With employers across the country terminating
employees en masse, it is important to understand how
to approach terminations in a lawful way. This article sets out a
five-step guide that any employer or human resource professional
can follow when broaching the topic of termination.
- Identify the “Why”
As a first step, identify the “why” at the outset of
the decision-making process. Why are you terminating this
particular employee? The answer to this question should not be
related to the employee's human rights or based on
retaliatory or improper reasons. Otherwise, the employee could
claim that the termination was discriminatory, reprisal, or in bad
faith, thereby increasing your litigation risk. Rather, you should
be basing your decision-making on business reasons, and objective
criteria should be used when selecting which employees are to be
impacted.
