect was abused, when it was not recognized, bad things happened.

The first step to change occurred when my boss gave me a sign to put up in the office- visible only to the full time staff. It said "There but for the grace of God, go I." A constant reminder of the thin line between good fortune and bad fortune.

And then we set up four rules that full time staff were required to follow:

1 - Every man who showed up for work, regardless of his condition or qualifications was to be addressed as "Mister" followed by his last name. First names could be used once the person was known. The use of any abusive name, description or nickname was prohibited

2 - Any discipline would be done confidentially, and without the use of abusive and demeaning terms

3- No assignments that were known to be unsafe would be accepted

4 - Assignments would be given on the basis of length of service, ability, past performance and availablility.

Those were the rules. Some full time staff had a problem with these simple rules - they were replaced.

Into this environment walked a man named Riley Bentley. Mr Bentley was an African American - like about half of our workforce. He was big, muscular and an intimidating looking and acting man. He had a silver earring long before they were popular, and he had a "keep away from me " manner. He was sober, he had no problem filling out the application, he looked you right in the eye. He was hired. From the first day, every job he was sent on resulted in excellent reports. He would come back every night, get his draw, and leave. No talk, no socializing - nobody messed with Mr Bentley.


He worked for us for about six months, then, like so many others, he stopped showing up. We had customers tell us if he came back they wanted to know - so they could get him back. Hard to imagine a man with his capabilities and no obvious vices not having a full time job.

After a three month absence, Mr Bentley walked back in. I was running the Labor Office - it was hard to get and keep full time staff who would obey the rules and treat the men properly, and when they left or were fired, I filled in. I was glad to see Mr Bentley and I told him so. He had lost some weight, but he was still the strongest, hardest working man we had. One night, Mr Bentley came back to the office just before 6 PM - closing time. He looked me right in the eye and said I could call him Riley. I said that he should call me Andy, and we shook hands on it. He walked with me to my car after I had closed up - I asked him if he needed a ride - he said no and kept walking. That became a regular thing. He would arrive at the office just before closing time after working hard all day - and then chat with me and then walk me to my car and head off into the night.

And then Riley was gone - and I hoped he had found a full time job - he deserved one.

A few months later Riley was back, thinner, but still as strong as ever. I noticed he perspired a lot, even though it was fall and cold and he did not wear a jacket. While he was gone we had gone through two new full time staff - and I was back to opening and closing the Labor Office. Riley resumed coming in every night and spending time leaning on the counter and looking out to the street while we talked and I took care of business. Part of the business was paying the men in cash. We kept a large sum of money in small bills for that purpose. We had a safe but it was so busy during the after work hours that the money was in the safe, but the safe was kept unlocked. Anyone could have come in and held me up. Riley could have turned me upside down and taken the money and there would have been no way for me to prevent it. I think Riley read my mind. One night he told me the reason he always stayed until I locked up and why he walked me to my car was to thank me for showing him respect - and his thanks was to provide me with his personal protection. I was ashamed for my concerns - and glad I had Riley - our office was in a very tough part of town.

Riley worked a few more weeks - he seemed to be in distress when he came in at night - perspiring heavily, shivering, but he persisted. He would not discuss his physical condition, and he would never accept a ride or any other kind of help.

And then he was gone. A few weeks later one of our regular men came in and told me Riley had been found in his room - in a chair - and he'd been dead about a week. I was stunned, and saddened, and sorry about the loss of my friend - because we were friends, in our own special way. Riley had given me his protection as his way of expressing his respect. I had given him respect because it just made sense - on a personal and business level, to recognize the humanity of our people. I was repaid a hundredfold for that by Riley.

Ever since that time, Riley Bentley is in my prayers - and he always will be.

Riley taught me the secret to gaining respect. The secret has stayed with me since that time. It's pretty simple. The secret is you get respect by giving respect. I will be forever grateful to Riley for that lesson.

There are other elements to gaining respect, such as keeping your word, making good on commitments, honoring what you promise. But aren't they all part of giving respect? I think so - giving respect is the cornerstone to getting respect.

In your own life, take the time to recognize people that you may have passed by. There's a saying " The true measure of a person is how they treat someone who can do them no good nor any harm." We all can profit from remembering that saying, and making it part of our daily self talk and behavior. And if you're really lucky, maybe you'll find a Riley Bentley in your life.

Start today.

Written by Andy Cox

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com, Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved